Administrative Departments
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity
Directors Office
The Director, Douglas S. Jones, is the chief executive officer for the museum, overseeing museum planning and policy, exhibits and public programs, budgets, personnel, development, and infrastructure in consultation with the Administrative Committee (AC). AC members include Douglas Noble, Assistant Director for Exhibits and Public Programs; Scott K. Robinson, Assistant Director for Research and Collections and Chair of the Department of Natural History; Thomas C. Emmel, Director of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity; Betty Dunckel, Director of the Center for Informal Science Education; Beverly Sensbach, Director of Development; and Paul Ramey, Director of Marketing and Public Relations.
The Director's Office is located in Dickinson Hall. In addition to the director, the associate director for operations and their executive assistant (Sharon Thomas), the Office of Budget and Human Resources and the Office of Museum Technology are also located here. The staffs of these units, however, serve the entire museum.
The director of the museum serves on the Administrative Council of the University of Florida. The director reports to the provost as delegated by the president. For external affairs, the director works with the President's Office and the Vice President for Development and Alumni Affairs. The director works closely with the Board of the Florida Museum Associates, a fundraising and membership support group.
For more information about museum programs and policies, contact:
Dr. Douglas Jones, Director
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida--Dickinson Hall
PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 273-1939
Fax: (352) 392-8783
E-mail: dsjones@flmnh.ufl.edu
Ms. Sharon Thomas, Executive Secretary
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida-Dickinson Hall
PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 273-1901
Fax: (352) 392-8783
E-mail: sthomas@flmnh.ufl.edu
Mr. Paul Ramey, Assistant Director, Marketing and Public Relations
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2054
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: pramey@flmnh.ufl.edu
Exhibits and Public Programs (EPP)
The Florida Museum of Natural History's Education and Exhibition Center is located at the UF Cultural Plaza at SW 34th Street and Hull Road. The Exhibits and Public Programs administrative offices are located here in addition to Marketing and Public Relations, the Center for Informal Science Education, Development, Security and Visitor Services.
Museum visitors may enjoy hundreds of exotic butterflies in a rainforest setting, witness a South Florida Calusa Indian welcoming ceremony, experience a life-sized limestone cave and see a mammoth and mastodon from the last Ice Age.
Permanent exhibits include Northwest Florida: Waterways and Wildlife, South Florida People and Environments, Hall of Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land, and the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, which features the screened, outdoor Butterfly Rainforest exhibit with hundreds of live butterflies. The Museum also displays a diverse array of temporary and traveling exhibitions.
The Florida Museum's artisans, technicians and educators interpret Florida's rich environment and cultural diversity through exhibits and educational programs. Always using the most current information, Exhibits and Public Programs designs exhibits, plans classes, organizes special programs and prepares educational materials that reach visitors from across the state and nation. The department also presents the natural history and culture of Florida and the Caribbean and trains Museum docents to lead guided tours.
For more information about Exhibits and Public Programs, contact:
Dr. Douglas Noble, Assistant Director for Exhibits and Public Programs
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2052
Fax: (352) 846-0253
Email: dnoble@flmnh.ufl.edu
Ms. Charlene Smith, Office Manager
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2050
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: cosmith@flmnh.ufl.edu
Ms. Katherine Gerard, Administrative Program Assistant
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2029
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: kgerard@flmnh.ufl.edu
Exhibits:
Ms. Darcie MacMahon, Program Director for Exhibits
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2053
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: dmacmahon@flmnh.ufl.edu
Mr. Thomas Kyne, Traveling Exhibits Coordinator
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2077
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: kyne@flmnh.ufl.edu
Education:
Ms. Jamie Creola, Program Director for Education
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2057
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: jcreola@flmnh.ufl.edu
Dr. Betty Dunckel, Director of the Center for Informal Science Education
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2088
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: bdunckel@flmnh.ufl.edu
Development:
Ms. Beverly Sensbach, Director of Development
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2086
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: sensbach@flmnh.ufl.edu
Membership:
Ms. Leslie Campbell, Membership
Florida Museum of Natural History
UF Cultural Plaza
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2047
Fax: (352) 846-0253
E-mail: lcampbell@flmnh.ufl.edu
Department of Natural History
In July 1999, the museum's departments of Anthropology, Interpretation, and Natural Sciences merged to create the Department of Natural History. The department's faculty curators, or professors, and full-time staff are responsible for increasing and managing the state's natural history collections. Faculty members are tenured in the museum and teach courses and supervise students through eight University of Florida academic departments.
The department's mission is to investigate and interpret human cultures and the natural world. This includes documenting, preserving and interpreting a systematic record of biodiversity, past and present; educating students and others about the natural world; and sharing expertise, collections, and information with colleagues, students and the public. Although worldwide in scope, our collections emphasize Florida, the Southeastern United States and the Caribbean and form the basis for exhibits and public programs in Powell and McGuire Halls.
In southwest Florida the department operates the Randell Research Center at Pineland, a research and educational outreach program of the museum. Located on 50+ acres in coastal Lee County, the site offers interpretive walking trails through Calusa archaeological features, public archaeology, a teaching classroom, bookstore, research facilities and more. Closer to Gainesville in Putnam County, the department participates in the staffing and programs of the Ordway Swisher Biological Station.
For more information about the Department of Natural History or Research and Collections, contact:
Dr. David W. Steadman, Associate Director for Research and Collections and Chair
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida-Dickinson Hall
PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 273-1940
Fax: (352) 846-0287
E-mail: dws@flmnh.ufl.edu
Ms. Pam Dennis, Sr. Secretary
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida-Dickinson Hall
PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 273-1941
Fax: (352) 846-0287
E-mail: pamd@flmnh.ufl.edu
Randell Research Center:
Dr. William H. Marquardt, Curator
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida-Dickinson Hall
PO Box 117800
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800
Tel: (352) 273-1917
Fax: (352) 846-0287
E-mail: bilmarq@flmnh.ufl.edu
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity
McGuire Hall is home to the curators and collection staff of our sizable Lepidoptera collection, plus the administrative office of the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. The Center is devoted to collections-based research, public education and a living butterfly vivarium. The collections, including those once located in the Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, total over two million specimens. The Lepidoptera research facilities are among the finest in the world. Visitors can explore the "Wall of Wings", which reaches nearly three stories high and 200 feet long, containing thousands of images and actual Lepidoptera specimens, information panels, videos and maps. The Center also features a 6,400-square-foot Butterfly Rainforest exhibit, a screened enclosure of lush subtropical and tropical trees and plants that supports hundreds of living butterflies and moths from all corners of the globe with waterfalls and a walking trail.
For more information about the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, contact:
Dr. Thomas C. Emmel, Center Director
McGuire Center for Lepidoptera & Biodiversity
University of Florida-McGuire Hall
PO Box 112710
Gainesville, FL 32611-2710
Tel: (352) 273-2005
Fax: (352) 392-0479
E-mail: tcemmel@flmnh.ufl.edu