BWHT Board

Michelle joined the BWHT Board in 2002. She is active in community outreach projects at the Boston Public Library where she has been a volunteer in the Art and Architecture Tours Program since 1991. In 2001 Michelle received a special award from the Library and the Arts and business Council of Greater Boston for outstanding contributions to the Library. Michelle recently retired from GMA Foundations in Boston where she served as an administrator for the last twenty-one years working with local, national and international foundations. Email

Jennifer Gregg joined the board in the fall of 2018. Jennifer moved to Boston in 2015 to become Chair of the Communication Department at UMass Boston. Prior to coming to Boston, she was on the faculty at the University of Louisville for 13 years, where she was actively involved in community social justice activities, largely in conjunction with the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research. Jennifer earned her PhD in telecommunications from Michigan State University. Her research focuses on the effects of media, particularly the role of technology in delivering health care to disadvantaged populations.
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Michelle LeBlanc has over 20 years of experience teaching history and designing programming for varied audiences in museum and classroom settings. Since 2013, she has been Director of Education for the Norman B. Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library where she is responsible for all aspects of teacher training, school programming and curriculum development for teaching with historic maps. Previously, she served as Project Director for two “Teaching American History” grants, a federal program that provided professional development for teachers. The program was designed to deepen and enrich the teaching of history by connecting school districts with academic researchers and historical institutions. Michelle entered the museum education world by working as Program Assistant at the Paul Revere House. She also developed programs as Education Director at Historic New England and the Old South Meeting House. Michelle is a graduate of the Northeastern Public History program and a licensed middle school teacher. She completed her student teaching with 8th graders at Wayland Middle School.
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Jane Becker manages the internship and community partnership initiatives for the public history graduate track at UMass Boston, where she teaches public history.  She received her PhD in American Studies from Boston University, and is the author of Selling Tradition: Appalachia and the Construction of an American Folk, 1930-1940 (1998); and co-editor of Folk Roots, New Roots: Folklore in American Life (1988). Jane has worked in exhibition and program planning and as a historian for a wide range of museums and public humanities endeavors in New England.  Her research interests include 20th century US social and cultural history, notions of “folk” and “tradition” in American culture, and the intersections between craft and labor, particularly among women. A believer in, and witness to, the potential of history in transforming communities and empowering citizens, Jane is an enthusiastic supporter of the public humanities.Email

Cheryl Brown-Greene first became interested in the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail as a participant in one of BWHT Summer Institutes which focused on the the creation of Boston Women’s Memorial. A teacher for more than 28 years, 25 at the Mary Lyon School, Cheryl joined the board in 2015. She has been active member of Roxbury Collaborative which has supported Patriots’ Day reenactment and scholarship activities at the First Church in Roxbury for more than 18 years. Cheryl has received a Boston Educator of the Year Award which recognizes exemplary educators who positively impact the lives of students in Boston. She has been a lead teacher, teacher mentor and technology support teacher. She has an MBA from Suffolk University and a Masters in Education from Wheelock College.Email

Meg Campbell, a founder of BWHT, is founder and former Head of School at Codman Academy Charter Public School, a K1-12 Early Learning Education school in Dorchester, at which she currently serves as Chief of Innovation and Strategy. She was founding Executive Director of EL Education, a comprehensive school reform design inspired by Outward Bound. She has served as Lecturer at Harvard Graduate School of Education, where her focus was experience-based education. A poet, she is the author of Solo Crossing and More Love (Midmarch Arts Press). She is also editor of Literacy All Day Long (Kendall Hunt). Meg was appointed to a four-year term on the Boston School Committee in January 2012. Meg is a Dorchester resident. Email

Maria D’Itria served as President of the Board from 2012-2017. Maria and her students enthusiastically embraced learning more about “Herstory” when Barbara Locurto gathered a group of BPS teachers in 1989. Maria was a fifth grade teacher at the Harvard-Kent School, a BPS Lead/Mentor Teacher, a Math Standards Facilitator, a Cooperating Teacher Trainer, a Member of the Instructional Leadership Team and a Golden Apple Recipient.  She has participated in the Boston Children’s Museum TAP Multicultural Institution, focusing on Japan and Southeast Asia. She was the Museum’s representative to the CTAPS Summer Study, “A Global Perspective: Integrating Asia-Pacific in the Curriculum” at the University of Hawaii East West Center. She participated in the Japan Travel Study Program sponsored by the Museum and traveled throughout Southeast Asia and Indonesia with CTAPS. On the local level, Maria has collaborated with the National Parks Service, People and Places Program and the Bostonian Society to enrich students’ knowledge of Boston’s history. Together with Mary Rudder, she and her students created “Walk Her Way” a trail that honors the contribution of women in Charlestown and a new trail, “Remembering the Women of East Boston.”Email

Karyn Greene is a lifelong lover of women’s history. She studied Classics and Women’s Studies at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, during which time she published a paper on Euripides’ Medea. She continued her studies at the University of Vermont and The University of Massachusetts-Boston, from which she received a Masters in Ancient Greek and Latin and Secondary English Education, respectively in 2015. She joined the board in 2016. Karyn has taught English Language Arts at the John D. O’Bryant School for Mathematics and Science since the fall of 2015, where she also offers an elective Latin course after school. In 2015, Karyn created the first Junior Classical League chapter at her school. She is excited to share her love of history with her students via the study of literature.
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Maria Harvey has lived in Boston for over 30 years. She graduated from the University of Massachusetts, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education. She also graduated from the University of Bridgewater with a Masters in Principal/Assistant Principal. She taught in the Boston Public Schools for over 28 years, and, of those years, she taught at the Agassiz Elementary School for over 20 years. Maria believes that when children are provided with a nurturing and challenging academic environment, they can excel academically and socially. Through her academic qualifications and experience, she has sought to prepare and equip herself with resources to facilitate students’ direction and course at each stage of their learning. At the Agassiz Elementary School, Mary Smoyer introduced her to the Boston Women’s Heritage Curriculum. Maria felt that it was important for students to learn about women’s significant contributions to society and their achievements. Therefore, for Women’s History Month, her students read books and discussed what they learned about women who had made significant contributions to society. Her students were also taken on field trips on the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail led by Mary Smoyer.Email

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Diana Lam, a founder of BWHT, was Community Superintendent of District A in the Boston Public Schools when the federal grant (the seed idea for the BWHT) was awarded. She has been Head of School at the Conservatory Lab School in Boston. She was a superintendent of schools in Chelsea, MA, Dubuque, IA, San Antonio, TX, Providence, RI and Marston Mills, MA, and was Deputy Chancellor leading the Teaching and Learning division for the New York City Department of Education. She has written a chapter touching on gender issues in the book Courage, passion and vision: A superintendent’s guide to leading systemic school improvement and, with Meg Campbell, a chapter on “Gender and Public Education: From Mirrors to Magnifying Lens,” published by the National Society for the Study of Education. Email

Laura Pattison has worked for the Boston Public Library since 1992. She has worked in several specialized library reference departments, including the Social Sciences Department and the Kirstein Business Library, where she also did outreach and program planning. From 2002-2002, Laura organized and managed the library’s Local History Collection in a number of library branches. Currently she serves as branch manager of the Jamaica Plain Branch Library. Prior to working as a librarian, Laura co-founded and managed a feminist restaurant in Allston, MA (Beetle’s Lunch). A longtime activist and feminist, she is currently active in the following organizations: Sharing a New Song (community chorus); Social Action Committee (Arlington Street Church); Villages without Walls (anti-violence nonprofit); Professional Staff Association (library union). Her goal in her positions at the library, and in collaboration with local nonprofit agencies, is to help individuals and organizations find the information and resources they need to move forward in their lives, places of work and business ventures. Email

Ferna L. Phillips, PhD has been involved with BWHT since 2010. She is a native Bostonian and is very interested in local history. She enjoys assisting on the guided tours and learning new facts about the city of Boston. She has been involved in higher education for over thirty years. She is currently a Vocational Counselor for the Center for Career Development and Ministry and is also an Adjunct Professor at Boston University’s School of Education. Previously, she was the Director of the Office of Learning Resources for Student-Athletes, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA. She is an educational consultant, has taught graduate and undergraduate students in education and counseling techniques, and has served as a presenter and guest lecturer at various conferences and workshops on such topics as: diversity, financial management, spirituality, stress management and leadership development.She has been the President, Parliamentarian and Historian for the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics (N-4-A). She has also received several awards: Distinguished Service – N4A, Outstanding Alumni, Salem State University and Outstanding Graduate Student, Boston College, School of Education. She is an Ordained Deacon at Massachusetts Avenue Baptist Church, Cambridge, MA, a delegate for the Samuel Stillman Association, (TABCOM) The Association of Baptist Churches of Massachusetts and is also a member of the Board of Directors – Big Brother Big Sister Association of Massachusetts Bay. Ferna has a rich legacy of accomplishments and lends her skills and expertise to community involvement and program development. She enjoys assisting with some of the technology needs of BWHT and has contributed to the “guided tour stories of BWHT.”Email

Mary’s interest in Boston Women began in 1989, when she participated in the project to establish the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail. As she worked on the project, she became more aware of how little of American history actually reflected the impact of women. She teamed with Maria D’Itria on many projects regarding the role of women in history. Mary and Maria worked together with their students to create the Charlestown Women’s History Trail, “Walk Her Way,” and more recently on the East Boston Trail. Mary has served on the Teacher Advisory Board for the Boston Women’s Memorial Curriculum and the BWHT Summer Institute. Mary has been a Boston Public School teacher for many years and is currently serving as one of the Technology Specialists for the Harvard Kent School in Charlestown. She has been a Lead Teacher, Mentor Teacher, Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science Standards Facilitator. She has served as “in-house ” Math coach, a position which she will resume in the coming year. An enthusiastic traveler, Mary has been fortunate to have participated in the Children’s Museum Study Tour of Japan and Primary Source Study Tour of China. She also has been a recipient of the Golden Apple Award. Email

Mary Smoyer, a founding member of the BWHT, has been actively involved since 1989, when she was inspired by her mentors, Polly Welts Kaufman and Barbara Clark Elam, to start working with the trail. She especially loves giving guided tours, developing the mini neighborhood trails and helping with programs in the Boston Public Schools. Mary is co-author of the BWHT guidebook and editor and co-author of the BWHT publication Twenty-One Notable Women. She created Let Me Tell YOu Her Story, a Jamaica Plain women’s history trail. Mary worked as a librarian and classroom teacher in public and private schools for over thirty years. Since retirement in 2008 she has been an active volunteer in the Boston Public Schools, especially at the William Monroe Trotter School and with Friends of the Boston Schoolyards. Email

Alma Wright is the computer teacher at the William Monroe Trotter School where she has taught for more than 40 years. She is an active member of the Garrison-Trotter Neighborhood Association. Alma has won many awards, including the Golden Apple Teacher Award, the Henry Shattuck Public Service Award, and the Milken Award. Alma and her class worked with fellow board member Mary Smoyer to develop “Stepping Back, the Roxbury Women’s Heritage Trail.” Email

Barbara F. Berenson has a longstanding interest in both women’s history and Boston’s history. She is the author of Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers (2018), Boston in the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution (2014), and Walking Tours of Civil War Boston: Hub of Abolitionism (2011, 2d ed. 2014). She is the co-editor of Breaking Barriers: The Unfinished Story of Women Lawyers and Judges in Massachusetts (2012). Her community activities include serving on boards of Boston By Foot and the Royall House & Slave Quarters. Barbara earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard College and her law degree from Harvard Law School. She worked as a Senior Attorney at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court until June 2019. She is currently teaching courses in both women’s history and law at local universities.Email

Terry Byrne has been covering the Boston arts scene for nearly three decades, first at the Boston Herald, then for WGBH TV’s “Greater Boston” and currently at the Boston Globe. Her theater criticism has been featured in a segment on ABC-TV’s 20/20. She earned her MFA in Playwriting from Boston University in 2010, where she received a Robert Pinsky Global Travel Fellowship. Her play, “Rivals in the Clay,” explores the relationship between Emma Stebbins, M. Edmonia Lewis and Harriet Hosmer, three American sculptors and their patron, Charlotte Cushman and was selected as a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Theater Conference in 2016. She has also written “Tea with Alice” about Alice Roosevelt, and “A Night at the Opera House” about Gloria Swanson and her connection to Boston. She is an Affiliated Scholar at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and a board member of the Woburn Public Library Foundation. Email

Julie Crockford is the Executive Director of ESC of New England, an organization which provides consulting and capacity building for non profits. Julie is the former president of the Emerald Necklace Conservancy, a public-private partnership created to protect, restore, maintain and promote the landscape, waterways and parkways of the Emerald Necklace park system created by Frederick Law Olmstead. She also held the position of  Director of Development and Communications for Boston’s Museum of Afro-American History, whose collections of nineteenth century artifacts include the African Meeting House, a National Historic Landmark, and Abiel Smith School on Beacon Hill, and the African Meeting House on Nantucket Island. Her career includes working at National Public Radio and the National Endowment for Humanities, serving as Deputy Director of the Boston History Collaborative, a non-profit historical tourism organization, and a long tenure as Executive Director of the Boston Institute for Arts Therapy. Julie is the founder of the Big Draw Camp, a summer arts camp for girls launched in 1996. A feminist and human rights advocate, she supports educational reforms to include all those missed in traditional history telling. A mother of two young people who inspire her, Julie is a long-time advocate for children’s rights through UNICEF and Project Concern International.Email

Liane Curtis writes and researches about historic women composers and has a Ph.D. in Musicology. Liane began working with the BWHT as part of her quest to have Amy Beach’s name added to the 87 names of male composers that adorn the Hatch Shell on the Charles River Esplanade. Beach was added to the Shell in July 2000, and the Boston Pops performed some of Beach’s music at the unveiling. Liane joined the BWHT Board in the fall of 2000. She is affiliated with the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and also taught at Brandeis in the spring of 2007. She is the founder of The Rebecca Clarke Society, Inc. and edited A Rebecca Clarke Reader, the first book on that composer. Email

Anita Danker, Ed.D., first became interested in the BWHT while conducting research on Boston’s multicultural heritage trails. A former history teacher, social studies curriculum coordinator, and associate professor of education, she is now retired from Assumption College, where she taught a variety of education courses and supervised students preparing to become history teachers. She has written articles about both educational and local history topics including the role of women in the Harvard Shaker community, the Hopedale Strike of 1913, African American heritage trails in Massachusetts, and Framingham suffragists Josephine Collins and Louse Mayo, as well as the text, Multicultural Social Studies: Using Local History in the Classroom. In 1991 she was the Massachusetts Council for the Social Studies teacher of the year. Email

Helaine Davis is the third generation of her family to live in Greater Boston for almost her entire life. After working as an interior design consultant while raising two children, she became a librarian and worked in reference, preservation, conservation and the classification of fine and decorative arts, historic maps, rare books, photographs and other special collections at Mount Ida College in Newton, the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, and the Woburn Public Library. She is currently working on a project to identify and present to the public the stories of some remarkable and yet (somewhat) forgotten Jewish women from Boston with BWHT board member, Linda Stern. She also acts as a consultant librarian, assisting individuals with their personal research in genealogy, American history, rare books, and the arts. Email

Katherine Dibble retired as Director of Public Services for the Boston Public Library after a career of 37 years with the library. Her various positions there acquainted her with all sections of the city of Boston and gave her the opportunity to work with many different organizations. After retirement, she served for two terms on the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners and remains involved with libraries by membership on the board of the Massachusetts Friends of Libraries. For many years, she was active in the Boston chapter of the Women’s National Book Association and held several offices in that organization, including president of the Boston chapter and chair of the national award committee. Email

Gretchen Dietz joined the BWHT board in 1996 and was treasurer from 1998 to 2011. She is the publications specialist for the Boston Public Schools, responsible for researching, writing, and designing publications for BPS families, staff, and the public. Her particular BWHT interest is working with BPS teachers and students to develop neighborhood women’s history trails. Gretchen lives in West Roxbury, where she is active in community organizations including West Roxbury Saves Energy, West Roxbury Friends of Rosie’s Place, New Brook Farm and Theodore Parker Unitarian Universalist Church. She graduated from Yale University. Email

Founding member of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, Jean Gibran’s career as a Boston Public Schools teacher included a Golden Apple Award and a Businessweek Award for innovative teaching. During her service as Project Assistant for Boston TeachNet, she helped broadcast news about teachers and their Service Learning projects. She also served as BWHT secretary and edited Boston Women’s Memorial Signature Projects featuring “Classroom, Community and Career” activities and identifying women committed to social change and public service. http://bostonteachnet.org/bwm.htm Occasional editor of Proclaimer, BWHT’s early newsletter, Jean co-authored the 2006 revision of Boston Women’s Heritage Trail: Seven Self-Guided Walks through Four Centuries of Boston History. Her recent publications include Love Made Visible Scenes from a Mostly Happy Marriage (2014) and Kahlil Gibran Beyond Borders (2017). Email

Charlotte Harris is a founder of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail. In 1989, she co-wrote the original proposal to establish the trail. A former Connecticut high school teacher, she worked for the Boston Public Schools from 1981 until her retirement in 2005, most recently as Director of External Funds for BPS. She is most interested in the trail programs in the schools and in connecting women’s history in Boston over the centuries to current student interests and issues.

Erica Hirshler is Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Art of the Americas, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, where she has worked since 1983. She organized the highly praised exhibition A Studio of Her Own: Women Artists in Boston 1870-1940 and wrote the book of the same title. She helped develop the BWHT tour Women Artists in the Back Bay. Erica has a special interest in American paintings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, in art and patronage in Boston, and in women artists. She has written and lectured extensively on these topics, and among her publications are essays on Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Edmund Tarbell, Dennis Bunker, and Sarah Sears. She has nurtured her interest in the historical achievements of women since her days at Wellesley College, and she was very pleased to join the BWHT Board in 2002 after working with them to co-produce a walking tour and brochure of sites relating to Boston’s women artists. Email

Libba Ingram became a fan of the BWHT in its early days when she was assigned to produce a five-minute story on the organization as a video producer for Boston Municipal Television. She then utilized her Masters thesis project at Boston University to develop a prototype for a BWHT website, thus inspiring the board to develop their first website. Since completing her Master of Education in Instructional Design and Educational Media, Libba has accrued over 20 years experience as an Instructional Designer in both corporate and non-profit organizations. She has designed curricula and instruction for online, instructor-led, and blended learning solutions in diverse areas, including technology, financial services, and soft skills. Passionate about women’s issues and advancing the rights of women everywhere, she is thrilled to join the board (September 2017) and participate in acknowledging and educating others about the women in Boston upon whose backs we stand.
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Polly Welts Kaufman, one of the founding members of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, is the leading author of all the versions of the BWHT guidebook. Polly is the former program director of elementary and middle school libraries for the Boston Public Schools. She now lives in Maine where she taught history at the University of Southern Maine, and has developed women’s history trails in Portland and Brunswick. During her recent year as a Fulbright lecturer in American studies in Norway, she developed a walking trail to statues of named women in Oslo, printed in both Norwegian and English. She is co-editor of a new book: Her Past Around Us: Interpreting Sites for Women’s History. She is also the author of National Parks and the Woman’s Voice: A History; Boston women and City School Politics, 1872-1905; and Women Teachers on the Frontier. Email

Although retiring after 40 years in the Boston Public Schools, Barbara Locurto continues to serve BWHT. Between 1984 and 2007 she developed and directed the Boston IMPACT II model designed to identify, recognize, reward, and disseminate successful classroom-based, teacher-developed programs. As BWHT board member since 1993, she coordinated Women’s History Showcases/Materials Grants, and featured Boston Women’s Memorial projects on Boston TeachNet. Recognized nationally and locally for her commitment to promoting good citizenship, she served as Massachusetts State Coordinator of Center for Civic Education’s We the People… Program. Awards include: Virginia M. White Service & Support to Girls & Women’s Sports; Boston Municipal Research Bureau’s Henry L. Shattuck Public Service; City Year Moccasin/Community Service; and Freedoms Foundation George Washington Honor Medal, Constitutional Studies. Other board membership includes: BPS Student Engagement Advisory Council; BPS Access Technology Center; Massachusetts Board of Education Service Learning Advisory Council (past); and Extras for Creative Learning/Recycle Center (past). Email

Elaine Taber is a founding board member of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail. While serving as Mayor Raymond Flynn’s Advisor on Women’s Issues, she helped to launch the trail in partnership with the Boston Public Schools. As Director of the Boston Women’s Commission, she chaired the Boston Women’s Memorial committee, resulting in the choice of the three women to be memorialized in a sculpture on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall. Currently working as the Director of Education Policy for Project Bread, the State’s leading anti hunger organization, she works to reduce child hunger in an effort to increase academic achievement for the state’s neediest children. Prior to this, Elaine served for six years as the Policy Director for the Massachusetts Speaker of the House. During that time, she focused public policy on childhood literacy and other early learning efforts. Email

Marie A. Turley is Senior Policy Analyst for Women and Senior Programs for the Massachusetts Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. Previously Marie was the Executive Director of the City of Boston’s Women’s Commission.  Ms. Turley has been on the board of the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail since 1995. The Women’s Commission has often collaborated with the BWHT. One such collaboration is the Boston Women’s Memorial. This public art sculpture honors three prominent women, Abigail Adams, Lucy Stone, and Phillis Wheatley, who each had progressive ideas that were ahead of her time and left a legacy through her writings. The memorial was on installed on Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue Mall on October 25, 2003. In 1999, Ms. Turley received the Massachusetts’s Women’s Political Caucuses Wonder Woman Award for her work on the creation of the Massachusetts State Commission on the Status of Women in 1998. Email

Susan Wilson is a professional photographer, author, multimedia artist, and public historian who first encountered the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail when writing history features for the Boston Globe. A BWHT board member — and later advisory board member — since the mid-1990s, Susan has shared her skills as photographer, editor, art critic, trailblazer, website consultant, video artist, and lecturer for the trail. She helped develop the BWHT walking tour to accompany the “A Studio of Her Own” exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, was project manager and photographer for the walking map, “30 Highlights of Boston Herstory,” and produced the video on the creation of the Boston Women’s Memorial. After earning a B.A. and M.A. in history from Tufts, and teaching history at both the secondary school and college levels, Susan moved into journalism, photojournalism, studio photography, feminist activism, historic consulting to area trails and sites, and authoring accessible, multicultural books on Boston history, which include Boston Sites and Insights, Garden of Memories, The Literary Trail of Greater Boston, and Heaven, By Hotel Standards: The History of The Omni Parker House. A member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, she is the official House Historian of the Omni Parker House and a Resident Scholar at Brandeis University’s Women Studies Research Center.   Studio/voice mail 617-547-5457

Stephanie Wong Fan is on the board of the Chinese Historical Society of New England  and a member of a project it sponsors with the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe, the Chinese American Women’s Oral History Project. The Chinese Historical Society documents and promotes the legacy of Chinese immigration. The Oral History Project is a volunteer group that interviews Chinese American women who lived and/or worked in the New England area prior to 1965. She was a board member during the first years of BWHT. Stephanie is a former teacher and administrator in the Boston Public Schools’ Bilingual Department.   Email