Lonnie G. Bunch III appointed first African American Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), will become the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution on June 16, 2019. He is the first African American and the first historian to hold the position. Bunch, a historian with over 35 years of museum experience, was appointed NMAAHC director in 2005 when the museum had no staff, collection, funding, or site. He built the museum from scratch, raising funds through public-private partnerships and collaborating with Congress. The NMAAHC, designed by architect David Adjaye, opened in 2016 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and features 40,000 artifacts across five floors. Bunch began his Smithsonian career in 1978 as an education specialist and historian at the National Air and Space Museum, later serving at the National Museum of American History, the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, and the Chicago Historical Society. Smithsonian Board Chair David Rubenstein praised Bunch as a scholar, educator, and leader.