Heather Arnet

Heather Arnet is the chief executive officer of the Heckscher Museum of Art in New York, a position she has held since 2022.

Previously, she served for 18 years as chief executive officer of the Women and Girls Foundation, where she worked to develop the female leaders of tomorrow while advancing women's rights today.

At the Foundation, Arnet helped pass twelve new state laws to advance women's rights. She led the Foundation's successful "Girlcott" against Abercrombie & Fitch, and it's "Zero No More" initiative to increase female representation on corporate boards. She was the writer/director of the documentary film “Madame Presidenta: Why Not U.S.?” which premiered on WQED/PBS in 2014. Through the film, Arnet, the great-granddaughter of a suffragette, explores how so many other countries have elected female presidents prior to the U.S. and what Americans can learn from our international sisters.

Arnet served on the board of directors of the Ms. Foundation for Women for nearly 10 years, the Johnson Institute for Responsible Leadership for 12 years, and the International Women's Funding Network and was a regular Op-Ed writer for Huffington Post, Daily Beast's Women in the World, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Arnet has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, ABC and CBS Nightly News.