Rebecca West
Executive Director & Chief Executive Officer
Rebecca West is the Executive Director and CEO of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Located in Cody, Wyoming, the Center has a 107-year history as an organization founded within the heart of the American West. Rebecca leads a team of 67 full time and 120 seasonal staff and works closely with the Board of Trustees and seven Advisory Boards. Her passion lies in sharing the many facets of the West through collections, research, programming and outreach, and community engagement. Rebecca is dedicated to sharing the diverse histories and contemporary significance of the American West to audiences worldwide.
At the Center, she previously served as Curator of Plains Indian Cultures and the Plains Indian Museum, as well as the Collier-Read Director of Curatorial, Education, and Museum Services. She works with the people, objects, ideas, and programs that define the Plains Indian Museum.
In her role she welcomes the challenges of fundraising, strategic growth initiatives and planning, and the development of captivating exhibitions and programs that define the Center’s impact. With over 30 years of experience in the museum profession, she gained the foundations of non-profit museum work through experience in collections management, curatorial research and publications, project management and museum administration. She has had the privilege of contributing to and creating nearly twenty exhibitions and multiple museum renovations. She has taken part in successful capital campaigns, including the 14.5 million Legacy Challenge that ends June 12, 2024. She was recently appointed to the Wyoming Governor’s Task Force for America’s 250th commemoration.
Her academic background includes a BA in Art History from Dartmouth College, and a Master’s in Native Art from The College of Liberal Studies at the University of Oklahoma. As the first female Director of the Center and a working mother throughout her career, Rebecca actively mentors museum professionals to support balanced growth in their academic pursuits and careers.
