Board members
The CMA is governed by an elected Board of Directors. Meet the CMA’s Board.
President (term expires 2025)
Madeline Smolarz
Madeline Smolarz (she/her) is an award-winning queer museum worker living with invisible disabilities based in Picton, Ontario as an uninvited settler on the treaty lands and traditional territories of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians, Anishnaabeg, Wendat, Haudenosaunee, and Mississauga nations. She holds a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in Classical Studies from the University of Ottawa and a Master of Museum Studies from the University of Toronto. Madeline has contributed to the success of several arts, heritage, and culture organizations for well over a decade including: the Museum of Classical Antiquities at the University of Ottawa; the Bytown Museum; the Craigleith Heritage Depot; Ruthven Park National Historic Site; the Ontario Museum Association; the City of Kingston's Heritage Services department; the Kingston Association of Museums, Art Galleries, and Historic Sites; the Canadian Museums Association (CMA); Oakville Galleries; the Group of Ontario Emerging Museum Professionals Committee; and RealMeta. Madeline is an accomplished speaker and avid advocate for emerging museum professionals (EMPs), having presented on topics that intersect with EMPs’ experiences on provincial, national, and international stages. In 2021, Madeline founded the Emerging Museum Professionals Canada Collective, a national volunteer organization, and served as its Co-Administrator for three consecutive years before making way for a new generation of leaders. Her previous Board experience includes a term as Regional Director, International/Multi-Location of the American not-for-profit the National Emerging Museum Professional Network, and two years as a Director at Large of the Canadian Museums Association. Madeline currently works as the Museum Curator of Base31, a cultural hub and former WWII military training base in Prince Edward County. She also volunteers her time as President of the CMA’s Board of Directors and as Chair of the CMA’s Advocacy Committee.
Vice-President (term expires 2025)
Dorota Blumczyǹska
The Manitoba Museum, MB
Dorota was born in Poland; six months later martial law was declared, food was rationed, personal freedoms were suppressed, and an uprising took hold of her country. As a child she witnessed her family struggle under an oppressive regime eventually fleeing to eastern Germany. While living in a refugee camp for over a year, her family held onto hope that they would be chosen for resettlement. On October 27th, 1989 they landed in Canada as Privately Sponsored Refugees.
Prior to coming to the Manitoba Museum, Dorota was the Executive Director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba Inc. (IRCOM). During her thirteen-year tenure, Dorota led the organization through a period of rapid growth, innovation, and increased impact and influence. Her deep sense of social justice and equity shaped her leadership of one of Manitoba’s largest and most dynamic settlement and community development organizations.
Joining the Manitoba Museum, a provincial cornerstone institution with reach into the lives of thousands of Manitobans has offered Dorota the opportunity to continue to fulfill her purpose of celebrating our shared humanity. In the midst of COVID and the resulting uncertainty, Dorota brought visionary leadership, great enthusiasm, and a renewed hope for the future. Having personally experienced the Manitoba Museum as a child refugee, she believes it has the responsibility to more meaningfully contribute to inclusivity and community cohesion, leaning into its purpose as a living institution and centre for intercultural dialogue. She also understands that the Manitoba Museum, which has partnered with Indigenous communities for decades, including The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation is trusted by Manitobans to advance the TRC Calls to Action related to its work. Bringing communities together, and inspiring visitors to live in harmony with the world that surrounds them, the flora and the fauna, is the work that Dorota most passionately lends her heart and skills to.
She has a double major in Business Administration and English. In 2014, she was selected as an emerging female leader in Canada and invited to participate in the Canadian Women’s Foundation Leadership Institute in partnership with the Coady Institute of Development at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia from which she graduated in 2015. In 2019 she completed the Executive Education Program at the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.
Her past board experience includes the Youth Agencies Alliance, the Manitoba School Improvement Program, Communities4Families, as well as the University of Winnipeg Healthy Campus Advisory Committee, the Provincial Healthy Child Advisory Committee of Cabinet and the Housing Advisory Roundtable to the Minister of Housing and Community Development, the University Of Winnipeg Community Renewal Corporation 2.0 Inc., and the Manitoba Association of Newcomer Serving Organizations (MANSO). She currently serves as member at large of Hospitality House Refugee Ministries Inc. and as the President of the Canadian Council for Refugees, the largest national refugee rights advocacy group in Canada.
Vice-President (term expires 2025)
Sandra Zapata
Canadian Museum of History, QC
Sandra Zapata is an Exhibition Project Manager at the Canadian Museum of History. Previously, she was the executive director and curator of the Musée de la mémoire vivante in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. Her interests have focused on promoting the value of cultural heritage in all its forms. She is convinced of the transformative power of museums and conceives them as spaces for reflection, questioning, sharing and co-creation.
For the past thirteen years, Sandra has been working in the museum field as a museologist, research officer and consultant in Canada, Europe and Latin America. These experiences, carried out in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, have allowed her to develop a keen sense of communication and knowledge sharing. She holds a joint Master's degree in Cultural Landscapes and Heritage Management from the Université Jean-Monet in France. She also holds a post-graduate diploma in Museology from Université Laval in Canada, a Master's degree in Art History from UNAM in Mexico, and a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Universidad Nacional in Colombia.
Director (term expires 2027)
Kels Delamarter
Kels Delamarter is a Queer Philipino storyteller from Lethbridge, Alberta. Kels is a social media expert, heritage steward, community builder and social advocate – particularly for marginalized communities.
Director (term expires 2027)
Maggie MacIntyre
Maggie MacIntyre is a mid-career museum professional with strategic planning, leadership and human resources experience. She is currently the Curator of Interpretation at the Nova Scotia Museum, and has served recently as Executive Director for the Association of Nova Scotia Museums.
Director (term expires 2027)
Meaghan Patterson
Meaghan Patterson is an experienced leader and strategic thinker who led the Reconsidering Museums Project while she was the Executive Director of the Alberta Museums Association. She is the current executive Director of the Royal Alberta Museum.
Director (term expires 2027)
Jeff Ward
Jeff Ward is the new Director of Community Culture and Heritage for Wagmatcook Mi'kmaq Nation and the former General Manager for the Membertou Heritage Park. He is a member of the CMA’s reconciliation council and contributor to the CMA’s Moved to Action report. Jeff is a leader in the White Eagle Sundance, a Lodge keeper, drum keeper, conductor of ceremonies, and justice circles.
Director (term expires 2026)
Marie-Claude Mongeon
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, QC
Marie-Claude Mongeon currently works at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal and volunteers with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts and the Coalition of Museums for Climate Justice. She is currently pursuing a second graduates’ degree in sustainable development and recently served as a member of the 2023 CMA Conference Committee.
Director (term expires 2027)
Pailagi Pandya
Mackenzie House Museum, ON
Pailagi Pandya is Curator (A) at Mackenzie House Museum, City of Toronto. Pailagi stands out in the Canadian Museum sector as a change maker and as positive role model for emerging professionals and youth in Toronto. She has demonstrated through her work in Toronto, nationally and globally a deep commitment to advancing diversity, inclusion, equity, anti-oppression and anti-colonial practices. She joined the Scarborough Museum (City of Toronto) in 2004. She also worked as Curatorial Assistant at the Meharangrah Museum Trust, a UNESCO heritage site in Jodhpur, India. She sits on the Board of the Scarborough Historical Society and was an inaugural member of the Ontario Museum Associations' Emerging Museum Professionals Committee (2013-2016). Pailagi holds a Masters in Heritage Management from University of Birmingham (2014), and a Bachelor of Art History in a Specialist Program in Arts and Culture from the University of Toronto. She also holds a certification in Designing for Change from IDEO U and a certification in Disruptive Strategies from Harvard Business School.
Director (term expires 2026)
Sophie Yamauchi Latimer
Sophie Yamauchi Latimer is an emerging museum professional and advocate for sustainability, equity, and non-neutrality in museum-practice. Sophie is based on the unceded territories of the Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Sel̓íl̓witulh Nations (Vancouver, B.C.), and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Museum Anthropology from the University of British Columbia, and a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management and a Master of Arts Leadership from Queens University. She most recently worked as Board Administrator for the Chinese Canadian Museum. Previously, Sophie worked at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Museum of Vancouver, and HR MacMillan Space Centre. She is a member of the Lower Mainland Museum Educators Conference Committee, and has volunteered with many museums across Western Canada and the U.K.
Past President (Non-voting / ex officio)
Tracy Calogheros
The Exploration Place, BC
Since 2003 Tracy Calogheros has served as the CEO for the Exploration Place Museum + Science Centre on the traditional and unceeded territories of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation in what is today known as Prince George, British Columbia. Working in the industry since 1994, Tracy came to the museum with a love of biology and background in fine art and has spent her career exploring the synergies between the two. She has served on many boards including the British Columbia Museums Association and the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. Currently serving as the Vice President of the Association of Science Museum Directors, Past President for The Canadian Association of Science Centres, and on the Boards for the Association of Science + Technology Centres and the Fraser Basin Council, Tracy’s roles have largely centred on advocacy, government relations and governance. Ms. Calogheros passionately believes that true Reconciliation and Climate Change are the two lenses through which all future decisions must be viewed.