CEO and founding partner of THREAD and Director of Visual Arts for the non-profit THREAD for ART, Rhonda Howard is a nationally-recognized arts professional and business entrepreneur with over fifteen years of experience in the art and design field. 

As a former art museum curator, Howard has held important positions at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the university art museum at the University of Southern California and most recently at Seattle’s contemporary art museum — the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery.  She has taught art history, painting seminars, business, and professional development classes at the UW, USC and Artist Trust and published a number of books including Shifting Ground: Transformed Views of the American Landscape, Fashion is Art, and LAVA 2002: Contemporary Art in Seattle.  Howard speaks regularly to professional associations on a variety of subjects including art, design and entrepreneurial issues and sits on panels, advisory boards, and juries for prestigious organizations around the country.

Capitalizing on her BS in Business Administration, BA in Art History, and MA in Art History and Museum Studies, as well as her experience in the non-profit and corporate sectors, Howard has successfully merged her art and business skills to benefit THREAD's clients.  She has directed hundreds of projects with diverse teams as small as 2 and as large as 114, budgets from $500 to several millions, vendors who deal in cryogenic sperm banks and vacuum-formed plastic, and subjects ranging from aerospace to children.  

As Chief Innovation Officer and Director of Design for Thread, Rebecca Richards leads and oversees all creative efforts within the design arm of Thread.

Her first decade in the industry brought awards from Graphis, Print, The Black Book AR100, the American Association of Museums, the Seattle Show, and others.

Recently, her design experience has expanded to include product design. Working in collaboration with contemporary fine artists, she's created a line of THREAD products which includes housewares, papergoods, wearables, and accessories.

As Co-founder of Thread for Art, Richards' responsibilities include designing and self-publishing museum calibre publications. Publications to date include Lava 2002: Contemporary Art in Seattle, Robert Yoder: Abfall, and Fashion is Art, all of which have received national and/or international design accolades.

Prior to Thread, Richards gained experience in both the corporate and non-profit sectors. Her experience ranges from producing annual reports for Fortune 500 companies to single-handedly generating all creative materials for a large non-profit arts institution.

A native of the Puget Sound region, Richards studied design in the Visual Communications department at the University of Washington.

Despite the local roots, Rebecca has seen much of the globe. A self-professed "travel junkie," Rebecca has explored countries on five continents and has aspirations to inhabit the west coasts of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.