Beatrice “Bea” Matkovic Mowry ’79, Exhibition Design Manager, Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum

Prior to starting her decades-long career with the Smithsonian, Bea was a research assistant for the Goddard Space Flight Center and served as a design intern with the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.  Since 1982, she has been with the National Air and Space Museum.  Originally working as an exhibit designer at Air and Space, Bea now chairs the Exhibits Design Department which is involved in many building projects, wayfinding signage and fundraising support for the D.C. museum location and the Udvar-Hazy Center, the museum’s annex at Dulles International Airport.  She handles budgets, serves as a consultant to senior leadership of the museum and ensures that spatial and visual elements of exhibitions and public spaces are compatible with the architecture of the buildings.  Her department is also currently overseeing the redesign of all of the exhibits and public spaces during a major renovation which is scheduled to be completed in 2025.  Bea supervises 13 people including design managers, exhibits media specialists, a writer/editor and an illustrator.  Bea was a Career Day panelist in 2010.

Education: 

• George Washington University: M.F.A., Visual Communications
• University of Maryland, College Park: B.S., Advertising Design