Thought Partner.

Influencer.

Leader.

Margie Johnson Reese has a 45-year portfolio as a museum leader, cultural strategist, and arts management professional. She received a BA from Washington State University and an MFA in Theater from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. She currently serves in executive leadership at the African American Museum, Dallas, where she has secured more than $7 million in public and private investment to modernize facilities, expand conservation and collections care, and strengthen archival infrastructure.

Margie has served as Director of the Office of Cultural Affairs for the City of Dallas, where she directed development of the Latino Cultural Center, and as General Manager for the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. She also led the successful effort to bring Nelson Mandela: The Official Exhibition to Dallas for its final North American presentation.

Margie's expertise as a grantmaker was tapped by the Ford Foundation to advance cultural projects in West Africa. Based in Lagos, Nigeria, she worked across fourteen countries on cultural policy development, museum capacity building, and conservation of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. She co-authored the Nigerian Cultural Policy and established a collaborative exchange between the British Museum and Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

Margie continues to advise museums, governments, and cultural organizations through MJR Partners. She is an advisor to the International Council of African Museums (AFRICOM), a Fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminar, and a recipient of the Selena Roberts Ottum, Obelisk, and Annette Strauss Visionary Arts Leader awards. Her current work, including development of the Harry Robinson, Jr. Research and Conservation Institute, reflects her conviction that protecting cultural memory means strengthening the systems of scholarship, conservation, archives, and education that allow communities to steward their own heritage.