Staff and Leadership
Meet the staff, board members, and advisors of Planet Word — all of whom share a love of the written and spoken word.
Board of Directors
Planet Word is privileged to have the support of talented and experienced board members from across the country. They bring us leadership in fields as diverse as museum operations, nonprofit stewardship, education, real estate, marketing, journalism, literacy, technology, and community partnerships.
Our Board ensures we have the guidance and oversight to grow from a big idea to a thriving, world-class institution.
Don Baer is a Senior Partner at Brunswick Group.
HyeSook Chung is the President of The Baltimore Civic Fund.
Michael Cornfeld is President of Heritage Investors Management Corporation.
Ann Doerr primarily works in the area of climate change.
Susan Engel is a professor of developmental psychology and education at Williams College.
Samia Farouki is the Founder and CEO of Hii-Finance, Corp., a global investment company.
Ann Friedman is the Founder and CEO of Planet Word.
Tom Friedman is the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times.
Jay Goldberg is an attorney and CPA with the firm Gaasedelen and Goldberg, P.A., and he concentrates in tax, estate planning, and probate.
Mary Lou Gorno is President and CEO of Ingenuity International.
Ken Greer is a brand strategist, change agent, technology geek, and creative spark. He is Chief Marketing Officer of Augeo, a global leader in enterprise engagement and loyalty platforms.
Puja Kaul is a community leader focused on philanthropy, education, and social justice.
Sara Mark Lesk is a museum educator, passionate about making museums joyful, engaging, and relevant places for learning and discovery for everyone.
Lindsay Martin is a Non-Profit Leader & Management Consultant
Caron Garcia Martinez is Director of the Center for Business Communications at American University’s Kogod School of Business.
Patrick McGinnis is an author, speaker, venture capitalist, expert entrepreneur, and the host of a thriving podcast called “FOMO Sapiens with Patrick J. McGinnis.”
Craig Mundie is President of Mundie & Associates.
Jonathan Plutzik is the Chairman and principal owner of The Betsy – South Beach.
Deborah Ratner Salzberg is a Partner at RMS Investment Group.
Stefanie Sanford serves as Chief of Global Policy & External Relations for the College Board and President of the College Board Foundation.
Joseph Sassoon is the Director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.
Dov Seidman has led a career focused on how companies and their people can operate in both principled and profitable ways.
Marsha Semmel is an independent consultant working with cultural and educational organizations.
Doug Siegler is a tax and estate planning attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Venable, LLP.
Tina Small serves on the Executive Committee of the National Symphony Orchestra Board of Directors.
Anna Deavere Smith is an actress, playwright, teacher, and author.
Ralph Smith is the founding managing director of the Campaign for Grade Level Reading.
Rick Soskin is Executive Chairman of Engineered Network Systems, LLC and President and CEO of R&A Investments LLC.
Jerry Tarde is the Editor-in-Chief of Golf Digest and Global Head of Strategy and Content for Warner Bros. Discovery Golf.
Frederick O. Terrell is Senior Advisor at Centerbridge Partners, L.P. and the Former Executive Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Credit Suisse.
Lynn Thoman is an adjunct professor at Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs.
Natalie Winston is the Executive Producer of All Things Considered on the weekends.
Advisory Board
The museum’s eminent Advisory Board Members represent experts from many different fields, including linguistics, anthropology, literature, computer science, natural language processing, music, theater, psychology, and more.
The museum is fortunate to have their enthusiastic support and expertise.
Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Metaforce and an expert in all disciplines of branding; author of 5 books including his latest Seeing The How: Transforming what people do not buy…
Professor of Linguistics Emerita, American University; author of Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World, Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World, and the upcoming…
Co-Founder of Wondrus, a women-owned business specializing in connecting the rich content in museum collections with students and teachers nationwide; former Strategist for LearnZillion.com, where she developed the curriculum and…
Professor of English, UCLA; director of the Laboratory for Race & Popular Culture (the RAP Lab); author of Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop; The Poetry of Pop;…
Experienced public educator, policy analyst, and Senior Advisor to ReadingUniverse.org, a web-service created by the Mississippi-based Barksdale Reading Institute in collaboration with PBS’s flagship station, WETA, and FirstBook, dedicated to…
Principal Research Scientist; social psychological assessments of language and well-being.
Associate Professor of English, University of Maryland; language, writing, and rhetoric, the language of politics, discourse analysis
Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor, Wales; writer, lecturer, and broadcaster on language and linguistics, with special reference to English
Professor of English and Linguistics and Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, University of Michigan; research on the history of English, language and gender, lexicography, and…
Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Associate Director of Inclusion and Diversity Education, Stanford University; academic writer and editor; specialist in feminist, gender and sexuality studies as well as digital pedagogy…
Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University; neuroscientist specialized in the brain bases of reading and developmental dyslexia; former president of…
Writer, linguist, author of Babel No More: The Search for the World’s Most Extraordinary Language Learners and Um…: Slips, Stumbles, and Verbal Blunders, and What They Mean
Linguist, writer, Fellow at New America; author of Dreaming in Chinese: Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language and Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey into the Heart of America
Genre-bending singer-songwriter, composer, and multi-instrumentalist; Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra; author of A Dream About Lightning Bugs
Writer, educator, and translator specializing in the role of translation in literary histories and contemporary culture, language access, and translation literacy; Director of the Translation Center and Associate Professor in…
Associate Professor of Indigenous Languages & Education (Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies; Department of Language and Literacy Education), University of British Columbia; Hawaiian and Indigenous language revitalization, education, and digital…
Professor of United States Legal Discourse, Georgetown University Law School; language and law, multilingualism and social justice
Former Professor of Semitic Philology, Harvard University, and Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern Studies, University of Texas at Austin; Semitic languages, historical linguistics, and writing systems
Professor and Chair of Linguistics and Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University; computational linguistics and its application to the behavioral and social sciences
Cognitive linguist and instructional designer specializing in second language acquisition, language revitalization, and experience-, project-, place-, and game-based language learning solutions
Associate Professor, Communications, Culture and Technology (CCT), Georgetown University; literary criticism and textual studies
Internet linguist and author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language; Resident Linguist at Wired and co-creator of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that’s enthusiastic about linguistics
Lexicographer, founder of the online dictionary Wordnik, author of the “Weird and Wonderful Words” series
Professor of Linguistics, University of Arizona; children’s development of language and literacy, collaboration on informal science learning with Children’s Museum Tucson
Professor of Linguistics, Columbia University; how creole languages form and how language grammars change as the result of sociohistorical phenomena
President of Humorworks Seminars and author of six books on the nature and value of humor, most recently Laughing All the Way
Carolyn Silva Chambers Distinguished Professor of Advertising and director of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication advertising program, where she teaches creativity and strategic thinking
Deputy Director, National Gallery of Art; author and poet, rare book collector, specialist on 18th century lexicographer Samuel Johnson
Elisa New is the Director and Host of Poetry in America, director of the Center for Public Humanities at Arizona State University, director of Verse Video Education, and Powell M. Cabot…
Professor and Chair, Department of Hearing & Speech Sciences, University of Maryland; co-director Maryland Cochlear Implant Center of Excellence; Associate Director Maryland Language Science Center; language development, comprehension of spoken…
Professor of Psychology, University of Waterloo; how language and social cognition develop in early childhood and the assessment of young children’s use of language
Regents Centennial Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, social psychology of everyday language
Linguist and evangelist for language science. Professor of Linguistics, University of Oxford; Research Professor, University of Maryland. Passionate about the psychology and neuroscience of language, and the details of language…
Johnstone Family Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University; research on language, cognition, and social relations
Bilingual and bicultural speech-language pathologist; co-founder and private practitioner specializing in bi- and multi-lingual language development, literacy skills, and intervention across the lifespan
Arabic linguist, natural language processing, dialectology
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books for young people, including Look Both Ways: A Tale Told in Ten Blocks, All…
Principal, WP Rivers & Associates; language policy in the U.S., language and national security, language access, and the language industry
Author of many books, including The Story of Writing: Alphabets, Hieroglyphs and Pictograms; Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World’s Undeciphered Scripts; Writing and Script: A Very Short Introduction; Cracking…
Teacher of English as a Second Language, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Senior Executive with Transparent Language, Inc. and former Central Intelligence Agency Senior Language Authority; foreign language learning and linguistic services within the intelligence community
Director for Education and Skills at the OECD. He initiated and oversees the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He is the recipient of the “Theodor Heuss” prize, awarded in…
Vilas Research Professor and Donald O. Hebb Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; cognitive neuroscientist, decades of research in language, reading, and dyslexia
Charles and Helen Schwab Professor in Dyslexia and Learning Development at Yale University and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, child neurologist and neuroscientist
Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development at Yale University and Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Yale Center for Dyslexia & Creativity, physician-scientist, member of the National Academy of Medicine,…
Enigmatologist, New York Times crossword editor, puzzle master for NPR, founder/director of the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament
Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, musician, and composer
Conference Interpreter and Professor of Translation and Interpretation, Graduate School of Translation, Interpretation and Language Education, Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS) and co-founder of InterpretAmerica; translation, interpreting, multilingual communication,…
PhD candidate, Harvard University; teacher, writer, 2014 National Poetry Slam champion
Applied Linguist who studies multilingual environments, language contexts, and reading achievement; develops new technologies to increase educational access and efficacy; Associate Professor at University of Florida
University Distinguished Professor Emerita in English, Co-Founder and former Acting Director, African American and African Studies, and Core Faculty, African Studies Center, Michigan State University; author of ten books, including…
Harvard Graduate School of Education, Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor; specialist in children’s language acquisition, effective reading instruction, bilingualism, and developing curricular supports for language and literacy
University Professor and Professor of Linguistics, Georgetown University; associate editor, Language in Society; author of many books, including The Argument Culture: Stopping America’s War of Words and the New York…
Senior engineer at IBM Watson and founding member of the Austin Museum of Digital Art; creative technologist, digital humanities and data visualization researcher, and songwriter
Assistant Research Professor, Language Science Center, University of Maryland; research on sociolinguistics, speech perception, psycholinguistics; public engagement with language science. Director of the Language Science Station, the language research lab…
Professor of Linguistics, Gallaudet University; American Sign Language (ASL), applied cognitive linguistics and community engagement, sign language teaching, and sign language interpreting
Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University; children’s language acquisition, Director of the Language Sciences Research Lab at the Columbus Center of Science and Industry (COSI)
William C. Friday Distinguished Professor of English Linguistics at North Carolina State University, pioneering research on social and ethnic dialects of American English, co-author of American English: Dialects and Variation,…
Founder and Principal of DRY Inc., a communications and editorial content consultancy; long-time IBM Corporate Communications vice president who led global public relations and employee communications teams
Professor Emerita in the Ethnic Studies Department of the University of California San Diego; anthropolitical linguist, studies U.S. LatinU varieties of Spanish and English; author of award-winning Growing up Bilingual:…
Linguist, lexicographer, all-around word nut; language columnist for The Wall Street Journal and contributing editor to The Atlantic; former columnist for The Boston Globe and The New York Times Magazine;…
Our Staff
Planet Word is managed and operated by a truly dedicated group of employees and volunteers. These people curate and care for our many exhibits, guide visitors and groups around the museum, and ensure that we stay focused on sharing the power, fun, and beauty of language with the world. Contact us
Director of Marketing and Communications
Executive Director
Manager of Gift Shop and Visitor Services
Digital Media Manager
Manager of Curatorial Affairs
Manager of Education Programs
External Relations Manager
Director of Operations and Visitor Services
Floor Supervisor
Manager of Business Operations
Floor Supervisor
Lead Technician
Assistant Manager of Public Programs
Director of Education
Manager of Public Programs
Events Manager
Events Associate
Executive Associate and Board Liaison
Floor Supervisor
Senior Director of Development
Director of Museum Technology
Facility Manager / Building Engineer
Director of Finance and Business Operations
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Did you know?
Perhaps ironically, the word “sesquipedalophobia” means “the fear of long words.” -
Did you know?
“Contronyms” are words that contain multiple meanings that are complete opposites of each other. For example, “oversight” means both “the action of overseeing something” and “a failure to notice something.” -
Did you know?
There are over 7,000 languages worldwide, but more than half the world’s population speaks only 23 of these languages. -
Did you know?
The first entirely artificial language was the Lingua Ignota, a private mystical cant recorded in the 12th century by St. Hildegard of Bingen. -
Did you know?
The 10 most-used letters in English are E, A, R, I, O, T, N, S, L, and C. -
Did you know?
Eels, llamas, and aardvarks, ooh my! In English, there are only four letters that appear as double letters at the beginning of a word: A, E, L, and O. -
Did you know?
A “deipnosophist” is a person who’s really good at making conversation at the dinner table. -
How do you get a dog to stop eating your books?
Take the words right out of its mouth! -
What's the difference between a cat and a comma?
A cat has claws at the end of its paws, but a comma’s a pause at the end of a clause. -
The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar...
It was tense. -
Is there a word that uses all the vowels including y?
Unquestionably. -
Riddle me this
What did the intransitive verb say when told it was pretty? (Answer: Nothing. Intransitive verbs can’t take complements.) -
Riddle me this
What does an island and the letter T have in common? (Answer: They’re both in the middle of water.) -
Riddle me this
What word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? (Answer: Short) -
Riddle me this
What starts with an E, ends with an E, and contains just one letter? (Answer: An envelope!) -
Riddle me this
What begins with a T, ends with a T, and has T in it? (Answer: A teapot!) -
Riddle me this
What’s in centuries, hours, and years, but not minutes, days, or seconds? (Answer: The letter R!) -
Quote them on it
“Outside of a dog, a book is a man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.” — Groucho Marx -
Quote them on it
“The past is always tense, the future perfect.” — Zadie Smith -
Quote them on it
“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, you must be the one to write it.” — Toni Morrison -
Quote them on it
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies...The man who never reads lives only once.” — George R.R. Martin -
Quote them on it
“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” — Nelson Mandela