Melissa McDonnell Luján

Melissa McDonnell Luján is a museum professional with over 15 years of experience planning and managing capital and site-specific artist projects and leading operations activities for cultural organizations and private developers.

Luján was most recently the Director of Project Development at the Menil Collection, where she led capital projects and real estate development for the 30-acre urban museum campus since 2014. In addition to her work at the Menil, Luján has served as the treasurer on the board of Gulf Coast: Journal of Literature and Fine Arts at the University of Houston since 2016. From 2011 to 2014, Luján was Deputy Director and a project manager for Ballroom Marfa, a non-collecting contemporary art museum in Marfa, Texas. While living in Marfa, Luján was an instructor at the Texas Tech University College of Architecture El Paso and served on the boards of El Paso Opera, Amor Por Juárez, Marfa Montessori, and Marfa Public Library. Before working in museums, Luján spent ten years in private design practice, including residential and small multi-family architecture, landscape, and retail design in Texas, California, Japan, and New York.

Luján has a Master of Architecture from Rice University School of Architecture in Houston, an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Spatial Arts and Design from Central Saint Martins in London, and an Associate of Applied Science in Retail and Exhibition Design from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.