Manjula Kumar was a Project Manager and Project Director in various offices around the Smithsonian, including the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Education and Public Service and the Center for Education and Museum Studies, between 1985 and 2015. She organized multicultural programming and directed the award process for proposals submitted to the Educational Outreach Fund. #Groundbreaker

A celebration of the woman who originally designed the iconic Smithsonian sunburst.

Dr. Melanie McField is the founding director of the Healthy Reefs for Healthy People Initiative, a collaborative, international conservation program of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, focused on improving the health of the Mesoamerian Reef, since 2006. She leads a team that aims to create reports that measure the health of the region. #Groundbreaker

Meet some of the women who have managed aspects of the Smithsonian since the 1850s.        

Dr. Valerie Fletcher joined the research staff at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1978 and was promoted to a curatorial role in 1984. Fletcher worked as an Assistant and Associate Curator, 1984–92, Curator of Sculpture, 1992–2005, and Senior Curator, 2005–16. In retirement, Fletcher continues her research at the Museum as Senior Curator Emerita. #Groundbreaker

Exploring the career, commitment, and mentorship of Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute administrative powerhouse Adela Gómez.

Lucy Hunter Baird’s work on her father’s biography reveals a long history of strong, independent, and intellectually curious women in the Baird family. Lucy, who was inspired by their examples and supported by the Smithsonian’s second Secretary, developed her own expertise in natural history and exhibited a lifelong commitment to science.

Bridget Shea was the manager of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Samuel P. Langley IMAX Theater and the Albert Einstein Planetarium, 1992–97, and manager of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Samuel C. Johnson IMAX Theater, which she also helped design, 1997–2000. Shea supervised the operations of the theaters and prioritized accessibility services, such as closed captioning and audio descriptions. #Groundbreaker

Exploring news coverage of women’s work in the sciences at the Smithsonian in the early twentieth century.

Nancy J. Bechtol has supervised all facilities engineering and management needs across the Smithsonian as director of Smithsonian Facilities since 2012. Previously, Bechtol was the director of Smithsonian Gardens, 1995–2002, and director of the Office of Facilities Management and Reliability, 2002–2012. #Groundbreaker