Board appoints Rayanne Darensbourg as Chief Executive Officer
Darensbourg brings more than 20 years of experience in the non-profit and education sectors to her new role, including her most recent position as Chief Operating Officer of the Neuhaus Education Center. She succeeds Executive Director Tammie Kahn who will retire at the end of the month after 28 years of service.
Darensbourg, who is a Pearland resident, shares a rich and diverse background as do many Houstonians. She’s a mother, an immigrant and a first-generation college graduate. In 1980, her family migrated from Guyana to New Orleans where she grew up and received a Bachelor of Arts in Education from the University of New Orleans. She received her Master’s in Public Administration from Old Dominion University, a Certificate in Legislative Studies from Georgetown University and is a Senior Fellow of American Leadership Forum, Community Development Class 1.
Darensbourg earned her professional experience as a special education teacher, and she has managed and implemented programming for the Administration for Children and Families under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Children’s Cabinet under the Office of the Governor of the State of Louisiana. She and her husband moved to Houston in 2007 where she has served as Director of Development of the American Leadership Forum and the Director of Programs and Interim Executive Director of the Houston YWCA. Darensbourg will become the Museum’s first CEO of color and is strongly committed to furthering diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels of the organization and delivering on the Museum’s mission to transform communities through innovative, child-centered learning that improves the trajectories of all children.