Who We Are

From his home perched on the rocky Maine coastline, to his pastime paddling remote mountain rivers, to his career pushing boundaries in the museum world, Christian thrives at the edge.

Rarely content to do things the way they’ve always been done, he enjoys pushing teams to evolve ideas beyond anticipated outcomes to create relevant, innovative, and impactful institutions that provoke critical thinking in audiences and positive change in communities.

Over nearly 30 years in the museum world, Christian faced many of the trials and tribulations nonprofit organizations experience and is familiar with most aspects of nonprofit workflow and institutional growth. At both start-ups and mature institutions, he led teams large and small, remote and in-person, and managed projects from the terribly mundane to the overwhelmingly meaningful. Christian’s nonprofit experience includes the front lines of public engagement, middle management and departmental direction, as well as institutional leadership.

Christian’s long career at James Madison’s Montpelier saw him greatly expand public programming opportunities and culminated with his direction of The Mere Distinction of Colour exhibition that won six national museum awards, and which catalyzed the National Summit on Teaching Slavery that produced The Rubric for Engaging Descendant Communities, a project he also coordinated. He later took the reins at the First Amendment Museum, a start-up stalled in the concept phase, and turned it into a robust operating institution with a significant audience, donor base, and digital footprint. His wheelhouse also includes board development, personnel management, and institutional advancement, as well as organizational planning, growth, and change.