Dr. Deborah Mack is a nationally respected museum leader and cultural strategist whose decades‑long career has strengthened how institutions engage with African American history, global heritage, and community‑rooted storytelling. Mack created the Office of Strategic Partnerships at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, a department intentionally designed specifically to support capacity-building and sustainability for African American and African Diaspora museums nationally and internationally.

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Her past roles at Smithsonian include serving as Senior Advisor to the Office of the Under Secretary for Education, as Director of the national initiative Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past and as interim director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art.

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Dr. Mack has served as a peer reviewer for the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. She has also served on the boards of numerous industry and service organizations, including the Association of African American Museums, the Southeast Museums Conference, the National Council on Public History, and the United States Committee for the International Council of Museums. As a consultant for Juneteenth’s Home, Dr. Mack brings deep expertise in culturally grounded institutional planning, national‑level museum strategy, and community‑centered approaches that strengthen both local authority and broad public impact.