SAN FRANCISCO, CA.- There’s a new Executive Director in town. The Museum of the African Diaspora announced Linda Harrison has joined the San Francisco-based museum as Executive Director. The move is an innovative effort to merge Harrison’s strong business leadership skills and knowledge of the arts to take the organization to the next level in 2014.

"The Board of MoAD is thrilled to have retained Linda Harrison as our new Executive Director,” said L. Wade Rose, Chairman of the MoAD Board and Vice President of External and Government Relations, Dignity Health. “Linda has the leadership skills and management experience necessary for moving MoAD forward. The Board and Linda are in full alignment on what is necessary for MoAD to grow."

This mutual agreement is critical, said Harrison, as the museum prepares to expand public awareness about the museum’s permanent and changing exhibitions, and community, educational and outreach programs to focus on increasing admissions and membership. Thus potentially growing the commitment level of current donors and attracting future givers to help sustain and enhance MoAd’s already robust offerings.

“The Museum of the African Diaspora explores the impact people of African descent have on modern and contemporary life all over the world. MoAd focuses on four key themes: origins, movement, adaptation and transformation. Plus, celebrating our individual journeys and stories,” explained Harrison, who said she looks forward to expanding on MoAD’s impactful work.

To Harrison, disapora is more inclusive than African heritage alone. It affects all cultures. Applying her business and management acumen, Harrison intends to bring this understanding to the public light in coming months, helping clarify the value and importance MoAd’s presence serves the Bay Area and beyond.

Harrison has a resume that reads like a success story in reinvention, transitioning her remarkable abilities from the corporate world, to an entrepreneurial real estate agent, always giving back along the way. Harrison is a Bay Area expert, specializing in luxury real estate at Sotheby’s International Realty, and longtime leader of The Harrison Team. This innovative team was originally formed nearly 10 years ago when Harrison was at Pacific Union International, an exclusive affiliate of Christie’s Great Estates. She was then promoted to Vice President-Branch Manager to lead the Opera Plaza office.

In addition to her successful real estate career, excelling at negotiating on her clients’ behalf and matching expressed needs with their ultimate properties, Harrison shined in the education and corporate arenas. She was an adjunct Professor at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business in the Entrepreneurship Program, Director of Small Business Consulting at Business for Social Responsibility, and Vice President of Digital Imaging Markets at Eastman Kodak Company, U.S. and Canada region.

Always growing and contributing her leadership talents to everything she does, Harrison is affiliated with and has served on the boards of SFEarn, Frameline International LGBT Film Festival and Horizons Foundation, Habitat for Humanity, San Francisco Association of Realtors, San Francisco Women’s Council of Realtors, Chinese Real Estate Association of America, and California Association of Realtors.

“My goal is to have us on the cutting edge of relevant content and extraordinary visitor experience in the near future,” explained Harrison.