I am the former Executive Director of the Montclair History Center, an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving local history and sharing the stories of the people who have shaped the community.

I joined the organization as a volunteer docent and the rest is … well, history. I became the ED in 2010 and served in that capacity for 12 years.

Prior to my work in the history field, I had spent more than 25 years in marketing in the pharmaceutical industry, primarily in a freelance capacity. With The Mitchell Group, a company my sister and I co-founded in 1992, I designed launch and marketing plans and wrote education and training programs for healthcare professionals and sales reps. While my sister, Betsy Jenny, continues to work in healthcare, I also do some consulting work for small museums and historical societies under The Mitchell Group name.

In 2014, the Montclair History Center (then the Montclair Historical Society) expanded its focus to include the period when one of its sites was a YWCA for a African American women and girls who had moved north during the Great Migration. That focus led to discusses on de facto segregation, redlining, racism, sexism, and the lingering effects of these social injustices. That led me to a job change. I am now Chief Development Officer at JVS of MetroWest, an organization dedicated to helping people who face barriers to employment due to these social injustices, age, ability, or immigrant status find good jobs so they can better their circumstances and the lives of future generations.

Publications

Rebranding: A Guide for Historic Houses, Museums, Sites and Organizations. Rowman and Littlefield, 2022.

“Race and Ethnicity in Historic House Museums.” In Reinventing the Historic House Museum edited by Kenneth Turino and Max van Balgooy. New York: Rowman and Littlefield. Published Fall 2019. Co-authored with Claudia Ocello

“The Many Voices of a Historic House.” History News. 72 (2017): 16-20.

Articles about local history in Montclair Neighbors:

• “Montclair’s Equal Suffrage League” February and March 2019.

• “150 Years of Montclair Voices.”  October 2018.

• “Montclair Sesquicentennial.” May 2018.

• “Camp Glen Grey.” June 2017.

• “The Case of the Missing Statue.”  September 2017.

• “Of Christmases Long, Long Ago.”  December 2016.

• “The Rest of the Story.” Montclair Neighbors. September 2016.

• “A Tale of Two Villages.”  Montclair Neighbors.  August 2016.

Presentations

History at Home: Host biweekly Zoom programs. Original presentations include Montclair’s Women Trailblazers, Architecture 101 (two-parts), Montclair in the 1890s, the Pandemic of 1918, the Shultz House and Family, and Quilts! Glorious Quilts. These are available on the Montclair History Center’s YouTube channel.

Inclusive History. Presenter and facilitator at a program offered by the Crossroads of the American Revolution and the New Jersey Historical Commission. January 2020.

Telling the Other Story. Presentation and panelist at the Greater Hudson Heritage Network Annual Conference. September 2018; the National Meeting of the American Association of State and Local History. Lexington, KY. October 2015; the New Jersey Historic Preservation Conference. Mount Laurel, NJ. June 2015; MidAtlantic Association of Museums Annual Conference. October 2019.

Women who Broke the Mold. Three-part program for Montclair Institute for Lifelong Learning on women from Montclair who broke through racial and gender barriers in a variety of fields. Fall 2019 and April 2020.  

The History of Montclair through a National Lens.  Four-part program for Montclair Institute for Lifelong Learning. Spring 2018.

The YWCA Years: 1920-1965. Presentation for the Summer Conference of the Amistad Institute, Montclair, NJ. August 2015.

Thanksgiving: Fact or Fiction. Presentations at the Montclair Women’s Club, Montclair, NJ. November 2016; Montclair History Center, Montclair, NJ. November 2016;

Women and Spirituality. Presentation at the Glen Ridge Women’s Club, Glen Ridge, NJ. November 2015.

Holidays Past. Presentations at the Montclair Women’s Club, Montclair, NJ. December 2014; Montclair History Center, Montclair, NJ. December 2012 and 2015; Church of the Holy Spirit, Verona, NJ. December 2015.

1890s: The Seeds of Tomorrow. Presentations for Trinity Presbyterian Church, Montclair, NJ. October 2016, April 2017; the Adult School of Montclair, March 2017.

One Hundred Years of Kitchens and Baths. Presentations at the Verona Landmark Preservation Commission, Verona, NJ. October 2012; Montclair History Center, November 2012.