Elizabeth Broun is responsible for the nation's premier collection of American art, as well as major exhibition, research, publication, education and new media programs.

During Broun's tenure, the museum has become a leader in providing electronic resources to schools and the public, and in developing a national education program. In addition, Broun conceived and secured funding for many of the museum's core programs and new public spaces—a conservation center, an art storage and study center, and an auditorium—in the museum's main building, a magnificently renovated National Historic Landmark located in the heart of a revitalized downtown cultural district.

The innovative Lunder Conservation Center is the first art conservation facility that allows the public permanent behind-the-scenes views of the preservation work of museums. The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is the only visible art storage and study center in Washington. The Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, a 346-seat space equipped with a state-of the art sound system, is the first such facility for the museum.

Broun lectures extensively across the United States. Her research interests include contemporary art, 19th-century art, and prints and drawings. Her 1989 exhibition catalogue on Albert Pinkham Ryder won the prestigious Alfred H. Barr Award for Distinguished Scholarship. She also has curated exhibitions and published on the art of Thomas Hart Benton, Stuart Davis, Childe Hassam, Patrick Ireland, Pat Steir and James McNeill Whistler.

Broun came to Washington in 1983 as chief curator and assistant director of the museum, following seven years as a curator and interim director at the Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas in Lawrence. She has served as director of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, since August 1989.

Broun earned a doctorate degree (1976) in art history at the University of Kansas for her work on American art exhibited at the 1893 Chicago's World's Fair. She also holds a Certificate of Advanced Study from the University of Bordeaux, France.

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