Duane King

Duane King was appointed Executive Director of Gilcrease Museum and Vice-President for Museum Affairs and Thomas Gilcrease Chair at the University of Tulsa in May, 2008. Previously, Dr. King served as Executive Director of the Southwest Museum of he Autry National Center in Los Angeles. Prior to joining the Southwest Museum in 1995, he served for five years as Assistant Director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian for the George Gustav Heye Center, in New York City. Dr. King has taught at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville and Chattanooga, Cleveland State College, Northeastern State University, and held the first endowed chair in Cherokee Studies at Western Carolina University.

Dr. King received his undergraduate degree from the University of Tennessee and his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Georgia. His Ph.D. dissertation was A Grammar and Dictionary of the Cherokee Language. He has authored more than one hundred publications on various aspects of Museum Studies and Native American culture and history.