Executive Director

Michael Hammond is the Executive Director of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs, California. Dr. Hammond assumed that position in August of 1999.

Prior to coming to California, he was the Executive Director of the Museum at Warm Springs in Oregon, another Native American Museum. He served in that position for eight years during the construction and fund-raising phase. Dr. Hammond was also the Director of Historic Old Salem, a restored Moravian community in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Dr. Hammond has a BA in history from Northwestern University and a Masters of Philosophy and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Anthropology from Columbia University. He has taught at various universities such as SUNY-Stony Brook, Duke University and Salem College.

He has over 30 publications and has served on the advisory board for the USS MONITOR and the Council for the American Association for State and Local history. He also served on the Advisory Board for the American Indian Museums Program of the American Association for State and Local History.

Dr. Hammond served as the Vice-president for the North Carolina Museums Council and was Chairman of the North Carolina Governor's Archaeological Council. He also served on the Faculty of the Seminar for Historical Administration for five years and been a National Endowment for the Humanities panelists for four years.

He is a member at large of the Western Museums Association Board of Directors He was awarded the Director's Chair Award from the Western Museums Association in 1998 and has been an invited speaker at numerous national and regional museum and professional society meetings.

Dr. Hammond resides in Palm Springs with his wife and twin daughters.