Dr. Martin Sullivan, the executive director of Historic St. Mary’s City, has been named to the National Honor Roll of Outstanding Museum Leaders.

The American Association of Museums Centennial Honor Roll was announced on April 28 at the association’s one hundredth annual meeting in Boston. The honor roll pays tribute to 100 of America’s museum champions who have worked during the past century to innovate, expand, and improve how museums in the United States serve the public. Those honored were nominated by their peers and ultimately selected by a Centennial Honor Roll Committee.

Sullivan, 62, has been director of Historic St. Mary’s City since 1999. He held previous directorships at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, and at the New York State Museum. He is internationally known for leadership in the field of museum ethics and standards. Sullivan chairs the national accreditation commission of the American Association of Museums and has also chaired the President’s Advisory Committee on Cultural Property and the oversight board established by Congress to implement the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act.

Sullivan is an adjunct professor of history at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and was appointed a senior fellow of Harvard University’s Center for the Study of World Religions.  He holds a Ph.D. in American history from the University of Notre Dame.

Other honorees include Lonnie Bunch III, director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture and a member of the Historic St. Mary’s City Commission; Philippe de Montebello, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; and Alberta Sebolt George, retired director of Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. According to the American Association of Museums, the honorees, who are both living and deceased, “have helped make America’s museums places of discovery, inspiration, community, joy, and lifelong learning.”

Historic St. Mary’s City is a museum of history and archaeology on the site of Maryland’s first capital.

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