SYCAMORE – The Midwest Museum of Natural History will be getting a new executive director Saturday.

Jessica Landau, who lives in Brookfield and will be commuting to Sycamore, has been selected as the museum’s new executive director. The announcement comes after the previous director accepted a job in Washington, D.C., in April.

Landau comes in with more than

10 years of museum experience – which includes fundraising, educational programming and curatorial work – and her last day as lead instructor at the Wildwood Nature Center in Park Ridge is Friday. She also curated several exhibits as the associate curator at the Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming.

What attracted Landau to the Sycamore museum was its “impressive collection,” and not only because of the museum’s size, she said.

“Even just the outside of the building, I immediately fell in love with it,” Landau said.

Landau received her master’s degree from the University of Glasgow, where she examined taxidermy in the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Her knowledge specialties include natural history and the way animals are depicted in images and objects.

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While executive director at the museum, Landau will continue her doctoral studies in art history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

She said she looks forward to combining her experience as curator, educator and fundraiser in her time as executive director.

“I’m just really excited and looking forward to getting to know Sycamore and the museum and the greater DeKalb area, as well,” Landau said.

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