Richard M. Leventhal is Executive Director of the Penn Cultural Heritage Center of the Penn Museum as well as Professor in the Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania. He serves as Curator in the American Section at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology where he formerly served as the Williams Director. Prior to coming to Penn, he was the President of the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico and the Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology of Archaeology at UCLA. Leventhal received his PhD from Harvard University. He is one of the Directors of the Tihosuco Heritage Preservation and Community Development Project focused upon the 19th century Caste War rebellion in the Yucatan. He has written extensively about the ancient Maya and about cultural heritage preservation. 

Leventhal is currently engaged in several projects related to the development of digital tools focused on the presentation and preservation of archaeological and heritage data. These projects focus on the nature of cultural heritage within modern Maya communities. In addition, they connect the ancient Maya with the modern Maya and other residents in Mexico and Central America