Background Report - Arizona Town Hall

Letitia Chambers is the President and CEO of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, which showcases American
Indian art, including both traditional and contemporary works. Its mission is to educate the public about the
heritage and living cultures of the indigenous populations of the Americas. The Heard is nationally and
internationally known for the quality of its exhibits and programs. Dr. Chambers has previously held senior
management positions in the private sector, government, and education. She served as President and CEO of a
Washington, D.C., based consulting firm, and later as a Managing Director at Navigant, a global consulting firm.
Dr. Chambers headed up the system of higher education for the state of New Mexico where she worked to
revamp and reform key aspects of the system. She led the agency responsible for oversight of all public colleges,
universities, and community colleges in the state. Dr. Chambers also chaired the New Mexico Educational
Trust Board, served as a Board Member of the New Mexico Student Loan and Guarantee Corp, and was an
active Commissioner of the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education. She was nominated in 1996 by
the President and confirmed by the Senate to be U.S. Representative to the United Nations General Assembly,
a position of ambassadorial rank. In that capacity she made significant contributions as a member of the
Management and Budget Committee of the General Assembly. In 1992, she served on the Clinton/Gore transition
team as Chief Budget Advisor, leading the Budget Policy Group and developing drafts of the President’s
Economic Plan. Earlier in her career, Dr. Chambers served as Staff Director of the U.S. Senate Committee on
Labor and Human Resources, which had jurisdiction over education, labor law, and social service programs.
She was the first woman to head the staff of a major standing committee of the U.S. Senate. Prior to that she
served as a senior staff member on the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Special Committee on
Aging. Dr. Chambers has served on corporate boards, particularly in the financial sector, and on numerous
educational and philanthropic boards, many of which have focused on the arts and American Indian arts
and cultures. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, she holds a doctorate in educational research and
curriculum development from Oklahoma State University.
Gordon Knox is currently the director of the Arizona State University Art Museum. Previously Knox led Global
Initiatives at the Stanford Humanities Lab, where he identified, developed, and implemented international
projects that combine the understandings and techniques of the humanities and the sciences, and engage them in
on-the-ground efforts to effect social change. Prior to Stanford, Knox was artistic director at the Montalvo Arts
center in Saratoga, California, where he designed, developed, and established the organization’s international
artist residency program. Implementing his commitment to the open flow of ideas and underscoring his belief
that the advancement of civil society requires articulate critical analysis, Knox helped establish Montalvo as
an institution recognized for ambitious projects often involving unusual collaborations. During the 1990’s, as
the founding director of the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Italy, Knox envisioned and established a center for
the arts designed to advance and widen contemporary cultural practice by engaging the voices and thinking of
practitioners from all parts of the world and providing them with excellent conditions to advance their work.
Civitella quickly became a new model for international, multidisciplinary residency programs. Knox’s interest
in the relationship between the arts and society and in critical, artistic inquiry emerges from his studies in social
anthropology focusing on the relationship between ideas and social action. Knox studied anthropology at the
University of California Santa Cruz, Cambridge University, and the University of Chicago.
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