President, American Association of Museums
Ford W. Bell, DVM
Ford W. Bell began his tenure as president of the American Association of Museums in June 2007. He brings to AAM a lifelong passion for museums, and a clear understanding of the important role which museums play as places of lifelong learning and inspiration. Bell has a longstanding relationship with the museum community. He helped raise $103 million as co-chair of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts’ “Bring Art to Life” capital campaign, completed in 2006 and he served as chair of the organization’s board from 2003 to 2005. His grandfather, James Ford Bell, was a leading supporter of the Institute, and also of the Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota, renamed in his honor in 1966. Ford Bell served on the Advisory Board of the Bell Museum from 1983 to 2007. A board-certified veterinary oncologist, Bell credits his many childhood visits to the Bell Museum with fostering a lifelong love of nature and science.
Bell has more than 30 years experience as a nonprofit executive, board chair, donor, trustee and educator. A candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2006, he was president and CEO of the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation, a prominent clinical cardiovascular research organization and a nationally recognized provider of community heart health education.
From 1982 to 1995, Bell served on the staff of the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where he taught and did clinical research in comparative oncology. He has advocated for science learning, conservation and community health initiatives through his affiliation with a wide range of organizations, including Project EarthSense and the JASON Advisory Committee, a public-private elementary and secondary school science education initiative. He served as trustee and elder at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, and co-chaired that institution’s $16 million capital campaign. From 1993 to 2007, he served as chair of the James Ford Bell Foundation. An educator for much of his career, Bell also served as a trustee of Connecticut College in New London, Conn. from 1998 to 2007.
A native Minnesotan, Bell is married and has four children. He lives in Potomac, Md.
