Dr. Lorrie Beaumont began her career in the museum field at DuPage Children’s Museum as a general educator. Since then she has spent more than 25 years in the field as a museum educator, a museum researcher and evaluator, and in museum management. Beaumont has worked at the intersection of informal learning and academia; teaching at a university, conducting National Science Foundation funded original research, and finding ways for museums to partner with elementary-higher education. In 2015 she joined the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum as Director of Education and in 2018 due to a rapid period of growth for the Museum she became Chief Learning Officer where she oversaw the educational vision and program quality, community partnerships, and fundraising in order to grow the programs, broaden their reach, and increase their impact. Over the last two decades Dr. Beaumont has come to know the museum field from the inside and outside. At Du Page Children’s Museum and Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum she worked as part of the internal team, focusing her work on advancing the museum’s vision to serve its audience and communities. As a consultant, she conducted research and evaluation studies and worked on national projects for museums of different sizes and at different stages of growth. Many of these projects spanned multiple years , requiring careful monitoring of resources, coordination, communication and collaboration. Across these many museums, she has seen the power of a compelling vision, strong leadership, aligned effort, collaboration with partners, and a sustainable model for growth. Dr. Beaumont is proud of her track record of bringing long-term funders to the table who believed in the Museum’s mission and work. At the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum, she led multi-year, large scale STEM programming delivered to thousands of K-5 elementary students in southeast Michigan. She facilitated a multi-year partnership with a large urban Head Start organization, planning teacher professional development and classroom programming for 3-5-year olds. Beaumont worked in close partnership with a local aviation museum, bringing educational programming to elementary schools, that merged Michigan history with STEM. She is passionate about her work and has been called a “deep thinker with a big heart.” She loves connecting community partners and projects to funding in order to benefit learners of all ages. She considers herself a “silo buster”, breaking down the barriers within an organization so that communication flows freely and work can get done more efficiently.