Lynne Munson

Founder and CEO Emerita Lynne Munson launched Great Minds® in 2007 as a research and advocacy organization in pursuit of a high-quality, content-rich liberal arts education for all K–12 students. Before starting Great Minds, Lynne served as deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2001–2005, overseeing agency operations. Lynne was the architect of “Picturing America,” which put more than 75,000 sets of fine art images and teaching guides into libraries, K–12 classrooms, and Head Start centers. In 2005, Lynne led the first post-conflict US government delegation to Afghanistan to address issues of cultural reconstruction. In 2004, she represented the United States at UNESCO meetings in Australia and Japan, where she helped to negotiate guidelines for cross-border higher education.

Lynne was previously a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where she wrote Exhibitionism: Art in an Era of Intolerance (Ivan R. Dee, 2000), a book examining the evolution of art institutions and art education. Lynne has written on education, the arts, and contemporary cultural issues for numerous publications and is frequently interviewed by print and broadcast outlets. She testified before Congress on research she led around rising tuition and the growth of college and university endowments. Her degree in art history is from Northwestern University. Lynne lives with her family in Midlothian, VA.