Lila Staples is the coordinator of the California Regional Art History Project at California State University, Monterey Bay. This ongoing research project is taught as an upper- level seminar entitled "A Central Coast Vision", integrating student research into the body of scholarship. An art historian, Dr. Staples teaches a variety of courses in the Visual and Public Art Department at CSUMB, and is a frequent lecturer at museums and universities in Central and Northern California.

With an academic focus on Museum Studies, Lila heads up the new Museum Studies / Arts Education focus in the VPA department. Lila is the former President of the Monterey Museum of Art and on the Board of the Fort Ord Museum and Archive Project at CSUMB. As well as teaching on campus, she has recently completed her doctoral studies in Museum Studies with an emphasis on museums as sites of learning.