Jo Lauria is an independent curator and an art and design historian. Formerly, she was a decorative arts curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, specializing in modern and contemporary decorative arts, craft, and design. She has published extensively, organized numerous exhibitions, and produced and directed multimedia presentations and documentary films. From 2007 through 2009, Lauria served as chief curator of the exhibition IN AMERICA: Expanding Traditions, a nationally touring show hosted by seven American museums. The exhibition complements the PBS documentary series, CRAFT IN AMERICA: Memory, Landscape, and Community. The companion book to the exhibition, Craft in America: Celebrating Two Centuries of Artists and Objects, was co-authored by Lauria and released in fall 2007. Lauria's exhibition, Masters of Mid-Century California Modernism: Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman, was on view at the Mingei International Museum, San Diego, from March 2009 through January 2010. Lauria was a Center exhibitions LOI panelist in 2013 and a panelist in 2010.