Meet Our New President, Cheryl Thornhill

Greetings from the Mississippi State Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts! I am honored to be your President for the upcoming year. Many thanks to Nancy Anne Branton for securing an excellent slate of officers including Inglish Devoss as Treasurer and Laney Watkins as Secretary. 

It has been a pleasure to meet so many of the members of MSC/NMWA over the past year. For those of you I haven’t yet met, let me tell you a bit about my background.

I am a native Mississippian born and raised in Hattiesburg. I graduated with a degree in history and anthropology from USM and was fortunate to land a job at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. I spent four years at the Manship House under the direction of the immortal V. A. Patterson. From there I moved to Reno to assume the position of assistant director of the Nevada History Society. While there, I received a Masters in History from University of Nevada, Reno. After six years, I moved to Wickenburg, Arizona to direct a small but mighty history and art museum, now The Sigler Museum. I then moved to South Bend, IN to direct The History Center for ten years. 

I felt Mississippi calling me home when I saw the opening for executive director of Cottonlandia, now Museum of the Mississippi Delta, in Greenwood. I spent a decade securing grants and corporate funding to renovate the space and provide the community with an upgraded Mid-Century modern museum. 

My husband and I retired in 2020 and moved to Biloxi. We were fortunate  to live in Santa Fe for three years where we were completely immersed in art and history. Our return to Mississippi was predicated by a desire to be closer to family and to a place we call “home.” 

One of the goals I have for MSC/NMWA is to create an improved communication system for the membership in order to keep everyone aware of our status. We are fortunate to have Michaela Baldwin as our website and graphics extraordinaire to help us on our journey. 

I look forward to meeting each and every one of you and hearing your suggestions for this historically viable club. We are turning 30 next year and we intend to celebrate with a bang! Our past leadership has been exceptional and many Mississippi women were critical to the development of our state chapter.

–– Cheryl Thornhill

MSCNMWA President