University of Puget Sound Announces New Director for Natural History Museum

Campus, Community, Faculty

Professor Kena Fox-Dobbs will take over museum leadership from Professor Emeritus Peter Wimberger

TACOMA, Wash. — University of Puget Sound announced that it has selected a new director for the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History. Professor of Environmental Policy & Decision Making and chair of the Department of Geology Kena Fox-Dobbs will assume leadership duties from Professor Emeritus Peter Wimberger. Wimberger has served as director of the museum since 2005, during which time he greatly expanded the museum’s outreach programs, including a pivot to online programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I'm thrilled to step into the role of museum director, and excited to join this excellent team,” said Fox-Dobbs. “For the past 15 years, my research program has included projects with museum-based work and the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History was one of the many reasons I joined the faculty at Puget Sound.”

Kena Fox-Dobbs is an environmental scientist interested in how human activities, such as the encroachment of cities on natural habitats, change natural patterns across ecosystems. She uses biogeochemical techniques to investigate questions relating to the ecology of fossilized animals and plants and examines issues that may help predict the effect of climate change on ecosystems in the future. She has received funding from the National Science Foundation and conducted research on a variety of topics, from investigating how small mammals adapted to the last Ice Age to investigating how termites impact the nutrient cycle of the Kenyan savannah.

Kena Fox-Dobbs, director of the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History, poses with bird wing specimens.

Kena Fox-Dobbs, professor of Geology and Environmental Policy & Decision-Making, will serve as the new director of the Puget Sound Museum of Natural History.

Fox-Dobbs will join Collections Manager Gary Shugart and Education & Outreach Director Madison Mayfield in supporting existing research, education and outreach activities, the student docent program, and the Nature in the Classroom program. She will also work to expand the museum’s collections to include the Department of Geology’s geological and paleontological specimens and will lead efforts to upgrade the museum’s database.

The Puget Sound Museum of Natural History houses one of the Pacific Northwest’s major natural history collections, including over 100,000 bird, mammal, reptile, amphibian, plant, insect, and geological specimens. In addition to providing resources for researchers, the museum also offers a free multidisciplinary science-based curriculum for K–12 teachers, open houses, drawing nights, virtual collections, and more. Admission to the museum is free to the public and open by appointment. Learn more at pugetsound.edu/museum.

About Puget Sound

A nationally ranked residential liberal arts and sciences college in Tacoma, Washington, University of Puget Sound enrolls 1,800 undergraduate students from across the country and around the world, as well as 300 graduate students in education, counseling, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and public health. A low student-faculty ratio provides Puget Sound students with personal attention from faculty members who have a strong commitment to teaching and offer 1,200 courses each year in more than 50 areas of study. Puget Sound graduates include Rhodes and Luce scholars, notables in the arts and culture, scholars and scientists, entrepreneurs and elected officials, and leaders in business and finance locally and throughout the world. A top producer of Fulbright U.S. Students, Puget Sound is the only nationally ranked independent liberal arts college in Western Washington, and one of just five independent colleges in the Northwest granted a charter by Phi Beta Kappa, the nation’s most prestigious academic honor society.

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