Mississippi History, Civil Rights Museum directors named

The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has announced its leadership team for two new museums opening late this year.

Cindy Gardner will serve as site administrator for the museums under construction at the Old Capitol Complex. Pamela Junior has been named director of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, and Rachel Myers is the director of the Museum of Mississippi History, Katie Blount, director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History said in a statement.

“We could not ask for a better group to head up these world-class museums,” said Blount. “Cindy Gardner has been a guiding hand for the project from the start, and Pamela Junior and Rachel Myers bring a wealth of experience and energy that will help connect the museums to all Mississippians.”

Gardner has been the department’s project manager for the Museum of Mississippi History and Mississippi Civil Rights Museum while also serving as director of collections for the Museum Division, the statement said. She joined MDAH in 1999 as a collections registrar at the Old Capitol Museum of Mississippi History after working at two museums in Florida.

Gardner holds a bachelor’s in history from Stetson University and three certificates from the Mississippi State Personnel Board’s Certified Public Manager program. She is past treasurer of the Southeastern Registrars Association and a member of the Mississippi Museums Association and Field Services Alliance.

Pamela D.C. Junior comes to MDAH from the Smith Robertson Museum and Cultural Center in Jackson, where she had been manager since 1999. Junior is a member of the board of directors for the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area and Mississippi Book Festival and a co-founder of the Mississippi Black Theater Festival, the release said.

She is the recipient of the Freedom Rider award from the Mississippi Freedom 50th Foundation, the For My People award from the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, and the Hometown Hero award from the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau. Junior holds a bachelors in education from Jackson State University.

Rachel Myers has been director of the Museum Department of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life since 2010, the release said. She is Mississippi State Leader for the American Association of State and Local History and serves on the boards of the Council of American Jewish Museums and Jackson 2000.

Before moving to Mississippi, Myers worked as a program assistant at the New England Aquarium in Boston. She holds a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Brandeis University and a master’s in museum studies from Johns Hopkins University.