RALEIGH, NC.- The North Carolina Museum of Art has added nine members to its two key governing boards, the Board of Trustees and the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation Board of Directors.

“These new members bring diverse professional experience and cultural backgrounds to our boards, while all sharing the same deep appreciation for the arts and determination to advance the Museum’s mission,” said Museum Director Valerie Hillings. “I appreciate their commitment and look forward to working with them.”

New Board of Trustees members include periodontist Carlos Garcia-Velez; Linda Shropshire, global leader for human rights at Cisco Systems; Annie Gray Sprunt; and Kimberly Daniels Taws, who runs The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, N.C. and is president of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. They are appointed to six-year terms.

“We are thrilled to welcome four remarkable new members to our NCMA Board of Trustees. Besides their trailblazing accomplishments, they bring a vigor and diverse points of view to our North Carolina Museum of Art and Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park,” said Joyce Fitzpatrick, chair of the Museum Board of Trustees. “Now, more than ever, we strive for the NCMA to be the premier gathering place for arts and culture in North Carolina.”

The NCMA Foundation Board of Directors added Tijuana Crosby, clinical psychologist; Heather Graham, Oak Foundation director of the Learning Differences Program; educator Jes Maynard; Vansana Nolintha, co-founder of Bida Manda and Brewery Bhavana restaurants in Raleigh; and Scott Relan, creative director of the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, N.C. The Foundation Board members will serve three-year terms.

“The NCMA Foundation is excited to add these five new board members,” said David Brody, president of the Museum Foundation Board of Directors. “They all bring much-needed skill sets and perspectives that will help shape the future of the North Carolina Museum of Art and Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park.”