Curatorial Staff & Board of Trustees

Jessica Powers joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2006 and serves as Chief Curator and Gilbert M. Denman, Jr., Curator of Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World. She has curated Roman Landscapes: Visions of Nature and Myth from Rome and Pompeii (2023), 40 Years, 40 Stories: Treasures and New Discoveries from SAMA’s Collection (2021), and Antinous, the Emperor’s Beloved: Investigating a Roman Portrait (2017), as well as major reinstallations of SAMA’s Greek and Roman galleries. Her recent publications include the exhibition catalogue accompanying Roman Landscapes and several essays on the display of art in Roman houses and on Roman art in museums. She was the 2017-2018 Kress Foundation/AAMC Foundation Affiliated Fellow at the American Academy in Rome, and previously served on the Archaeological Institute of America's Museums and Exhibitions Committee. Powers holds a bachelor's degree in art and archaeology from Princeton University and a doctorate in classical archaeology from the University of Michigan. Before joining SAMA she held positions at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Princeton University Art Museum and the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology.

Dr. Regina Palm joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2022 as the Marie and Hugh Halff, Jr. Curatorial Fellow for American Art. Palm previously served as Curator of American Paintings at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, where she curated and authored the catalogue for The Stebbins Collection: A Gift for the Morse Museum. She has served as the Associate Curator of American Art at the San Diego Museum of Art as well as Curatorial Associate at the Kimbell Art Museum, where she authored the exhibition catalogue The Collection of Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass. Palm has also served as Curatorial Research Assistant at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art and the Cincinnati Art Museum. She received her bachelor’s in art history from California State University, Chico, her master’s in art history from San Jose State University, and her PhD in the history of art from the University of London. Palm’s research has appeared in the Journal of Design History, Women’s History Review, and other publications. One of her first major projects at the Museum will be to serve as the presenting curator for American Made: Paintings and Sculpture from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection. 

Shawn Yuan joined the Museum in 2017 and currently serves as the Associate Curator of Asian Art. He has previously worked as the Curator at the Crow Museum of Asian Art in Dallas and as the Curator of Exhibitions at the Oklahoma State University of Museum of Art. He curated several exhibitions, including Exquisite Adornment: Turkmen and Miao Jewelry from the Elizabeth and Robert Lende Collection; Elegant Pursuits: The Arts of China’s Educated Elite, 1400–1900; Texas Collects Asia; Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Maxwell Collection; and Tending the Afterlife: Chinese Tomb Art from Neolithic Period to the Ming Dynasty. Mr. Yuan published articles on Chinese jade, Ming dynasty imperial ceramics, and Chinese export porcelains. He was on the steering committee for the China Program at the American Alliances of Museums from 2012 to 2015, the largest annual U.S.-China museum exchange program. He was the project consultant for the 2014 American Federation of Arts in organizing Meeting the West: Forum for U.S. and Chinese Museums in Nanjing, China, and for the 2016 U.S.-China Museum Summit in New York City. Mr. Yuan studied art history in the doctoral program at Brown University and arts management at Carnegie Mellon University.

Lana Meador joined the curatorial department in May 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from The University of Texas at Austin and master’s degree in Art History from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where she concentrated on contemporary art. Prior to her position at the San Antonio Museum of Art, Ms. Meador held the Semmes Foundation Internship in Museum Studies at the McNay Art Museum (San Antonio, TX) and contributed to the e-publications French & Michigan and …might be good. At SAMA, Ms. Meador was co-curator of the exhibitions Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art (2017) and Intercambios: Modernist Photography in Mexico from the Permanent Collection (2017); curator of Marilyn Lanfear: Material Memory (2018); and co-curator of Capturing the Moment: Photographs from the Marie Brenner and Ernest Pomerantz Collection (2019) and Texas Women: A New History of Abstract Art (2020).

Lynley McAlpine joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in 2017 as the Association of Art Museum Directors/Kress Foundation Fellow for Provenance Research. She currently serves as Postdoctoral Curatorial Fellow, continuing to research the history of the Museum's Art of the Ancient Mediterranean World collection. Before joining the SAMA, Dr. McAlpine held positions at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, where she was the postdoctoral fellow in Roman archaeology and curatorial assistant for the exhibition Leisure and Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis Near Pompeii. She has published articles on painting from Pompeii and exotic marble in ancient Roman architecture. Dr. McAlpine holds a doctorate in classical art and archaeology from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Marion Oettinger Jr is a cultural anthropologist and art historian who specializes in Latin American art and culture. Between 2005 and 2011, he served as the Kelso Director of San Antonio Museum of Art, and returned to his previous position of Curator of Latin American Art in 2011. He is the author of numerous books and articles and has lectured widely throughout the United States, Europe and Latin America. His most recent books include the schlolarly catalogue for his 2018 exhibition San Antonio 1718: Art from Mexico;  Folk Treasures of Mexico: The Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection (2010); Retratos: 2000 Years of Latin American Portraits (2004); and The Folk Art of Spain and the Americas: El Alma del Pueblo (1992). Oettinger has taught at Cornell University, Occidental College, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been the recipient of Fulbright, NEH, NEA, National Geographic Society, and American Philosophical Society grants. In 2010, Oettinger received the Van Deren Coke Lifetime Achievement Award in Spanish Colonial Art and Folk Art. In 2018 he became Curator Emeritus of Latin American Art. Dr. Oettinger retired in June 2018.

Dr. Emily J. Sano joined the San Antonio Museum of Art in January 2016 as the Coates-Cowden-Brown Senior Advisor for Asian Art. Previously, she served as director of the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and presided over the planning, design, and construction that moved the Asian Art Museum from Golden Gate Park to the Civic Center. Prior to San Francisco, she was the Deputy Director and Chief Curator of Non-Western Art at the Dallas Museum of Art. She took her first museum post in 1979 at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.
In 2008, Dr. Sano received the Order of the Rising Sun, Golden Rays, and Neck Ribbon, bestowed by the Japanese Government for outstanding work in promoting the arts and culture of Japan. For the past eight years she has served on the selection committee for the Luce Scholars Abroad program and has served since 2007 on the Board of Directors for the Japanese Art Society of America. Dr. Sano guides the work of the Asian Department in reinstallations and exhibits, including the outstanding 2017 exhibition Heaven and Hell: Salvation and Retribution in Pure Land Buddhism. Dr. Sano retired in March 2024.