Arizona State Museum Names New Director

March 8, 2013

In the midst of its 120th year, Arizona State Museum (ASM) has named Patrick D. Lyons, Ph.D. as its new director. Lyons, an archaeologist, is ASM’s seventh director since its founding by the territorial legislature in 1893.

Lyons replaces Dr. Beth Grindell who was named director following the death of Hartman H. Lomawaima in 2008, pending a national search. Lyons will assume the directorship on June 1, 2013.

“We had an impressive group of highly qualified applicants,” said Dr. Nancy Odegaard, ASM’s head of preservation and chair of the search committee. “Dr. Lyons was our top choice in terms of scholarly credentials in the Southwest, administrative experience in a university museum, leadership involvement with repatriation, and overall strength of character. Dr. Lyons has a genuine reverence for ASM and he has proposed an energetic and ambitious vision for the museum’s future.”

Dr. Leslie Tolbert, senior vice president for research at the University of Arizona, said, “I thank the search committee for their exemplary job in identifying very strong candidates for this position. I am thrilled that Dr. Lyons rose to the top and has agreed to become Arizona State Museum’s next director. He brings great expertise and passion to the position and will be an extraordinary leader for this gem of a museum as it extends its reach in research, education, and outreach to the community.”

Lyons has been serving as head of collections at Arizona State Museum since 2006 and as associate director since 2009. Previous to his work at the museum, Lyons was a preservation archaeologist at Archaeology Southwest (previously known as Center for Desert Archaeology) in Tucson. Lyons is best known for his fieldwork and research on the Salado phenomenon in the San Pedro River Valley in southeastern Arizona, and for his research on the collections housed at Arizona State Museum. Among his long list of publications, Lyons is co-editor and contributing author of Migrants and Mounds: Classic Period Archaeology of the Lower San Pedro Valley (Archaeology Southwest, 2012), a magnum opus which synthesizes the results of fieldwork and related analyses on the Salado archaeological pattern.

“Arizona State Museum is the preeminent institution engaged in the anthropology and history of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Our superlatives abound,” said Lyons. “We have the leaders in all areas of southwestern anthropology, sought after the world over for their expertise. Our collections are unparalleled, accessed continuously through tours, research, teaching, and exhibits. This is where groundbreaking research is conducted and this is where visitors have authentic, life-enriching encounters through our public programs.”

Lyons brings passion, vision, ambition, and strategic orientation to ASM. As director, Lyons will be responsible for ensuring the long-term financial health of the institution; for positioning it as an integral participant in the community; for energizing relationships with the museum’s diverse constituencies; and for setting a unified and ambitious strategic vision for the museum’s multifaceted pursuits, which include state mandated responsibilities, research, teaching, collections management, preservation, public service, public programs, and exhibitions.

“I want ASM to become as relevant to the larger community as it is and has been to researchers, academics, students, professional archaeologists, tribal governments, and state and federal agencies,” declared Lyons. “I embrace the museum’s many opportunities and challenges in order to make that happen. Through focus and unification, and with the help of our members, friends, and community partners, Arizona State Museum’s future is as vibrant as its past is storied.”

About Arizona State Museum

Established by the territorial legislature in 1893, Arizona State Museum is the oldest and largest anthropology museum in the region, focusing on the indigenous cultures of Arizona, the American Southwest, and northern Mexico.

Though on the campus of the University of Arizona and serving the campus community as its anthropology museum, ASM is a separate state institution with its own set of legislatively mandated functions. ASM is the state’s permitting agency for archaeological projects across the state and administers the Arizona Antiquities Act, assisting state and federal agencies in enforcing related legislation and repatriation.

The museum’s seminal field research in the early 20th century is the foundation on which the very discipline of Southwest anthropology sits.

The museum’s laboratory research sets worldwide standards in object preservation.

The museum’s collections research continues to inform the world about the ancient, historic, and present-day cultures of the region.

The museum’s award-winning and nationally recognized exhibits and public programs celebrate the vibrant and enduring cultures of the region with international audiences.

As the state’s manager of archaeological collections, its repository is the largest and busiest state-run facility in the country.

The museum is a national model in working with tribal leadership under NAGPRA, to repatriate items of cultural heritage, having respectfully returned or reinterred thousands of sets of human remains, funerary objects, and sacred items.

As it cares for millions of artifacts in perpetuity, the museum is home to the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of Southwest Indian pottery and American Indian basketry -- both collections designated American Treasures.

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