Executive Director, Los Altos History Museum
The Use and Misuse of Medieval History
Dr. Elizabeth Ward turned her childhood interest in her mother’s native homeland of Iceland into an academic career that has included a PhD from the Department of Scandanavian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Berkeley.
Holding also a Master’s Degree in Anthropology with a concentration in Museum Studies from George Washington University, Elizabeth began her career at the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History, where she served as Assistant Curator for the special millennial traveling exhibition, “Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga.”
Dr. Ward lived in Iceland from 2005 to 2011, where she served as Director of Programming for a museum focused on the Viking Age voyages to North America.
A native of California, Dr. Ward returned to the Bay Area in 2013, and she is currently the Executive Director of the Los Altos History Museum.