Beth Takekawa Named to Obama Administration Post

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Nov. 21 announced his intent to appoint 18 individuals to key administration posts, including Beth Takekawa as a member of the National Museum and Library Services Board.

“I am pleased to announce that these experienced and committed individuals have decided to serve our country,” Obama said. “I look forward to working with them.”

Beth Takekawa

The National Museum and Library Services Board (NMLSB) is an advisory body that includes the director and deputy directors of the Institute of Museum and Library Services and presidentially appointed members of the general public who have demonstrated expertise in, or commitment to, library or museum services. Informed by its collectively vast experience and knowledge, the NMLSB advises the IMLS director on general policy and practices, and on selections for the National Medals for Museum and Library Service.

Takekawa is executive director of the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (The Wing) in Seattle’s Chinatown/International District, a position she has held since 2008. She served as The Wing’s chief executive officer in 2007 and was associate director from 1997 to 2006. The Wing is the only pan-Asian Pacific American museum in the nation, the first Smithsonian Institution affiliate in the Pacific Northwest, and a newly designated Affiliated Area of the National Park Service.

She has over 25 years experience in community economic development, working in the private, public and nonprofit sectors in program development, finance and administrative management. She was appointed by Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire to serve as a commissioner on the Washington State Arts Commission from 2009 to 2015, and serves on the boards of the Downtown Seattle Association and International District Emergency Center.

Takekawa is a 2011 Salzburg Global Seminars Fellow, one of 56 leaders from museums and libraries worldwide invited to the Salzburg, Austria convening to discuss the era of participatory culture, and was a member on the National Planning Committee for the Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho, established to remember the U.S. government’s World War II incarceration of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

She attended the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities and received a B.A. in music from Hunter College of the City University of New York.