Laura B. Roberts, principal of Roberts Consulting, was executive director of the New England Museum Association, a regional affiliate of the American Alliance of Museums, for six years. Prior to her tenure at NEMA, she was director of education at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington MA, the U.S.S. Constitution Museum in Boston MA, and the Rhode Island Historical Society. She is also a former executive director of the Boston Center for Adult Education.
Laura serves as president of the board of the Central Square Theater and its resident companies and recently joined the board of the Cambridge Historical Society (now History Cambridge) and chairs the program committee. She is also on the museum education committee of Old Sturbridge Village. She is a member of the advisory board of Boston Landmark Orchestra and of the steering committee of Bridge Street Friends, a new support organization for Mass Humanities. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Museum Education and American Association for State and Local History. Laura is a peer reviewer for AAM's Museum Assessment Program for Organizational, Governance, Education, and Community Engagement Assessments. She is one of nine volunteer mentors for the NEMA911 service of the New England Museum Association. She has served on the advisory boards of the Mary Baker Eddy Library and the Tufts University Art Gallery [former chair] and on the Tufts University Gifts of Art Committee, charged with oversight of the university's art collection. Her other prior board memberships include the Mass Humanities, the community advisory board of WGBH, the education advisory board of the American Folk Art Museum, the Education Committee [EdComm] of AAM, First Night Boston and the Institute for Learning Innovation. She is the steward of a Little Free Library on a busy street in Cambridge and a member of the board of The Cambridge Club.
Laura is a member of The Museum Group, a North American consortium of independent museum professionals. She is past president and currently treasurer of TMG.
Laura holds an M.B.A. in public and nonprofit management, with high honors, from Boston University's Questrom School of Business, an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, and a B.A. in Social Anthropology, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
Laura holds an M.B.A. in public and nonprofit management, with high honors, from Boston University's Questrom School of Business, an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, and a B.A. in Social Anthropology, magna cum laude, from Harvard University.
She has been teaching graduate students in arts and nonprofit management since 1991. Currently, Laura is an adjunct faculty member at the Harvard University graduate program in Museum Studies and Bank Street College of Education's Leadership in Museum Education program. She previously taught at Northeastern University, Tufts University, Questrom School of Business at Boston University, Lesley University and the History Leadership Institute [formerly Developing History Leaders @ SHA and the Seminar in Historical Administration] and is a frequent presenter at professional meetings and conferences.