Elizabeth Babcock

Elizabeth C. Babcock is the director of the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.  As the founding director, Babcock is leading the work to define the museum’s curatorial, programmatic, digital engagement, collections and collaboration priorities, as well as contributing to the design and plans for the physical museum. Alongside a staff team, advisors, scholars and community leaders, Babcock guides the museum’s work with other museums, educational institutions and organizations to recognize women’s diverse histories and contributions to this nation.

Babcock is a museum executive, cultural anthropologist and educator with experience in both the nonprofit and corporate sectors, and she has deep expertise in public engagement and education strategies, public-private partnerships and organizational development.

She most recently served as the first president and CEO of Forever Balboa Park, a new organization building on the work of two prior park organizations that acts as the City of San Diego’s key non-profit partner stewarding Balboa Park. Located in San Diego, Balboa Park boasts 1,200 acres of public gardens, trails, open space and dozens of cultural institutions receiving over 14 million annual visits. During her tenure, Babcock stewarded major capital improvement projects, including the restoration of the park’s historic carousel, secured the organization’s first operating agreement with the city of San Diego, crafted a multi-year strategic plan and advanced a multi-million-dollar campaign to restore the park’s iconic Botanical Building and Gardens.

Prior to leading Forever Balboa Park, Babcock served as the chief public engagement officer and Roberts-Wilson Dean of Education at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. During her 12-year tenure, Babcock managed a wide portfolio, including the Steinhart Aquarium, Morrison Planetarium and Science Visualization Studio, and a portfolio of public-facing programs that reached over 20 million learners globally, secured multi-million-dollar grants, including a multi-million-dollar gift to endow a city-wide outreach program, and established innovative regional and national partnerships. Her leadership enabled the academy’s programs to serve 1.3 million visitors a year and reach an international digital learning audience of all ages.

Babcock also served as the vice president of education and library collections at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago from 2002 to 2010, and as an applied anthropologist in the museum, environmental and technology fields.

Babcock earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in anthropology from Indiana University and holds a Bachelor of Music in music education and Bachelor of Arts in psychology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Established by Congress in December 2020, the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum expands our understanding of the role women have played in the history of the United States by sharing often-untold accounts and accomplishments of women—individually and collectively—to better understand our past and inspire our future.

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