Staff & Board

Laura Millin

Executive Director

For nearly 30 years, Laura Millin has dedicated herself to MAM and its vision, doing everything from steering the direction of the museum, raising money, and maintaining and expanding the museum facilities, to making soup for crowds of guests. As Executive Director, Laura has taken MAM from a small county agency living in a converted Carnegie library to an independent, thriving nonprofit in a beautiful, renovated and expanded facility. Laura moved to Missoula after spending a decade in contemporary art in Seattle, where she co-founded the International Festival of Films by Women and the Center on Contemporary Art. She has served on the board of directors or advisors for at least a dozen nonprofits, and has received seven awards for her leadership, fundraising, and community service achievements. MAM is a labor of love for Laura and represents her life’s work. She is continually rewarded by the “MAMily” of staff and board members who make it all possible, and by the artists who enrich our lives, and says she still has plenty more to do at MAM. Laura graduated from Evergreen State College with a bachelor’s in interdisciplinary studies.

Brandon Reintjes

Senior Curator

At MAM, Brandon oversees strategic planning for programming initiatives, which is a technical way of describing the pleasurable task of working closely with artists to help them realize their creative visions. Brandon has worked as curator for a number of institutions throughout the state. He previously worked at the Montana Museum of Art & Culture at the University of Montana-Missoula, Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky, the Akron Art Museum in Akron, Ohio, and the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. Recent publications include Phoebe Knapp: Rough Cuts; Cathy Weber: Understory/Overstory (2018); Our Side: Elisa Harkins, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Marianne Nicolson, and Tanis Maria S’eiltin (2018); and Shape of Things: New Approaches to Indigenous Abstraction (2018). In addition, Brandon regularly contributes articles to the Journal of Modern Craft, Ceramics Art & Perception, and Ceramics Monthly. He received a bachelor’s in painting and drawing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his master’s in curatorial and critical studies from the University of Louisville.

John Calsbeek

Associate Curator

While at the University of Montana, John had his first taste of working in the arts with a work-study job at MAM and then as the University Center Gallery student coordinator. After earning a bachelor’s in fine arts, John worked as the director of a small, commercial photography gallery in Missoula. John was hired at MAM during its 2006 expansion. As Associate Curator, John now works together with Senior Curator Brandon Reintjes and directly with artists to develop, design, and install all of MAM’s exhibits. He also works with the programming team to develop interpretation and create public programs centered on the exhibition schedule. John has been co-chair of MAM’s auction committee since 2006, working with volunteers and staff to coordinate the annual benefit art auction. His favorite part of the job, in addition to hands-on work in the gallery, is meeting artists—going to an artist’s studio to look at new work and engaging in meaningful dialogue about art and art-making.

Tracy Cosgrove

Deputy Director for Finance and Advancement

Tracy is the Deputy Director for Finance and Advancement at the Missoula Art Museum in Jeannette Rankin’s hometown. Before moving to Montana she spent 12 years in the communications industry doing public and investor relations at boutique firms in the Twin Cities. She was COO at Forward Montana and Forward Montana Foundation, and has served on more than a dozen nonprofit boards at the local, state, regional, and national level. She chaired the national board of the YWCA USA in Washington, D.C., as well as the Minnesota Women’s Consortium, and has served as treasurer of the Seattle-based Social Justice Fund and Montana Conservation Voters. Tracy is currently a board member of the Athens, Georgia-based Jeannette Rankin Foundation, which empowers women through education. She attended the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and is a member of Mensa.

Kay Grissom-Kiely

Curator of Education

Kay leads the educational vision for the Missoula Art Museum. Prior to joining MAM, Kay was the Director of Education at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago and has been committed to arts education throughout her career. While in Chicago, she worked at Marwen and Gallery 37, both inner-city arts centers. She completed a curatorial internship for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, as well as internships in museum education at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Eiteljorg Museum of Native American and Western Art in Indianapolis. Kay brings experience designing and implementing teen mentorship programs in the arts, curriculum-based arts-integrated programs, jobs-training programs in the arts, and other interpretive programs from institutions with nationally recognized arts and museum education programs. She has an extensive background in art, with a master’s in art history, theory, and criticism in modern and contemporary art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—where she focused on contemporary women artists of Cuba—and a bachelor’s in art history from DePauw University.

Jenny Bevill

Educator and Outreach Specialist

Jenny serves as the Educator and Outreach Specialist for the Missoula Art Museum and brings more than 20 years of teaching experience in museums, public schools, and community centers. She worked for 10 years at the Guggenheim Museum as a teaching artist and mentor in their Learning Through Art Program, and as lead teaching artist in many programs in New York City, including the Annenberg Foundation-funded Center for Arts Education. Since 2015, Jenny has led professional development training for teachers across the state. She has worked with Flathead Valley Community College, Humanities Montana, the Montana Arts Council, and the Montana Office of Public Instruction to develop online courses in arts integration and provide experiential instruction in teaching for creativity, social-emotional learning, mindfulness, and current best practices in the art classroom. Jenny has a master’s in art and art education from Teachers College at Columbia University and a bachelor’s in illustration from Parsons School of Design.

Madeleine Ford

Development Officer

Madeleine moved to Missoula from Minnesota in 2009 to attend the University of Montana, where her studies focused on science and the environment. Madeleine came to MAM from the Missoula Butterfly House & Insectarium, and now, with half a decade of nonprofit experience under her belt, she’s got her job here at MAM down to a science. Madeleine helps manage all major donor relationships, solicitations, and donations to support MAM’s creative vision. It was MAM’s mission of Art4All—promoting access to art for all ages and demographics—that encouraged Madeleine to become part of the MAM family. She’s proud that MAM’s work sparks curiosity in those who walk through the door, giving rise to a lifelong appreciation for the arts. She holds a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Montana.

John Knight

Visitor Engagement/Security Officer

John joined MAM hoping to interact with the Missoula arts community in an educational and direct way, and he gets to do just that. John engages MAM visitors in a dialogue about the history of current exhibitions at the museum. He keeps tabs on security issues and politely reminds MAM visitors of rules and regulations. John appreciates MAM’s dedication to diversity and the need to acknowledge and recognize the historic and contemporary communities that exist in Montana. He’s drawn to artists and artworks that provide economic and social critique via visual experience. John is an artist himself, having exhibited nationally, and run numerous curatorial projects. When he’s not knee-deep in art, he’s hiking, camping, or biking. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, John received a bachelor’s in sculpture from the University of Cincinnati and a master’s in fine arts in Visual Studies from Pacific Northwest College of Art.

Carey Powers

Marketing & Communications Coordinator 

Carey’s responsibilities include marketing and promoting the myriad events and exhibitions offered by the museum and overseeing the membership program. Carey moved to Montana in 2019 after spending a year guiding trips on horseback in Wyoming and Argentina. Prior to that, she lived in Washington, D.C., where she managed the daily operations of a small cultural travel company. She worked for the director of the Clark Art Institute, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, during the institute’s re-opening in 2014. During that time, she also served as a curatorial assistant on the exhibition Whistler’s Mother: Grey, Black, and White. In addition, Carey worked in the education and collections management departments at the Colby College Museum of Art. She holds a bachelor’s in international relations from Colby College.

Board of Directors

Kate Sutherland, President

Stephanie Christensen, Vice President

Betsy Wackernagel Bach, Past President

Josh Gimpelson, Treasurer

Paul Filicetti, Secretary

Inge Erickson

Lara Dorman

Matt Gibson

Amy Leary

Cathay Smith

Amy Sings in the Timber

R. David Wilson