About Reba

I was born in Mississippi, and until I was ten, attended public schools in Mississippi and Tennessee. When I was in the fifth grade, my parents moved to the small town in North Carolina where my mother was born, and where her mother and sister lived. I earned my high school diploma at St. Mary’s, a private girls’ school in Raleigh, and my BA at Duke. When I was 21, I took a train to New York to seek my fortune. I’ve lived in New York City and Connecticut ever since, except for two years in Boston at graduate school.

I planned to make my living writing novels. But in New York, economic reality caught up with me, and I wrote about art, business and finance, because that’s what I could get into print, and what paid the rent. Along the way, I earned my MBA at Harvard, my MA in Art History at Hunter, my PhD in Art History at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and my MA in Fiction Writing at Antioch University.

I’ve written articles for American Artist, Art and Auction, Print Quarterly, Journal of the Print World, Print Collectors’ Newsletter, The South Magazine, The Tamarind Papers, Works on Paper, and many more magazines and newspapers. I’ve served on the Print Committees of The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, The Metropolitan Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, and The Whitney Museum. I’ve been a member of the Editorial Board of Print Quarterly, and I am an Honorary Keeper of American Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University. I’ve served as President of the New York City Art Commission, and Vice Chairman of the New York State Council on the Arts.

I’ve worked as a library assistant, researcher at a management consulting firm, a Wall Street securities analyst, and writer for Institutional Investor magazine and other financial publications. I’ve had a host of part-time jobs, from answering telephones to stuffing flyers in envelopes.

In December 2008, most of our collection—about 5000 prints—were donated to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., but we are still recognized as experts in the field. (For more about Dave and me as print collectors and scholars, see www.printresearchfoundation.org.) For details, see my resume, which follows.

Resume

Education:

High School: St. Mary's School, Raleigh, N.C.

College: Duke University, Durham, N.C., BA in English.

Graduate Studies:

Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration, MBA
Hunter College, MA, Art History. Thesis: Vasari on Prints
Graduate Center, CUNY, Ph.D., Art History. Major: American Painting and
Sculpture; Minor: American and European Prints, 19th and 20thCentury.
Dissertation: The Weyhe Gallery Between The Wars, 1919-40.
Antioch University Midwest, MA, Fiction Writing

Non-credit writing courses at The New School, Vermont College, etc., and on-line short courses in miscellaneous topics (e.g., book reviewing).

Work Experience:

2001-2011: Full time writing and research

1991-2001: Director of Special Projects, Alliance Capital Management Corporation; Member of Board of Directors, Alliance Capital Management.

Five years as Contributing Editor, Institutional Investor magazine. Freelance writer for other business periodicals and several art journals.

Five years as a securities analyst, Mitchell Hutchins, Inc., researching industries and corporations, and making stock recommendations.

Nine years at McKinsey & Company, Inc., in research functions, including assignments in London, and a consulting project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Nonprofit Activities and Affiliations:

Honorary Keeper of American Prints, The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, England.
Member, Council on Foreign Relations

Partial List of Previous Nonprofit Affiliations:

Vice-Chairman, New York State Council on the Arts, May 1999-May 2001.

Member, New York State Council on the Arts, July 1996-May 2001.

President, Art Commission of the City of New York.

Member, Committee on Prints and Illustrated Books, MoMA.

Member of the Board, Municipal Art Society.

Member, Committee on Prints, The Metropolitan Museum.

Member, Committee on Prints, Whitney Museum.

Member, Editorial Board, Print Quarterly

Writing Experience:

Articles in: American Artist, Business and Society, Chicago Daily News, Financial Analysts Journal, Institutional Investor, Journal of the Print World, Mystery Readers Journal, Print Collectors Newsletter, Print Quarterly, South Magazine, The Tamarind Papers, etc.

Awards:

2001 Gold Medal Award from The Spanish Institute (with Dave Williams), November 2001

Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship (with Dave Williams), October 2000.

2000 Woman of Distinction Award, for extraordinary professional accomplishments. New York State Senate, May 2000.

2000 Swan Award (with Dave Williams), lifetime achievement for furthering the arts both nationally and internationally, Cheekwood Museum, Nashville, Tennessee.

Pratt Institute, Pratt Legend, 2000.

1999 New York City Council Woman of Achievement Pacesetter Award.

Distinguished Cultural Leadership Award (with Dave Williams), for outstanding contributions to the arts and culture of the Empire State, February 10, 1999.

Primary School 164, Brooklyn, a culture and arts magnet school, for “Dedication and support of the arts in public school education,” June 11, 1998.

The Augustus Graham Medal (with Dave Williams), presented on behalf of the Brooklyn Museum of Art Board of Trustees, for “Outstanding support of the arts,” April 30, 1998.

The Polish Order of Merit, Cavalier of the Grand Cross of Poland, First Class (with Dave Williams), honoring contributions to the financial industry in Poland.

Bayard Rustin High School for the Humanities (with Dave Williams). Appreciation: “In helping to re-establish a very special environment, you have begun a renaissance which we hope continues until the school has regained its original beauty,” October 25, 1995.

Personal:

Married to Dave H. Williams.

Member, The Cosmopolitan Club (New York City).