Marsha Semmel is an independent consultant working with foundations, museums, libraries, and other cultural and educational organizations on topics that include learning (including early learning), 21st century skills, strategic partnerships and collaborations, cultural policy, strategic planning, and leadership development.
She serves as Senior Advisor to the National Center on Science and Civic Engagement’s SENCER-ISE project (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities-Informal Science Education), a series of partnerships between higher education and informal science. She is an Adjunct Faculty for the Bank Street College of Education’s Graduate School of Education in the Leadership in Museum Education Program. She is also a member of The Museum Group (TMG), a consortium of museum consultants founded in 1995 by independent professionals who had held leadership positions in museums.
Marsha Semmel has more than two decades of work in the major U.S. cultural agencies, including the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), where she served as deputy director for the Office of Museum Services, and, acting IMLS director. She has also served as Senior Advisor to the Noyce Leadership Institute (NLI), a global initiative of the Noyce Foundation.