Caroline Fernald
BA, 2011: Arts of the Americas
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About
Dr. Caroline Jean Fernald serves as the Executive Director of Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. In this position, she oversees a partnership of six research museums that engage public audiences with the world-class collections and groundbreaking research at Harvard through interdisciplinary exhibits and educational programs. The partnership includes the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, and the Harvard Museum of Natural History, the public face of three research institutions: Harvard University’s Herbaria, Mineralogical and Geological Museum, and Museum of Comparative Zoology.
Prior to joining Harvard, Fernald led the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley as Executive Director from 2019-2023. While finalizing her PhD dissertation on the convergence of art, anthropology, and railway tourism in the 19th century American Southwest, she led the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico as Executive Director from 2016-2019.
Originally hailing from the cornfields of Bellflower, Illinois, Fernald transferred to the University of Illinois at Chicago from Parkland Community College in 2009 and graduated with a BA in art history in 2011. She was the recipient of an Undergraduate Annual Art History Symposium Paper Prize and the John E. Walley Memorial Scholarship. She went on to complete a Master’s and PhD in Art History from the University of Oklahoma with a focus on Native American art history. The University of Oklahoma’s Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts presented Fernald with a Luminary Award in 2024 for exceptional alumni who have made advancements in careers in the arts. In 2025, she was awarded a Cambridge Chamber of Commerce Inspire Award in recognition of “the commitment and contributions of outstanding women leaders.”