Robert Saarnio holds a master’s degree in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and is Director of the University of Mississippi Museum and Historic Houses. Prior museum employment includes Curator/Deputy Director/Director roles at the Peabody Essex Museum, Cranbrook Educational Community, Johns Hopkins University, Shangri La, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Honolulu Museum of Art. He was the National Endowment for the Arts Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome (2005-2006) and is an alumnus of the Getty Museum Leadership Institute.