Joy Tahan Ruddell has over twenty years of collections and registration experience. Prior to independent consulting, Joy coordinated the registration department at the Oakland Museum of California which included insurance, loans, acquisitions, collections access and research, policy and procedure development and management, and intellectual property management. Working with staff museum-wide she developed programs that helped the community engage with collections. Joy has extensive experience with major collections projects including: inventories, collections moves, project management, acquisition and deaccession activities, NAGPRA projects, grant writing, insurance and risk management, and loan processing and organization.

She is Alum of the John F. Kennedy Museum Studies Program and served as Adjunct Faculty teaching collections management courses. She continues working with emerging registrars and collections professionals. She serves on the California Associations of Museums (CAM) board and is a founding board member of the Bay Area Registrars and Collections Specialists (BARCS) professional development group.

Joy’s current interest is helping influence the field of collections management and registration to create a more accessible, visitor friendly environment. Her work promotes museum-wide collaborations and encourages institutions to create policies that allow for more community engagement initiatives making collections accessible to the communities that they serve.