Vanessa Trevelyan, head of service at the Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service, will take over as president of the Museums Association (MA) after its AGM in October.

Trevelyan has been Head of Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service for 11 years, although her relationship with the service started in the early 1970s when she volunteered at one of the Norwich museums.

Starting her paid museum career as a museum assistant at the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood, part of the V&A, Trevelyan then became manager of the Purchase Grant Fund for the Regions. Following this she spent 10 years with AMSSEE/SEMS and then the MGC, where she was responsible for the Museum Registration Scheme.

The post of president was one of only four - out of 16 - for which nominations were received for this year's MA council elections. Trevelyan was nominated by Maggie Appleton - a member of the MA's Professional Development Committee and chief executive of Luton Borough Council's museums, libraries and arts services trust - and seconded by Iain Watson, acting director of Tyne and Wear Archives & Museums.