Nheena Ittner

I was born in Midland, Michigan to Donald Evan Weyer and Donna Jean Kuhlman Weyer. My dad was a chemical engineer at Dow Corning and my mother was a math professor. In my elementary years, I took on a professorship at Delta College located near our home. I earned an art teaching degree from the University of Michigan and taught in two downstate schools until I moved to the U.P. in 1980. From 1980-1987, I taught art at Ishpeming High School. In 1987, I started a hand painted clothing business where I sold clothing to businesses, small stores and through art fairs across the country. In 1987, I also began planting the seeds toward the development of the Children's Museum in Marquette and was the museum's board chair until 1992 when I was hired as its director. After many years of development with the assistance of hundreds of kids and their ideas, the Museum opened its doors in 1997 and I remain the director of the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum today. I have two daughters, Ilsa and Ricci, a grandson named Mattias and a dog named Flower. In May of 2016, I married Dr. Neil Cumberlidge, a professor at NMU, and the world-renowned expert of the fresh water crabs of Africa.