Rachel Goslins

With over 25 years experience in the cultural sector, creative industries, social impact and law, Rachel Goslins is the Director of the Arts & Industries Building at the Smithsonian Institution. In that capacity she is responsible for all aspects of developing and implementing plans to re-open the building, closed to the public for over a decade, as a space to explore creativity, innovation and the future. Prior to that, she served as Executive Director of the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, an advisory committee to President Obama on cultural policy, from 2009 until late 2015. Under her management, the Committee launched several major national initiatives in education and cultural diplomacy, facilitated significant federal and private funding for arts and humanities programs across the country, and spearheaded a successful campaign to use high-profile artists, actors and musicians as advocates for arts education. Earlier in her career, Rachel founded a documentary production company, directing feature documentaries and working on productions for PBS, the Discovery Channel, the National Geographic Channel, and History. She also served as the Director of the Independent Digital Distribution Lab, a joint PBS/ITVS project. Before working in the arts, Rachel was an international copyright attorney with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and the U.S. Copyright Office. Rachel received her B.A. in English Literature from UC Santa Cruz and her J.D. from UCLA's School of Law. She is a Trustee for the Greater Washington Community Foundation, an Advisory Board Member of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Richmond, VA, a 2012 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute and serves on the Advisory Committee for the Halcyon Incubator