Next week Cheri Brown will become the new operations manager at the John Wesley Powell Museum. She will replace Billie Wright who has served as the museum’s executive director for the last three and half years.
Wright also works as a real estate agent and she’s leaving the museum because her real estate business has increased dramatically in the last few months, enough so that she no longer has time to do both jobs.
“I had the busiest March [in real estate] I’ve had in six years,” said Wright.
Most of Page knows Brown from her former job at the Family Bargain Center.
Though Brown isn’t scheduled to officially take over for Wright until next week, she’s been learning her new job and getting oriented for the last few weeks.

“She’s doing a fabulous job and will be a great fit,” said Wright.
Brown learned of the opening at the Powell Museum through a serendipitous meeting at the job fair, hosted by Coconino Community College and the Page Public Library a few weeks ago.
“I was looking for a new direction in my life, so decided to wander through the job fair and see if any jobs appealed to me,” said Brown.
While there she ran into Wright who was at the job fair on behalf of the Powell Museum. The museum board hadn’t made public that they were looking for a new operations manager, but when Wright learned that Brown was considering a change of careers she encouraged Brown to think about taking over for her.
“It was an easy decision,” said Wright. “She already had everything we were looking for in a new manager.”
Brown grew up in Wichita, Kansas, and spent most of her life there. She got married in 2009 to a man who was a full-time missionary on the Navajo Nation and in 2010 she moved out here to join him. They now live in Big Water.
Brown said she’s enjoying her new position so far and looking forward to increasing her knowledge about the history of Page and the history of John Wesley Powell.
Brown takes over at the Powell Museum at a very important time in its history. Next year is the sesquicentennial, or 150th anniversary of Powell’s first expedition mapping the canyons of the Green and Colorado Rivers and it’s also the 50th anniversary of the Powell Museum itself.