Shawnya Harris is the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art at the Georgia Museum of Art where she has worked since 2015. Harris began her museum career in North Carolina where she earned a Ph.D. in art history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her undergraduate degree in African American Studies from Yale University.

Harris has curated numerous award-winning exhibitions, including a recent retrospective, "Emma Amos: Color Odyssey," which traveled to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Her exhibitions and publications have garnered several awards from regional art associations including the Southeastern Museums Conference, the Southeastern College Art Conference. National awards include a James A. Porter and David C. Driskell Book Award in African American Art History in 2018 for her publication, "Expanding Tradition: Selections from the Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Collection." Harris completed a fellowship at the Center for Curatorial Leadership in 2021 and was recently named the Georgia Association of Museums Museum Professional of the Year.