Rebecca Alban Hoffberger is both Founder and Director of the American Visionary Art Museum, America's official national museum for outsider art located in Baltimore, Maryland.  In 1998, Hoffberger won The Urban Land Institute's coveted National Award for Excellence.  In 1999, Hoffberger was elected to serve as a member of Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce.  In addition to a 1996 Honorary Doctorate from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger was awarded the title of 'Dame' for her work on behalf of establishing medical field hospitals in Nigeria.  She is a recipient of numerous mental health advocacy and equal opportunity awards and has served as a director of the Jewish education and on the Board of The Elizabeth Kubler-Ross Center.  Hoffberger studied non-traditional medicine in Mexico for three years, helping to deliver babies in remote mountain areas in the state of Morelos.  A published author and development consultant for 28 years, at 16 Hoffberger became the first American to apprentice to mime, Marcel Marceau in Paris.