Administrator | National Gallery of Art | Washington, D.C.

Sheila McDaniel is currently the Administrator of the National Gallery of Art as of September 2020. As Administrator, McDaniel oversees the divisions of administrative support, architecture and capital improvement, facilities, horticulture, personnel, procurement, and security, which comprise more than one-third of the museum’s staff.

Since 2004, McDaniel has been the deputy director of finance and operations at The Studio Museum in Harlem. Her areas of expertise include change management, human resource development, nonprofit financial management, and organizational development. At The Studio Museum in Harlem, she is a member of the leadership team responsible for implementing the museum’s strategic plan and managing the construction of a new facility that spans 80,000 square feet. McDaniel previously served as the associate executive director for operations at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, where she was part of the team that opened Harvey Milk High School. McDaniel has also served as treasurer on several nonprofit boards, including those of ArtTable, Bronx Council on the Arts, and North Star Fund. McDaniel holds a master’s degree in public administration from Baruch College. A lifelong learner, she is pursuing a Doctor of Education in adult learning and leadership at Columbia University.

McDaniel spent several years in the corporate insurance industry after her studies in economics at Talladega College. In 1990, she relocated to New York from her hometown of Philadelphia. Committed to the idea of community service, she left corporate America and began working in the not-for-profit arena. McDaniel has more than twenty years of non-profit management experience, including senior positions in finance and operations. Her areas of expertise include strategic planning, budget development and analysis, change management implementation, fiscal management, and quality assurance.

McDaniel currently serves as board treasurer for the Bronx Arts Foundation, where she has been a member of the board since 2008. Additionally, she was a visiting professor in the Arts and Cultural Management program at Pratt Institute, providing students with invaluable knowledge about financial literacy, specifically the analytical skills necessary to manage earned and donated funds while also maintaining the integrity of the organization’s programming and services. McDaniel has also served as the associate executive director of operations at the Hetrick-Martin Institute, Inc., where she operated as the chief financial and operations officer and simultaneously managed an annual operating budget of over $5 million. In addition, McDaniel contributed to the leadership team responsible for the implementation of the agency’s strategic plan, which included the opening of Harvey Milk High School.