LWV NEWS RELEASE

The League of Women Voters’ monthly community event, Lunch with a Leader, will be on Thursday, April 21, at noon via Zoom. Our leader will be Liz Martineau, the outgoing Executive Director of the Los Alamos Historical Society and Museum. Martineau grew up as an army “brat” developing a love of cultures from around the world. She landed in Los Alamos in 1986 and was enchanted by the natural landscape and deep history of the region. She received her undergraduate degree from Kansas State University and also has a master’s degree in Instructional Leadership.

Martineau spent the first part of her career teaching K-8 in Kansas, Espanola and Los Alamos. In 2005, she moved into the “informal” education of the museum world. She worked as an Education Specialist for the Bradbury Science Museum, where she operated the Science on Wheels education program, established the Science Ambassador program to train LANL scientists to communicate with the public, and started the Community Educators group.  Martineau was also the head of the founding group for a charter school for Los Alamos called Polaris that had hoped to open a middle school with different teaching methods. 

For the last three years, Martineau has led the Los Alamos Historical Society, where they are currently developing the interpretive plan and preparing to open the Oppenheimer House to the public. She even has stories about her recent work with the “Oppenheimer” movie crew! With her husband, Gordon McDonough, she owns the traveling MathAmuseum. They take their unique blend of science and art to schools and community festivals. She is a graduate of Leadership Los Alamos and has served on numerous non-profit boards and committees. Her 35 years in Los Alamos have been dedicated to education, community service, and community collaborations.