Leadership Council

Kenneth Adams is a practicing gastroenterologist in Fort Dodge Iowa and clinical professor of medicine at Des Moines University. He currently serves on the board of governors of the American College of Gastroenterology and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and American College of Gastroenterology.

Upon returning to his home town he joined the board of trustees of the Blanden Memorial Art Museum and served for 20 years, fifteen of which as president of the Board. The Blanden is a unique museum for a small Midwestern town due to its art collections which include works by Klee, Picasso, Beckmann, Chagall, Tamayo, Giacometti, Calder, Miró, Chihuly, Feininger, Munro, and Prendergast mostly obtained through the wealth that local gypsum mines generated. Our goal was to provide the community with world-class art exhibits, education, and art experience. Fort Dodgers inspired by these works included Grinnell professors Joseph Wall and Richard Cervene who served briefly on the Blanden board.

He graduated from Grinnell College in 1980 and obtained a medical degree from Des Moines University. He received post-doctoral residency and fellowship at Midwestern University and the University of Chicago. He enjoys collecting art and visiting art museums.

Timothy O. Benson is the curator of the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The Rifkind Center is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of its kind in the world with more than 6,000 prints, drawings, and posters, and a library of over 11,000 rare books, periodicals, graphic art portfolios, and secondary literature, complemented by a scholar-in-residence program. He studied the arts at Grinnell where he received his B.A. in music in 1972, with a semester in his senior year at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. An art history course led to graduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an M.A. and Ph.D. in art history from the University of Iowa.

He has taught at the University of Nebraska (Lincoln), Simpson College, Drake University, and the University of Southern California and has been a curator at LACMA since 1986 where he has curated more than 40 exhibitions. He has published more than a dozen books and catalogs as well as 35 contributions to scholarly catalogs and journals including Art Journal, Burlington Magazine, Dada-Surrealism, October, and Visible Language. An alumnus of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, he received the German Order of Merit in 1997 and has received the Philip Johnson Award from the Society of Architectural Historians as well as awards from the International Association of Art Critics and the American Association of Museums. Among his current projects are exhibitions entitled Aftermath! World War I and the Dawn of The Global Media Era, planned for 2023, and Expressionism and Asia for 2024.

Beginning with stints living in Europe as a child, Tim has always enjoyed the cultural diversity of the arts that he has experienced through travel and international collaboration. He feels honored to be involved in the ongoing transformation through cultural diversity at Grinnell.

Scott Beth grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from Stanford University with a major in economics. It was at Stanford where he met his life partner, Keith Jantzen; they just celebrated their 39th anniversary. 

Scott started working at Hewlett-Packard as a summer intern when he was 16 and continued working there for 26 years in various leadership positions including chief procurement officer of Agilent Technologies.  He joined Intuit in 2003 and was the vice president of finance operations and the diversity and inclusion officer.  Now retired since January of 2021, he is working with nonprofits to develop and realize strategies for creating more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. 

Scott has recently published articles in Quartz, Mic, Forbes, and FlexJobs and has been featured on the podcast The Fix discussing the power of ally-ship. He served on the governing board of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates for four years. His proudest professional moments are representing Intuit at the Obama White House on the topic of small business capital access and addressing the United Nations for the Summit on the Status of Women. He is passionate about environmental stewardship, human rights, and the arts.

After completing his B.A. from Grinnell College in history in 1980, Keith Jantzen went on to earn an M.B.A. from UCLA in 1985. He has held leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard and Intuit in data sciences and analytics, global market segmentation, data privacy for financial institutions, and program management. The focus of his career has been on developing and implementing processes and policies for the capture, management, and ethical use of information to improve business decisions, particularly in the areas of sales and marketing. During his career, Keith has also held positions in nonprofit organizations, including Stanford University’s Development Office and executive director of a professional string quartet. Now retired, Keith spends his time volunteering with Stanford University Museums and is the board chair of Chanticleer, the 12-member male vocal ensemble. He has also been a member of the Silicon Valley Executive Committee for Human Rights Watch for more than five years.

Keith and Scott are avid art fans and collectors, with a particular passion for late 20th-century and 21st-century art.   Together they have served on the Leadership Council for 5 years.  Keith and Scott also are part of the Grinnell College Comprehensive Campaign Committee, and Keith joined the Board of Trustees of the College in 2020.

Kate Chang is a political/government relations specialist based in Boston. In her parallel life, Kate is a functional potter who surfs. She received her B.A. in history in 1987 from Grinnell and went on to earn a M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.P.P./M.P.A. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs also at the University of Texas where she kept up the Grinnell tradition of paying next to no attention to football but rowed competitively for the university. She serves on the board of NARAL ProChoice Massachusetts and has served as chair of the PAC for over 15 years. It has been an honor to serve on the Grinnell College Museum of Art’s Board and Kate only regrets she is not still a student to take advantage of all the Museum has to offer.

Stephen W. Clark is vice president, general counsel, and secretary for the Getty Trust. After receiving his undergraduate degree from Hamilton College and his law degree from Fordham University, Stephen was an associate at the New York law firm Brown & Wood before working as deputy general counsel at The Museum of Modern Art in New York from 1994 to 2008. Stephen also served as assistant director of the American Craft Museum in 1986–87. He serves on the boards of the California Museum Association, the International Cultural Property Society, and the Bellosguardo Foundation, and was president of the Museum Association of New York.

After graduating from Skidmore College, Karen Clark worked for many years at Sotheby’s in New York, mostly in the American Department. She continued to develop her strength in American art while working at Alexander Gallery, at that time a leading gallery for Hudson River School pictures and other American art. Karen later worked with Charlotte Moss before opening her own business, Jones Clark & Co., which sold antiques and decorative art in the Carnegie Hill area of Madison Avenue. Karen closed the business when the Clarks moved to Los Angeles in 2008. Karen is on the Board of Casa del Herrero in Montecito.

The Clarks have three children: Zaza, Wiley, and John.

Jay Dick ‘93 is the senior director of state and local government affairs at Americans for the Arts where he works to educate and inform elected officials about the value of the arts and culture.  As a twenty-five-year veteran of K Street, Capitol Hill, the private sector, and federal, state, and local campaigns, Jay has a broad body of knowledge in the field of arts policy, government, the legislative process, and grassroots advocacy.  He is a nationally recognized speaker on these topics and is regularly interviewed by the media and testifies in front of legislative bodies as an expert on these topics and on Americans for the Arts’ legislative positions.   

With the mandate to positively affect the policies that promote state and local funding and expansion of the arts, Jay works closely with the Americans for the Arts members, local arts agencies, state arts advocacy organizations, state arts agencies, and other key stakeholders to accomplish this goal.  Further, he oversees Americans for the Arts’ Public Partnerships and works closely with the members and staffs of the Western Governors Association, National Governors Association, National Lt. Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislators, National Association of Counties, The United State Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities and ICMA (city/county managers).

Jay was appointed in 2014 by Virginia Governor McAuliffe to serve a five-year term as a Commissioner for the Virginia Commission for the Arts.  From 2009 to 2018, he served on the board of ArtsFairfax where he chaired their advocacy committee. He currently sits on the advisory board of the historic Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, VA.

In February of 2017, with the support of the Wilson Center, Jay taught a short course titled The Arts and… Integrating the Arts into the Creative Modern Economy. In 2018, Jay was appointed to the Grinnell College Museum of Art’s (formerly Faulconer Gallery) Leadership Council. He also serves as the 1993 co-class fund director and is a regular guest speaker on campus.

Jay lives in Fairfax, VA with his husband Chuck Salvetti.

Advocacy for the arts is his job but also his passion.  

Theresa Duncan is director of individual giving, western region of Wildlife Conservation Society. With field programs in 60 countries, WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. With more than 15 years of experience in nonprofits, Theresa previously served as director of philanthropic engagement at Burning Man Project and as vice president of development at the Aquarium of the Pacific. 

Theresa’s expertise includes nonprofit strategic planning, major gifts, capital campaigns, board development, foundation grants, corporate sponsorship, annual fund, donor communications and events, and planned giving. As a consultant, Theresa partnered with a colleague to teach an interactive online fundraising bootcamp for grassroots environmental organizations around the world. 

She attended Grinnell College from 1997–99 and earned an M.B.A. and a B.A. in philosophy from California State University, Long Beach. A pragmatic optimist and lifelong advocate for the environment and social justice, Theresa volunteers in the community and serves on the board of the Empowered Earth Alliance — a nonprofit founded by a fellow Grinnell alum. She is also the author of a book of poetry entitled “tell me more, but don’t use any words.” Theresa is currently based in San Francisco and has lived and worked previously in Southern California, Iowa, Illinois, and Mexico. 

Grinnell College holds a special place in Theresa’s heart and she is delighted to serve on the Grinnell Art Museum’s Leadership Council.          

With a Ph.D. in art history from the University of Chicago (1999), Mac joined the faculty of the art history department at Grinnell at the beginning of the 2021–21 academic year, at the rank of full professor. Prior to coming to Grinnell, he taught art history for 17 years at DePauw University in Indiana, also a small liberal arts college. Mac teaches courses on European Modernism, Contemporary art, and the art of South Asia, as well as, occasionally, museum studies. His own research is on German modernism of the early 20th century, especially of the Weimar Republic, and recently published a book-length study on the German artist Otto Dix, and specifically his frequent representations of the horrors of the First World War. He has also published essays on the post-war painting and architecture of East Berlin and the films that Leni Riefenstahl made of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.

In his pedagogy, Mac is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, fostering BIPOC students who are considering pursuing careers in the arts, and critically examining the exclusionary foundations of art history and the earlier colonialist practices of art museum collections. Several of his former students of color have gone on to graduate programs in art history or museum studies. He worked hard to diversify the art history curriculum at DePauw University and is continuing that work in his new department at Grinnell College.

Mac is excited to work together with the other members of the council during this time of transition in the Grinnell College Museum of Art. As a professor in the art history department, he brings to the leadership council an understanding of the ways in which Grinnell students specifically can make use of the museum’s exhibitions and collections for classroom work. He is also the husband of Anne Harris, the president of Grinnell College (together they have three teenaged children and a shared training in art history). As with the previous president’s spouse, he brings to the council’s deliberations some insight from conversations with the trustees, donors, and other stakeholders who move in the president’s orbit.

Daniel Malarkey is the founder of a London-based contemporary art advisory. 

Daniel works with galleries and artists and advises collectors on purchasing works of art. He also curates exhibitions including Courage Exists in Us at Dickinson Gallery in 2020 and has an upcoming exhibition on Cork Street entitled the Sublime in Nature, opening in June 2021.

Daniel recently guest lectured at Grinnell College in the fall of 2020 with a short course entitled Innovation in the Art World.

He graduated from Grinnell College in 2008 with an honors degree in French, magna cum laude, Phi Bea Kappa. He also played on the varsity tennis team and won most improved player in 2008. One of his highlights at Grinnell was starring as Tartuffe in Tartuffe on the mainstage.

Daniel is currently serving on the vetting committee of Masterpiece Fair and is co-chair of their new Masterpiece Collectors’ Club. He serves on the Angels Committee of Artangel. He is a patron of the Serpentine Galleries and the V&A Museum in London.

Eric Secoy is a legal editor at the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, working primarily on their consumer warranty law, automobile fraud, repossessions, arbitration, and mortgage lending treatises.  Named a Truman Scholar while at Grinnell, he then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1986.

 He first became enamored with spending his free time in art museums while studying abroad at the London School of Economics during college.  A stint as a law clerk in Tokyo piqued his interest in Japanese art.  While serving as a law clerk to the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court and then as a solo practitioner, he started a writing career on the side, becoming a freelance arts journalist for numerous Boston publications.

 His current job manages to combine his interests in writing and in the law.  His spare time is spent hanging out with friends, attending plays and concerts, traveling, visiting museums, and working on building a modest art collection.