BOARD OF TRUSTEES |
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Historic Northampton
Board of Trustees Barbara B. Blumenthal
Mary Beth Brooker Shara Denson Amanda Herman Sara Lennox Tom Navin Gina Nortonsmith Hannah E. Ray Larry Snyder |
Shara Denson, President
Shara Denson is Human Resources Business Partner for Student Affairs & Campus Life, College of Education, College of Humanities & Fine Arts and Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Hannah E. Ray, Vice-President Hannah E. Ray is co-owner of Workroom Design Studio in Northampton, Massachusetts. With a BFA in textile design, she was Tack Upholstery Studio’s sole upholsterer and proprietor for seven years prior to co-founding Workroom Design Studio in 2018. Larry Snyder, Treasurer Larry Snyder is Associate Vice President for Campus Services, Operations, and Maintenance at Smith College. He joined the board in 2024. Barbara B. Blumenthal, Clerk Barbara B. Blumenthal is an independent bookbinder and book studies historian. She edited and co-wrote Paradise Printed & Bound: Book Arts in Northampton & Beyond, published in 2004 for the 350th anniversary of the founding of Northampton. Barbara has lived in Northampton since 1971, when she first arrived at Smith College. She graduated in 1975 with a degree in American Studies, also having studied typography and calligraphy. As an undergraduate, she apprenticed with master bookbinder Arno Werner in Pittsfield, MA. Barbara has been a professional bookbinder since 1976 and has published five works under her own Catawba Press imprint. She was the rare book specialist in the Smith College Mortimer Rare Book Room for 35 years and occasionally teaches classes in bookbinding, book arts, and book history. Mary Beth Brooker Mary Beth Brooker joined the Board of Historic Northampton in 2023. An artist, performer, and playwright, Mary Beth received an MFA in theater from Smith College, and an MA in European history from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is also a board member of School of Contemporary Dance and Thought (SCDT). She is a former teacher of children’s art and theater, and U.S. and European history, and art history. Mary Beth has lived in Northampton since 2000 after having moved from the San Francisco Bay Area. She lives with her husband, James Lowenthal, astronomer and dark skies advocate, and their daughter Melle, who studies choreography and video at Bennington College. Mary Beth is especially interested in how the arts inform sensibilities of care, of environment, and of human and other species. She hopes that in the years ahead, visitors to Historic Northampton will find in the archives of our times a vibrant arts community that inspired and enriched daily life. Amanda Herman Amanda Herman was elected to the board of trustees for a term beginning October 2016. She received a BS in Photography and Education from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and an MFA in Social Practice from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. She is founder and producer of Live Art Magazine in Northampton, 2013-2016, director of programs at Laurel Park Arts in Northampton from 2013-2014 and curriculum designer, Fostering Art & A Home Within in San Francisco, 2013-2015. Tom Navin Tom Navin is Director of Development at Community Legal Aid, which provides free legal services to low income and elderly residents of central and western Massachusetts. He has been in the field of nonprofit fundraising for over 25 years, having served as Vice President of Philanthropy and Alumni Engagement at World Learning/ School for International Training, in Brattleboro, VT; preceded by his 18-year tenure at his alma mater, University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he was Director of Annual Giving. Tom earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, and a Master’s Degree in Education from UMass Amherst. Tom lives in Northampton with his husband and their lab/hound mix. He and his husband have long been fascinated by the history of Northampton, and are collectors of early Northampton imprints, maps, photographs, ephemera, and early material history of Northampton. Gina Nortonsmith Gina Nortonsmith is Project Archivist for the Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University School of Law. She has previously practiced law and served as an administrator in higher education. She has a J.D. and an MILS. |
STAFF
Laurie Sanders, Co-Executive Director
lsanders @ historicnorthampton.org
Laurie Sanders became co-executive director of Historic Northampton on May 1, 2016. Sanders is a naturalist, writer, and the former host of Field Notes, a weekly natural history series that aired on NEPR for a decade. In 2014 she completed an ecological assessment of all of Northampton’s city-owned conservation areas, which include more than 30 properties and over 2,500 acres. In fall 2015, she presented a six-part lecture series, Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through An Ecological Lens. She first came to Northampton in 1983 as a Smith College student and in 1988 she discovered the only known hybrid cross between jack-in-the-pulpit and green dragon, found only in Northampton. She brings a wealth of fundraising and programming experience to the position, writing grants for her own work and as co-chair of the private capital campaign for the Westhampton Public Library.
Elizabeth Sharpe, Co-Executive Director
[email protected]
Elizabeth Sharpe became co-executive director of Historic Northampton on May 1, 2016. Sharpe is an historian, writer, educator and museum consultant. She is the author of In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874. She has family roots in this area which sparked her research on Connecticut Valley history, architecture, history of technology and material culture for her PhD in History from the University of Delaware. She is the former director of education at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Since she moved back to the Connecticut Valley, she has consulted for museums, written the history of the Mill River Flood, taught history and public history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and at Greenfield Community College in person and online. Most recently she has taught Social Responsibility in Museums at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been board president of the Amherst Historical Society and the Swift River Historical Society.
Marie Panik, Research and Museum Coordinator
Email Marie Panik
Marie Panik joined the staff of Historic Northampton in June 1993. She compiled the booklet A Guide to Jonathan Edwards’ Northampton for visitors to Northampton seeking Jonathan Edwards-related sites. She curated the exhibit, The Florence Brush Factory, an exhibit chronicling the history of the Florence Manufacturing Company, later known as the Pro-phy-lac-tic Brush Company. Together with Bruce Laurie and Stan Sherer, she curated the exhibit, Chaotic Freedom and the Scars of Slavery. She is a committee member of the David Ruggles Center for History and Education. She holds a degree in history from Smith College.
Kelsy Sinelnikov, Collections Manager
Email Kelsy Sinelnikov
Kelsy Sinelnikov is collections manager at Historic Northampton. Prior to coming to Historic Northampton, she was curator of the Museums of Oglebay Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia. She holds an MA in Public History from Duquesne University in Pennsylvania where she worked in many capacities at a variety of museums including the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, The Carnegie Science Center, and The Senator John Heinz History Center Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.
lsanders @ historicnorthampton.org
Laurie Sanders became co-executive director of Historic Northampton on May 1, 2016. Sanders is a naturalist, writer, and the former host of Field Notes, a weekly natural history series that aired on NEPR for a decade. In 2014 she completed an ecological assessment of all of Northampton’s city-owned conservation areas, which include more than 30 properties and over 2,500 acres. In fall 2015, she presented a six-part lecture series, Rediscovering Northampton: Local History Viewed Through An Ecological Lens. She first came to Northampton in 1983 as a Smith College student and in 1988 she discovered the only known hybrid cross between jack-in-the-pulpit and green dragon, found only in Northampton. She brings a wealth of fundraising and programming experience to the position, writing grants for her own work and as co-chair of the private capital campaign for the Westhampton Public Library.
Elizabeth Sharpe, Co-Executive Director
[email protected]
Elizabeth Sharpe became co-executive director of Historic Northampton on May 1, 2016. Sharpe is an historian, writer, educator and museum consultant. She is the author of In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874. She has family roots in this area which sparked her research on Connecticut Valley history, architecture, history of technology and material culture for her PhD in History from the University of Delaware. She is the former director of education at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Since she moved back to the Connecticut Valley, she has consulted for museums, written the history of the Mill River Flood, taught history and public history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and at Greenfield Community College in person and online. Most recently she has taught Social Responsibility in Museums at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has been board president of the Amherst Historical Society and the Swift River Historical Society.
Marie Panik, Research and Museum Coordinator
Email Marie Panik
Marie Panik joined the staff of Historic Northampton in June 1993. She compiled the booklet A Guide to Jonathan Edwards’ Northampton for visitors to Northampton seeking Jonathan Edwards-related sites. She curated the exhibit, The Florence Brush Factory, an exhibit chronicling the history of the Florence Manufacturing Company, later known as the Pro-phy-lac-tic Brush Company. Together with Bruce Laurie and Stan Sherer, she curated the exhibit, Chaotic Freedom and the Scars of Slavery. She is a committee member of the David Ruggles Center for History and Education. She holds a degree in history from Smith College.
Kelsy Sinelnikov, Collections Manager
Email Kelsy Sinelnikov
Kelsy Sinelnikov is collections manager at Historic Northampton. Prior to coming to Historic Northampton, she was curator of the Museums of Oglebay Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia. She holds an MA in Public History from Duquesne University in Pennsylvania where she worked in many capacities at a variety of museums including the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, The Carnegie Science Center, and The Senator John Heinz History Center Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village.
Margy Jessup joined the staff of Historic Northampton in June 2021. She had previously worked as an archivist in Smith College Special Collections for over 25 years, primarily focusing on digital preservation and access, archival description, and reference services. She's also worked at the Jones Library in Amherst and the UMass Amherst Library. Margy holds a Masters in Library Science with a concentration in Archival Administration from Simmons College, and a B.A. in History from UMass Amherst.
Schuyler Fohrhaltz-Burbank is the museum inventory specialist for a two-year inventory and assessment of the clothing, textile and furniture collections. The position is funded by the Northampton Community Preservation Committee. Schulyer was an Archival Field Fellow at Historic Northampton in 2022 through the Massachusetts State Historical Records Advisory Board (SHRAB), where she rehoused photographs in the Hortense Clapp Pollard Collection. Before working at Historic Northampton, she worked with the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center in Pittsfield, Massachusetts as a Research and Archiving Assistant. She received an MA in Archival Management from the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University and a dual BA in Anthropology and History at Skidmore College.
Emma John develops and presents a wide range of interpretive programs for all audiences and conducts historical research on the history of Northampton in preparation for interpretive programs. She is currently researching and writing a dissertation through the University of California in Santa Barbara where she received an MA in history in 2020. She is no stranger to the Pioneer Valley, having graduated with a BA in history from Hampshire College in 2017.
Elizabeth Sacktor initially began work with Historic Northampton as a collection and research intern in the Summer of 2023, helping to re-catalog and conserve their extensive historic clothing collection. Now she works as the museum educator, developing engaging and educational programs for people of all ages to connect to local history. Before Historic Northampton, Elizabeth worked as a Research Assistant at the Smith College Historic Clothing Collection, in the Costume Office at Old Sturbridge Village, and as a Research Fellow at Historic Deerfield, where she completed a paper on early female death professionals and shroudmakers in 19th-century Western Massachusetts. She graduated from Smith College in 2024 with a degree in Women's History, while concentrating in Museums.