Nancy Walsh

Nancy Walsh is the Chief Operating Officer at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where she leads the vision and strategy across guest experiences, operations and strategic partnerships with a focus on creativity, access and innovation.

Walsh champions the Museum’s strategic initiative to reimagine and expand its beloved Gems & Minerals exhibition. She founded and led the “No Walls” initiative, which redefined access and engagement with science and nature -- meeting the community where they are, in their neighborhoods and spaces far beyond the Museum’s walls. She was a driving force behind the successful opening and programming of the Morgridge Family Exploration Center, a major expansion that transformed the guest experience.

Nancy brings experience from leadership roles at the Virginia Aquarium, the Bell Museum of Natural History, as well as experience in the Science Division at The Field Museum. She is passionate about fostering vibrant local communities and expanding access to science, technology, engineering, arts and math.

She currently serves on the board of the Denver Public Schools Foundation and is Board Chair at the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. Her previous board service includes the Art Students League of Denver and CherryArts, and she was a mayoral appointee on the Denver Commission on Cultural Affairs. Nancy is a member of the International Women’s Forum of Denver, a Colorado Women’s Chamber 2024 Top 25 Most Powerful Women in Business awardee, and an alumna of Leadership Denver.

She holds a Master’s degree in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chicago and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Earlham College.