Board Members

Board PResident

Julia Pool 

Julia King Pool serves as president of the USFFM. Julia joined USFFM for the General Assembly in Washington, DC as the Young Friends Representative.  She has been an educator in the public school system for over a decade and committed to improving access to and enjoyment of young, future museum patrons. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a Master in Applied Positive Psychology, Julia is focused on continuing the legacy of US leadership within the WFFM with a focus on increasing well-being through the arts.

Education

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Master of Applied Positive Psychology , 2017

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
B.A., French & International Affairs, 2008

Museum Activities & Affiliations

• Smithsonian Fellow + Public School Partnership

Board Members

Nancy Barnum

Nancy Grinnell Barnum, the wife of John Barnum, is a current board member of the USFFM. She was born in New York City and graduated Smith College in 1954. She worked as a docent at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington D.C. for twenty years. Mrs Barnum also served as chairman of the Washington Performing Arts Society. She also worked as an independent art consultant until she and her husband moved to Brussels, Belgium in 1994. Mrs Barnum and husband, co-founded WEILS, one of the first dedicated contemporary art venues in Brussels. While in Brussels, Mrs Barnum was an active member of Femme d'Europe, an international women's organization supported by the European Union. 

Enid Hyde

Enid Griswold Hyde has been an officer and board member of USFFM for nearly 20 years and has been a member since the earliest days of its foundation.  She has organized a number of USFFM Regional Conferences ( U.S. Mexico and Canada) and has attended many WFFM Congresses in Europe and elsewhere.  Mrs. Hyde, who has lived for most of her life in the Washington, D.C. area, has served in every aspect of the museum volunteer world--at the National Gallery of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art and other museums, including several  historic house museums which specialize in decorative arts.  She was a professor of art history at the University of Virginia and Mt. Vernon College for 25 years.  She has also lectured at many museums around the country.  Mrs. Hyde founded the National Fine Arts Associates, running art tours around the U.S. for museum groups and universities.  Some years later, she established another art tour company to organize and conduct art tours all over the world.

Murray Tarnapoll

Murray Tarnapoll has been a trustee of the U.S. Federation of Friends of Museums since 200, has served as both the Vice President and President. Murray is a trustee of Queens Museum, having served on its board for over 30 years and holding such positions as Board President and Secretary. He is a Board Member and Treasurer of the Museum Trustee Association, a member of the Queens Traffic Safety Board, and a former trustee of teh Queens Botanical Garden.

He is founder and President of ATS Mechanical Contractors, Inc. in New York City. Previous to his professional life, Murray studied engineering at CCNY, served in the U.S. Army, and then obtained a BFA degree from Brooklyn College.

Rohini Battu, MD

Rohini Battu joined USFFM for the General Assembly in Washington, DC to welcome the Young Friends.  She is an anesthesiologist in Washington, DC at Kaiser Permanente. She is associated with the Hirshhorn, Smithsonian, and Kennedy Center. She is an advocate of the arts and interested in bringing mindfulness practices into the experience of art going.

PReVious Past PresiDent  

John Barnum

John Barnum was born in New York City in 1928 and worked from 1957 to 1971 at the New York law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he became a partner. He moved to Washington, DC in 1971 and served as general counsel and later as deputy secretary of the Department of Transportation. His work at DOT included deregulation of the airline and railroad industries and oversight of the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Barnum was instrumental in converting several bankrupt railroads into the freight carrier known as Conrail.

Following his work in government and a year at the American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Barnum worked as a partner in the Washington office of White & Case from 1978 to 1994. He then moved to Brussels, where he represented the government of Kazakhstan in matters of international arbitration. He returned to Washington in 2011 and retired two years later. Mr. Barnum served on the boards of Amtrak, the National Defense Transportation Association, the American Arbitration Association, Arena Stage and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He was also president of the U.S. Federation of Friends of Museums. 

PRevious Board member

Pamela Peabody

Pam has worked closely with the Corcoran Gallery of Art for many years. She is a documentary filmmaker of longstanding. She is President of PRP Productions, whose recent films have included, Robert Rauchenberg: Inventive Genius  and Edith Wharton: The Sense of Harmony.

Mary Sharp

Mary G. Sharp, from Maryland, was a homemaker and world traveler. In 1976, Mary set off alone on a trip around the world on behalf of the newly established World Federation of Friends of Museums. She had been a founder of the organization, and also served as its president and vice president. During the 1960s and 1970s, she was a member of the Baltimore Museum of Art’s Women’s Committee, she also served as president of the Museum Volunteers. She was a co-organizer in 1973 of the Volunteer Committee of Art Museums, which hosted a joint conference between the Baltimore Museum of Art and what is now The Walters Art Museum.