J. Kae Good Bear

J. Kae Good Bear (Diné [Navajo], Mandan, and Hidatsa) is part of the Arts & Culture team with the position of Program Associate.

J. Kae previously served as a Conservation Cultural Liaison at the Field Museum in Chicago. There, she worked to build relationships with over 40 Indigenous Tribal offices and organizations to promote the Mellon “Connecting Communities to Collections” Program. Previously, she served as a Conservation Technician on the Mellon-funded Native North American Hall renovation project, hosting numerous Native American collaborators. J. Kae facilitated collaborative care visits and knowledge exchanges between the Field Museum’s Anthropology department and Indigenous diplomats from the United States and Canada. She created culturally respectful workshops that uplift and prioritize Native partners, and worked on loans and undertook site visits to tribal institutions.

J. Kae helped create a fellowship program that trains emerging Native museum professionals and assisted in their supervision. She was part of the 2022-2023 UCLA Mellon “Opportunity for Diversity in Conservation” cohort, where her internship took her to the Alaska State Museum, Juneau, for ten weeks. Born and raised on the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona, J. Kae Good Bear is an artist who received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.