Mashantucket Pequot museum's executive director resigns
Mashantucket — Less than two years after he took the job, the executive director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center has resigned.
Joe Baker resigned last week, a Mashantucket Pequot spokeswoman, Lori Potter, confirmed Monday. Baker, whose last day was Friday, left "to pursue an opportunity with his Tribe,” Potter said.
Baker is an enrolled member of the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Bartlesville, Okla. He did not respond to a phone message requesting comment on his resignation.
During Baker’s tenure, the Mashantucket Pequot museum was closed for 14 months amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It reopened in May.
Before taking the Mashantucket Pequot museum job, Baker, an artist, was executive director of the Palos Verdes Art Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif., for six years, and co-founded and serves as executive director of the Lenape Center, a Manhattan-based organization dedicated to the promotion of Lenape language and culture.
The Mashantucket Pequot museum had been without a permanent executive director for 21 months when Baker was named to the post in October 2019. Jason Mancini, the previous executive director, resigned in 2017 and is now executive director of Connecticut Humanities, a Middletown-based nonprofit.
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