Louise Bernard ’05 PhD

Louise Bernard was the director of exhibitions at the New York Public Library prior to joining the Obama Foundation. Before that, she was a senior content developer and interpretive planner in the New York office of the museum design firm Ralph Appelbaum Associates, where she worked on the design team that developed the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, along with several other international projects. Prior to her work at Ralph Appelbaum Associates, she was curator of prose and drama for the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale and assistant professor of English at Georgetown University.

Bernard received her PhD in African American studies and American studies from Yale University. She received an MA in theater history and an MA in English literature from Indiana University-Bloomington and a BA in drama from the University of Manchester. Her current research engages with the literary archive, material culture, museology, public history, and interpretive planning and design.

Bernard is currently a scholarly advisor to the International African American Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, and sits on the board of the Yale Graduate School Alumni Association.