Claudine K. Brown

Claudine K. Brown (1949 – March 17, 2016) was an American museum director and educator and nonprofit executive. She was best known for her work at the Smithsonian Institution, where she was Director of Education, responsible for directing its work to help educate K-12 students. She was also a specialist in African-American history.

Brown shared her career perspective in a 2011 panel session entitled "Access and Inclusivity in the Museum".

At the Smithsonian, Brown served as the first Director for Education, with the formal title of Assistant Secretary for Education and Access. In her previous tenure at the Smithsonian during the 1990s, Ms. Brown had worked at the Smithsonian as director of the National African-American Museum Project, which was to become the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and became the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Arts and Humanities for the Institution.

Brown began her museum career as an educator in 1977 at the Brooklyn Museum, thanks to arts employment under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA), which supported many cultural institutions. She advanced to become "manager of school and community programs (1982-1984), and then assistant director for government and community relations (1985-1990) for that institution," then becoming Deputy Assistant Secretary at the Smithsonian. She left the Smithsonian following the mid-1990s failure of a project to establish a National Museum of African American History as a result of political opposition led by Jesse Helms.