ROBERT "MAC" WEST

Robert “Mac” West is the principal of Informal Learning Experiences, Inc., a Washington, DC-based firm founded in 1992, which takes advantage of his extensive experience as a university professor, museum curator, museum director, and now consultant to informal learning organizations across North America and beyond. ILE is dedicated to helping informal learning organizations understand the environment in which they live, giving them the tools necessary for both intellectual and economic sustainability, and using their assets and opportunities to achieve the best outcomes for their communities and themselves.

Mac’s background is in science (he has a PhD in evolutionary biology from the University of Chicago). He taught at Adelphi University in New York; served as curator of geology at the Milwaukee Public Museum while also adjunct professor of geological sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; was director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History while also adjunct professor of geological sciences at the University of Pittsburgh; and was director of Cranbrook Institute of Science while also adjunct professor of anthropology at Oakland University.

In addition to ILE’s consulting work, it publishes the bimonthly newsletter The Informal Learning Review and maintains the ILE Traveling Exhibitions Database, the largest subscription web-based database of its type. Mac is a long-time member of the board of the National Center for Science Education and recently was elected to the board of the Visitor Studies Association. He presents regularly at conferences such as the Science Center World Congress, ECSITE, AAM, ASTC, and IAAPA.

Recent clients of ILE include the Department of Energy; Brookfield Zoo (Chicago); National Aquarium in Washington, DC; the cities of Brewer, Maine, and Rockville, Maryland; the Denver Museum of Nature and Science; the US Army Corps of Engineers; Miami Metrozoo; Museum of History and Industry, Seattle; and Buffalo Museum of Science.

Robert "Mac" West
Informal Learning Experiences, Inc.
PO Box 42328
Washington, DC 20015
202 362-5823 phone
202 362-3596 fax
202 345-4344 mobile
ile@informallearning.com
www.informallearning.com