Carissa Dougherty

Carissa Kowalski Dougherty is Director of Knowledge Management at The Morton Arboretum, where she builds organizational capacity at the intersection of people, process, and technology.

Throughout her career, she has served as a “translator” between technical and non-technical staff, helping improve outcomes for technology evaluation, implementation, and training. While developing the Arboretum’s AI policy, Carissa launched AI Explorers, a year-long series of informal learning experiences that helped staff build AI literacy through judgment-free, hands-on exploration.

The program demystified generative AI and supported a shared understanding of its capabilities, limitations, and appropriate use across roles and departments. She has spoken on AI policy and AI literacy for the American Public Gardens Association, DigitalNow, IMLS, and the Public Garden Fellows Program.

Through her consulting practice, Transformative Questions, she helps nonprofits and cultural institutions adopt emerging technologies thoughtfully, with an emphasis on strategy, culture, and curiosity-driven change.

Carissa Kowalski Dougherty will be speaking at the Museum AI Summit 2026 :

Cultivating “Critical Optimism”: A Values-Based Approach to Evaluating AI

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude are rapidly reshaping how museums create content, analyze information, and serve our audiences. Yet in many organizations, conversations about AI are either overly enthusiastic, overly fearful, or quietly avoided altogether.

In this fast-paced session, you’ll learn how to create safe, judgment-free spaces for staff and leaders to explore AI together — without deep technical expertise or a big budget. Drawing on real-world experiences launching an internal AI learning community, you’ll leave with practical strategies to build digital literacy, surface ethical concerns, make informed decisions, and foster “critical optimism” across your museum.