–Director’s Senior Leadership Team Expands with Two Newly Created Positions and Appointments–
Dallas, TX – July 15, 2020 – The Dallas Museum of Art today announced the appointment of John Trahan, an accomplished institutional leader, as Chief Financial Officer, and the promotion of Ruby Hunt and KC Hurst to newly created positions within the Director’s senior leadership team. Hunt, formerly Director of Human Resources, has been named Chief Human Resource Officer, and Hurst, formerly Director of Marketing and Communications, has been named Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. Trahan joins the Museum on August 3, and Hunt’s and Hurst’s appointments are effective immediately.
“We are excited to welcome John to the DMA, and to congratulate Ruby and KC on their very well deserved promotions,” said Arteaga. “In the midst of these unpredictable times, it is more crucial than ever to have a leadership team on board with such strong track records in leading cultural organizations and nonprofits through periods of change. We are confident the acumen of these three tremendous professionals working alongside senior staff will help ensure the Museum’s long-term sustainability and the continuation of our mission into the future.”
An accomplished, influential, and analytical senior management professional with two decades of experience in banking and nonprofit organization operations, Trahan will relocate from Houston, where he has served as the Chief Financial Officer at two notable cultural organizations: the Houston Zoo (since 2018) and The Menil Collection (2014–2017). In his role at the DMA, Trahan will be responsible for the effective management of the Museum’s finances, accounting function, and select earned revenue streams such as the Museum Store. He will report to Dr. Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director of the Dallas Museum of Art.
At the Houston Zoo, Trahan was responsible for the daily supervision of the $55 million operating budget for the conservation/cultural organization; similarly, while at The Menil he oversaw and managed the $22 million annual budget and financial and accounting operations of the internationally renowned art museum, including real estate and bookstore functions. Before his move to Texas, Trahan spent a decade working in New York City, holding senior executive positions at Assured Guaranty Corp, a municipal bond insurance company, and BNP Paribas, the French financial institution. He then took a self-financed four-year sabbatical to obtain an ESL/EFL teaching certificate from Teachers College at Columbia University and travel to South Africa, where he worked at the Kay Mason Foundation in Cape Town, a nonprofit scholarship organization that supports financially disadvantaged youth. Actively engaged in nonprofit efforts throughout his career, he has served on boards for homeless and AIDS services organizations, as well as for several performing arts institutions. John Trahan is a graduate of Southern Methodist University with a BBA in Accounting.
Joining Trahan on the senior leadership team is Ruby Hunt, who has served as the DMA’s Director of Human Resources since 2017. Hunt steps into her new role as the inaugural Chief Human Resource Officer, where she will continue to direct the Museum’s human resources operations by recruiting top talent and delivering best-in-class onboarding, development, coaching, and counseling. With nearly 15 years of experience in HR, including recruitment, training, benefit plan design, performance management, engagement, employee relations, 401k planning, succession planning, and diversity, equity, and inclusion policy implementation, Hunt has led the successful reengineering of the Museum’s HR strategy and processes and continues to evolve its practices. Her expertise in employee affairs has been successfully demonstrated during the institution’s temporary closure due to COVID-19.
KC Hurst also joins the senior leadership team as the Museum’s first Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. She joined the DMA in 2018 as its Director of Marketing and Communications after more than a decade of creative expertise in digital marketing and a proven track record of innovation and analytics acumen at Austin Community College District, one of the largest premier two-year college systems in the nation. Over the past two years, Hurst has infused the Museum’s mission throughout all DMA marketing and communications, on-site and online, and been responsible for audience growth through targeted marketing, local partnerships, public relations, and social media strategies. Most recently, she oversaw the Museum’s efforts to pivot all its community engagement endeavors online during its COVID-19 closure through a skillful digital strategy that has been well received by DMA audiences.
About the Dallas Museum of Art
Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is among the 10 largest art museums in the country and is distinguished by its commitment to research, innovation, and public engagement. At the heart of the Museum and its programs is its global collection, which encompasses 25,000 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. Located in the nation’s largest arts district, the Museum acts as a catalyst for community creativity, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds with a diverse spectrum of programming, from exhibitions and lectures to concerts, literary events, and dramatic and dance presentations. With a free general admission policy and community outreach efforts, the DMA served more than 900,000 individuals on-site and off-site in 2019. The DMA is an Open Access institution, allowing all works believed to be in the public domain to be freely available for downloading, sharing, repurposing, and remixing without restriction. For more information, visit DMA.org.
The Dallas Museum of Art is supported, in part, by the generosity of DMA Partners and donors, the citizens of Dallas through the City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
For additional information, please contact:
Jill Bernstein
Dallas Museum of Art
214-922-1802
JBernstein@DMA.org