Administration

Ann Scott
Head Librarian

Ann Scott is the 9th Executive Director of the Nantucket Atheneum. She brings eighteen years of celebrated experience in Public Libraries, holding a variety of leadership roles in Collections, Programs, Outreach, Marketing and Administration. Ann has a passion for empowering library staff and stakeholders to offer community resources and experiences that inspire, educate, and even transform. She believes that libraries are the cornerstone of democracy, protecting basic freedoms, levelling the playing field, and fostering an informed electorate – and that no matter your age, color, background or status, the Atheneum is a place where you can feel that you belong. Ann is proud to lead our passionate, dedicated library staff who curate and circulate print and digital books and media; maintain our archival collection of historic artifacts, care for the regal 1847 building and garden, deliver more than 1,300 programs and classes a year to both seasonal and year-round members, and offer a variety of services that are particularly empowering for our island community. Ann earned her Masters in Library Science from Drexel University.


Cheryl Creighton
Operations Manager

Cheryl began working at the Atheneum in November 2010.  She was promoted to Operations Manager in April 2012 and is responsible for the building and grounds and human resource functions of the Nantucket Atheneum. Additionally, she provides support to the Board of Trustees. She also serves as the coordinator for the Literacy Volunteers of the Atheneum.

Cheryl grew up in Concord, MA and graduated with a Master’s of Science in Teaching from the Environmental Studies Program at Antioch New England. She has worked in the field of conservation administration and been a volunteer in the Nantucket community since 1988.


Ashley Christ
Finance Manager

Ashley joined the Atheneum in the summer of 2021 as the Finance Manager. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Hotel Restaurant Management. She has lived on island for 15 years with her husband who was born and raised on Nantucket, their 3 children, and 2 Labradors.


Anastasia Tumash
PR/Marketing/Design

Anastasia joined the Nantucket Atheneum team in May 2022 as a PR/Marketing Manager. She has a background in Graphic and UX (user-experience) and a passion for social media strategies. Being a mom of two boys, both born on Nantucket, she learned to multitask like a pro. After six years at Saint Petersburg State University (Graphic design), Anastasia got a Fulbright scholarship and moved to Raleigh, NC for two years to get her Master’s degree in Graphic design at NCSU. She has experience in brand design, print and presentation design, managing social media, user-experience design, prototyping and designing websites, and creating animation design. Anastasia says, “I take part in all stages of the design process and I love it.”


Miguel Morocoima
Maintenance Technician

Circulation / Technical Services


Annye Camara
Library Associate

Suzanne Keating
Library Associate
Clara Kempf
Library Associate
Pamela McGrady
Library Associate, Acquisitions & Cataloging

Adult Programs

Samantha Aguiar
Head of Adult Programs

Samantha Aguiar joined the Nantucket Atheneum team in March 2022 and became the Head of Adult Programming in October of that same year. She was born and raised on Nantucket and after graduating from NHS she attended the University of Vermont and then onto Savannah College of Arts and Design for her graduate degree. She’s very excited and eager to create and promote events for the community she knows and loves.


Sean Allen
Adult Programs Coordinator

Reference

Lincoln Thurber
Head Reference Librarian

Lincoln J. Thurber III joined the Atheneum in May 2001. He is Head Reference Librarian and also oversees special collections archives and public access technology. Lincoln’s Reference team has an excellent track record of building and strengthening online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of Atheneum patrons. He has set the standard for innovative library experiences in Cape and Islands with classes on 3D printing, PC building, programming and other fun technology tinkering at the library.

New England born, Lincoln holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Connecticut. In 2001, he graduated with honors from Simmons College with a Masters of Science in Library and Information systems.


Jim Borzilleri
Reference Associate
James Grieder
Reference Associate

Weezie Library for Children

Leslie Malcolm
Department Head

Leslie joined the Atheneum in October 2011.  She grew up in Summit, New Jersey and worked for the Smithsonian Institution and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles before moving to Nantucket in 1994.  Leslie earned her BA in Art History from Randolph College, and her Master of Library and Information Science from Simmons College.  She started volunteering at the Atheneum in 1998 and joined its board of trustees in 1999, and it was that experience that inspired her to become a librarian.  She has a daughter, Gwen.


Kirsten Featherly
Library Associate
Sierra Hurd
Young Adult Librarian

Development

Maggie O’Reilly
Director of Development

Maggie joined the Atheneum in June 2014 as the Director of Development. She was previously a Leadership Gifts Officer at Milton Academy in Milton, MA. She began her tenure at Milton in 2007 as Associate Director of Annual Programs. Before joining the Alumni and Development team at Milton, she worked for the March of Dimes in Philadelphia, PA. Maggie graduated from Providence College in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and Sociology and a studio art minor. She and her husband Vinny live in Marblehead with their children, Roan, Maeve and Kevin.


Lisa Lothian
Development Assistant

Board of Trustees

Officers

Tracy Flannery
Chair

Boston, MA/Nantucket. After a 15-year career in commercial banking, Tracy spent much of the last twenty years living abroad and returned to New England in 2017. She has worked with numerous civic and charitable organizations, including serving as President of the Wilton Family Y, Treasurer of the Wilton Library Association, Treasurer of Tokyo English Life Line, and Co-founder and volunteer for MAD (Make A Difference), a remedial English learning program for impoverished children in New Delhi. In addition to serving as Chair of the Nantucket Atheneum’s Board of Trustees, Tracy is a Boston Public Garden Advisory Board member, Program Co-Chair of the Beacon Hill Garden Club, and a member of the Nativity Preparatory School Board of Directors in Jamaica Plain. She is a passionate reader and enjoys cooking, travel, exercise, and the Boston Red Sox. The Flannerys (including their three grown children, Morgan, Matt, and Tim) have been coming to Nantucket for over thirty years.


Deborah J. Manus
Vice Chair

Boston, MA/Nantucket. Deb is Chair and past managing partner of the Boston-based law firm, Nutter, McClennen & Fish, LLP. She focuses her practice on providing legal advice to estates and trusts. Deb also serves as trustee of a significant number of private trusts. She is also a principal of Nutter Investment Advisors, LLC, which provides investment advisory services to trusts, individuals, and foundations. Deb is a past President of the Boston Bar Association and is a Trustee of the Boston Bar Foundation.  Deb and her husband Peter, a law school professor and published author of two murder mysteries, have one son, Ned, as well as two indulged pugs. Deb and Peter have been summer residents of Nantucket since 2003, but they have loved the island much longer than that.


Samuel A. Flax
Treasurer

Chevy Chase, MD/Nantucket. Sam and his wife Meg began coming to Nantucket in the early 1990’s, when their children were very young, and became summer residents in 2010. Sam is currently Distinguished Visiting Professor from Practice at the Georgetown University Law Center. Until its sale in 2017,he was the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of American Capital, Ltd., a publicly-traded asset management and private equity firm based in Bethesda, Maryland. Prior to joining American Capital, he was a senior partner in the corporate and securities practice group of Arnold & Porter, a Washington, DC based international law firm. Sam is a graduate of Georgia Tech, where he majored in Industrial Engineering, and from the Washington & Lee University School of Law. He was a fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative. Sam has been a member of GTAB, the Georgia Tech President’s advisory board and the Washington & Lee Law Council, and is the Past President of Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, MD, and of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. Sam and Meg have three children, all of whom are delighted to call Nantucket their second home.


Linda B. McGrath
Secretary

New York City/Nantucket/Bermuda. Linda and her family started coming to Nantucket in 1993 and quickly fell in love with the history and beauty of the island and made it their summer escape from city life. After graduating from the University of Virginia in 1981, Linda moved to Manhattan, where she met her husband, Ben, and raised two daughters, Mollie and Emma. Linda began her career in advertising at Ogilvy & Mather and, after working for several other smaller boutique agencies, went to work for Conde Nast as the promotion director for Allure magazine. After fifteen years, Linda retired from the advertising and publishing world and threw all of her energies into volunteer work at her daughters’ school, The Convent of the Sacred Heart, where she spent seven years on the Board of Trustees, including as the chair of the development committee. Linda also started and ran a successful interior decorating business for fifteen years. She hopes to spend the next fifteen years doing meaningful work for those organizations that she holds near and dear to her heart, including Nantucket Community Sailing where she has been deeply involved for the past ten years, the Board of Governors of the Nantucket Yacht Club, and the board of the Rome Chamber Music Festival. Linda is an avid golfer, bridge player, sailor, traveler, and book club member. A prolific reader since day one, Linda has fond memories of weekly trips to the library and has enjoyed seeking out and spending time in libraries her entire life. She is delighted to serve on the board of the Atheneum.

Trustees

Judith G. Belash

Nantucket. Retired with her husband John to Nantucket in 2002. She is a graduate of Newton High School, Wellesley College and Boston University School of Law. Beginning in 1965 she worked as a lawyer for the SEC, the NYSE and for the remaining 32 years in New York served as Associate General Counsel for Litigation and Regulatory Affairs at Goldman, Sachs & Co. During that time, she was a member of several regulatory and self-regulatory committees of the SEC, NYSE, CBOE and the NASD where she served on the NASD Board of Governors. In 2001 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Securities Industry Association for her contributions in the areas of compliance and litigation. From 1979 to 1989 she was a member of the Board of the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York. Since 2002 she had been a participant in numerous aspects of the Nantucket community serving eight years on the Board of Maria Mitchell, nine years on the Board of A Safe Place, two years on the Board of the Nantucket Community Music Center and twelve years on the Board of the Nantucket Cottage Hospital where she was elected Clerk and Chair of the Board Compliance Committee. She and her husband were history Interpreters for the Nantucket Historical Association for many years, were participants in the Elementary School “Grandparents” program from 2004 through 2015 and VIP volunteers for the Nantucket Police Department from 2014 through 2019. She volunteered at The Hospital Thrift Shop from 2014 through 2019. She sang in the Community Chorus and the Women’s Chorus and read for and acted in Armchair Theater. She gardens, writes poetry, and her newest creative endeavor is attempting pottery. She and her husband consider their move to Nantucket to have been blest.

Christopher M. Berger (Chris)

New York City. Chris is a Vice President at BlackRock and a member of the firm’s Corporate Affairs team. In this capacity, Chris is responsible for the firm’s reputation management and communications strategy with respect to its business in China. Formerly, Chris was a member of BlackRock’s Financial Markets Advisory (FMA) Group. The FMA team provides a wide range of advisory, valuation, and innovative portfolio management solutions for its clients, which include banks, insurance companies, official institutions, and other financial intermediaries. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2015, Chris was a senior analyst within the Markets group of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (FRBNY), where he led the coverage of corporate credit markets, providing senior policy makers with macroeconomic analysis on developments in high yield and leveraged finance markets. Prior to working at the FRBNY, Chris was an associate at Orion Consultants, a fixed income consulting firm. Chris earned a BA degree, cum laude, in history from Princeton University in 2006 and a Masters degree in international affairs from the Fletcher School at Tufts University in 2011. Chris is also a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of Books for Kids, a non-profit organization that promotes literacy among preschool-aged children in under-resourced communities.

Bianca Bosker

New York/Nantucket. Bianca is an award-winning journalist and author who has a deep love of libraries. She is currently at work on a book about contemporary art and up-and-coming artists. Her most recent book, Cork Dork, was a New York Times bestseller and critics’ pick, and hailed as the “Kitchen Confidential of the wine world.” In addition to serving as a contributing writer at The Atlantic, Bosker has written for publications including The New Yorker, The New York Times, The New Republic, Food & Wine, and Roads & Kingdoms, and her work has been anthologized in the Best American Travel Writing. She previously authored Original Copies (University of Hawaii Press/Hong Kong University Press, 2013), the first definitive account of China’s “duplitecture” movement, and co-founded HuffPost’s tech section, serving as the site’s Executive Tech Editor until 2014. She grew up in Portland, Oregon, graduated from Princeton University, and lives in New York.

Anne Buckman Calder

Houston, TX/Nantucket. Anne has been a summer resident of Nantucket since she was a child. She frequented the Atheneum when she was a kid and enjoys sharing time there now with her three children. Anne is a graduate of Boston College’s School of Arts & Sciences and Fordham University School of Law. After practicing corporate law in New York City for several years, Anne now resides in Houston, Texas, where she focuses on raising her children and is involved in several local charities, Anne was recently elected to Advisory Board of the Hermann Park Conservancy.

Jack Carter

New York City/Siasconset. Jack spent the past 30 years coming to Nantucket with his four siblings to devour summer reading, perform odd jobs, and most recently, relax. In what he views as a natural progression, Jack has graduated from bussing tables at the mercurial ACK restaurant to leading healthcare corporate strategy. After several years at a large healthcare venture capital fund, Jack now leads strategy at an NYC-based company that builds and supports networks of healthcare and social service providers. He believes firmly in the ability of coordinated community engagement to transform lives. Jack is a graduate of the University of Virginia and is fascinated by art, architecture, and anything his aunt Paula recommends to read.

William D. Cohan

New York City/Nantucket. Bill was a former senior Wall Street M&A investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frères & Co., Merrill Lynch, and JPMorganChase, and is now the New York Times bestselling author of three non-fiction narratives about Wall Street:  Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World; House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street; and, The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co., the winner of the 2007 FT/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. His book, The Price of Silence, about the Duke lacrosse scandal, was published in April 2014 and was also a New York Times bestseller. His book, Why Wall Street Matters, was published by Random House in February 2017. His new book Four Friends, about what happened to four of his friends from Andover, his high school, was published by Flatiron Press, a division of Macmillan Publishers, in July 2019. His new book, Power Failure, about the extraordinary rise and fall of GE, once the world’s most valuable and respected company, will be published in November 2022. A former special correspondent at Vanity Fair, Bill is a founding partner of Puck, a new digital media company where he is also the Wall Street correspondent.. He also writes for The Financial Times, The New York Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, The Atlantic, The Nation, Fortune, and Politico. He previously wrote a bi-weekly opinion column for The New York Times, an opinion column for BloombergView, as well as for the Dealbook section of the New York Times. He is a non-staff, on-air contributor to CNBC and also appears regularly on CNN, on MSNBC, and the BBC-TV. He has also appeared three times as a guest on the Daily Show, with Jon Steward, The NewsHour, The Charlie Rose Show, The Tavis Smiley Show, and CBS This Morning as well as on numerous NPR, BBC, and Bloomberg radio programs. He was formerly a contributing editor for Bloomberg TV.  Bill is a graduate of Phillips Academy (Andover), Duke University, Columbia University School of Journalism, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business. He grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Nathan (Nate) Cressman

Greensboro, NC/Nantucket. Approaching 25 years with Magnussen Home, Nathan Cressman began his career in 1997 as Product Development Manager. Since then, he has served in various leadership positions at the company, including Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Product Development in 2009 before becoming President in 2012 and then President & CEO in 2017. Nathan and his wife Lisa now own Magnussen Home. Magnussen home is one of the largest suppliers of case goods in North America. Nathan serves on the AHFA Board and is the City of Hope 2021 Nominee for the furniture industry. Born and raised in Canada, Cressman attended Bowling Green State University, where he played hockey. He and his wife Lisa have two children, Georgia and Ty. Both attend Auburn University, where Ty is a Junior on the men’s basketball team. During his free time, Cressman enjoys golfing, traveling, attending Carolina Hurricanes hockey games, and caring for Louis, the long-haired dachshund he and his wife share at their Greensboro, North Carolina home.

Clementina V. Durkes

Siasconset. Clement and her husband Rick had their honeymoon on Nantucket 45 years ago. They bought their home in Sconset in 1996 enjoying 20 summers with their two daughters before deciding to move here permanently in 2016. Clement is a 1973 honors graduate of Northwestern University with a BA in Art History. She followed that interest by volunteering in the Education Department at the Art Institute of Chicago from 2006 to 2016. Another interest in early childhood education led to five years teaching preschool at St. Chrysostom’s Day School in Chicago. She joined the Women’s Board of the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 1985, served as President from 2007 to 2010 and remains a Life Member. In 1997 she joined the Metropolitan Opera Guild and is now an Emeritus Member. She currently serves as President of the Sconset Trust.

Tom Forman

Laguna Beach, CA/Nantucket. Tom has created and produced more than 100 television series, receiving the Peabody and Murrow Awards for his documentary work, multiple Emmy and People’s Choice Awards for his entertainment programing, along with NATPE’s Innovator Award for his groundbreaking formats. His previous venture, Critical Content, was one of the world’s largest producers of unscripted content. While running that company, Forman created and produced series like Get Organized and Instant Dream Home on Netflix, Catfish on MTV, The Great Food Truck Race on Food, Cheap Old Houses on HGTV, and Celebrity Game Face with Kevin Hart on E!. Prior to Critical, Forman worked with international television producer Endemol, where he created and ran the hit ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Earlier in his career, Forman oversaw series for CBS News, including a five-year stint on the long-running news magazine 48 Hours. In 2001 Forman wrote and produced the documentary 9/11, also for CBS News, for which he won Emmy, Peabody, Edward R. Murrow, and WGA Awards.

Allan D. McKelvie, Esquire

Washington, D.C./Nantucket. Allan was a practicing attorney in Washington, until embarking on a career as a real estate consultant and developer. While he was involved in a number of different projects throughout DC in the 1990’s, in the early 2000’s he turned his attention to building an entire village in Ashburn, VA (Goose Creek Village). He is currently trying to retire from this endeavor, as the last remaining parcels are in the process of completion. McKelvie served as chairman of The Council of the Woodrow Wilson House from 1992-1997, a property owned by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; as a board member of the Green Door from 2003-2016, a DC based non-profit which serves approximately 1,800 clients dealing with mental illness; and served on the Board of Trustees of Bullis School in 2008-2012. Bullis is a 3rd – 12th grade school in Potomac Maryland. Darina and Allan have two children, Margot and Roddy. The McKelvies purchased Isle Dew, on Nantucket, in 2012. While Allan enjoys serving on the Board of the Atheneum, biking, golf and sailing, Darina spends much of her time biking and painting.

Charity Grace Mofsen

Nantucket. Originally from North Carolina, Charity Grace first visited Nantucket in the summer of 2015 and became lovestruck — not just from the serene natural beauty — but more importantly, from the people who reside here. This kinship brought her to become a full-time resident within just a few months. With a love for deep listening and advocating for the island’s community, Charity Grace now serves as the Legislative Liaison to State Representative Dylan Fernandes. Inspired by the beauty of Nantucket and the island’s unique history, Charity Grace shares her gifts as a Photographer with brilliant fine art prints and creative storytelling through portrait sessions. Having a degree in Sustainable Residential Design and Development from Maharishi International University, Charity Grace is fascinated by the architecture, history, and buildings of Nantucket and holds her real estate license at Centre Street Realty. An advocate for the empowerment of youth, Charity Grace serves on the board at Nantucket Lighthouse School. Her experience in a consciousness-based learning environment allows her to bring a holistic approach to education that enlivens one’s creativity and encourages the development of full human potential. Charity Grace keeps her feet on the ground with a love for gardening and her head in the stars with a fascination for Astrophotography. Her dog Hershel brings her joy every day.

Nathaniel Philbrick

Nantucket. Nat was born in Boston, raised in Pittsburgh, and has degrees from Brown and Duke Universities. He and his wife Melissa moved to Nantucket with their two young children in 1986. Nat is the author of close to a dozen books, including Away Off Shore, Abram’s Eyes, In the Heart of the Sea, Mayflower, Why Read Moby-Dick?, and Travels with George. He has served on the boards of the Nantucket Atheneum (during the capital campaign to build the children’s library in the 1990s), the Maria Mitchell Association, and Nantucket Community Sailing. He is the founding director of the Egan Maritime Institute and a research fellow at the Nantucket Historical Association.

Thomas S. Roeder

London/New York/Nantucket. Tom first came to Nantucket to visit his grandmother who spent the summer at the White Elephant when he was eleven. He has been coming to the Island ever since, first with his wife Susan and then with their children and now with grandchildren. After receiving an MBA from Wharton School of Commerce and Finance he spent nearly his entire professional career in the securities industry in Europe. Tom first worked in Paris and then was offered an opportunity in London. He and Susan decided to try life in London for one or maybe two years and forty-four years later decided to spend more time in the States. Tom was a member of the Executive Committee at Mabon Nugent & Co., a U.S. investment firm, and was responsible for the London and international effort. Today he and Susan spend their time in New York and London and the summers in Nantucket on Hinckley Lane. Tom has always felt that the Atheneum is a wonderful part of the Nantucket Community.

Margaret Ruttenberg

New York, NY/Princeton, NJ/Nantucket. Margaret holds board certification in anesthesiology and palliative medicine. She practiced the former for 15-20 years and is now on the faculty of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in palliative medicine. There her primary clinical role is to collaborate with emergency room staff in establishing the best course of action for their most critically ill patients. Margaret’s husband, John Ruttenberg, is a computer scientist at Qualcomm, Inc. They have been summer residents of Union Street since 1997. Margaret has served previously on other not-for-profit boards, including Planned Parenthood, Boston Ballet, and Historic New England, and she is presently on the board of American Repertory Ballet. Margaret grew up in a number of places in the United States. She is a graduate of Lewisburg Area High School in Lewisburg, PA; Princeton University (1976); Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1983); and Harvard School of Public Health (1996). She did her internship and residency at Yale University (1983-86, although that’s really a blur). Margaret and John have three adult children dispersed from Cambridge, MA to Truckee, CA to Seattle, WA. They all spent summers on Nantucket counseling campers and selling things ranging from books to organic food. They have families of their own now, with whom they try to visit Nantucket as often as they can.

Bonnie J. Sacerdote

New York/Nantucket.  Bonnie first visited the island when she was 8 years old, and she later worked on the island in the summer of 1963 as a mother’s helper. She has been coming regularly to Nantucket every summer since 1969 with her late husband Peter and their three children. A Smith graduate with a degree in Art History, Bonnie has been active in several non-profits. Currently, she serves on the Board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she formerly was on the Executive Committee and Chair of the Education Committee, and for thirty-five years was a volunteer tour guide. Bonnie was a former teacher in the Learning To Look program in New York, conducted in inner city Catholic Schools. She is a former member of the Smith College Museum of Art Visiting Committee. And formerly served on the National Board of Review of Films. She loves theater and was a former board member of the Manhattan Theatre Club. On the island, Bonnie is a member of the Friends Committee of the NHA. She is a member of the Nantucket Yacht Club, Sankaty Head Golf Club, and Nantucket Golf Club. She enjoys spending time on the island with her three married children and five grandchildren.

Roberto J. Santamaria

Nantucket. Roberto moved to Nantucket in 2015 to accept the position as the Director of Nantucket’s Health & Human Services Department. Roberto is a graduate of the University of Central Florida (BS in Molecular & Microbiology), Salve Regina University (MBA), & Boston University (MPH in Epidemiology & Biostatistics). Roberto has managed Public Health Departments since 2011. Currently, Roberto sits on the Boards of the MA Environmental Health Association, Housing Nantucket, and Addiction Solutions Nantucket. Aside from work and boards, Roberto is an avid Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner and enjoys paddle-boarding with his wife, Erin.

Blaise L. Sheppard

New York City/Nantucket. Blaise is an Investment Banker within the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) at UBS focused on Financial Technology. In this role, he advises companies on a wide variety of capital markets transactions such as private capital raises, IPOs, follow-on equity offerings, high yield and leveraged loan transactions as well as M&A. In his spare time, Blaise enjoys traveling to his hometown of Nantucket with his wife Kat. They are active water people and members of Nantucket Yacht Club. Blaise is also on the Executive Committee of the Dreamland Foundation, Nantucket’s historic non-profit film and cultural center. Living in New York, he is grateful for the opportunities he has to attend multiple cultural events and performances of all kinds. He is also an avid blues guitar player and amateur guitar collector. Blaise received his B.S. from Providence College and has earned the right to use the CFA designation.

Allison Sievers (Ally)

San Francisco/Siasconset. Ally is a marketing professional and non-profit arts and education board member. A NYC native and graduate of Brandeis University, Ally started her career at global advertising agencies in both the US and Japan, managing packaged goods and corporate service accounts. An avid interest in the creative side of the industry led her to study graphic design and eventually to launch both a stationery design business and a consulting resource for small businesses seeking comprehensive marketing services. Ally has focused her philanthropic energies on arts and education organizations, most recently serving as a Trustee for both Marin Country Day School and The Branson School, where she led advancement, strategic, branding and diversity & belonging programs. She is a member of the Executive Board of the San Francisco Ballet Auxiliary and served for seven years as a School Guide for San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Ally and her husband have two grown sons, are profoundly grateful for their Codfish Park cottage, and treasure every moment that they are able to spend on Nantucket.

Janet L. Steinmayer

Essex, CT/Cambridge, MA/Nantucket. Janet L. Steinmayer became Lesley University’s seventh president in July 2019, having served for the decade prior on its Board of Trustees. She started her career as a corporate lawyer in private practice in New York and served as general counsel of Trans World Airlines, then a Fortune 500 Company and the nation’s seventh largest airline. She later served as President and CEO of Centerplate, Inc., then the fifth largest hospitality company in North America, with over 135 National Football League, Major League Baseball and other sports and entertainment clients. She was also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Appleseed Food Frontiers, a business accelerator and investment firm for expansion stage and artisanal food entrepreneurs. Immediately prior to taking the helm at Lesley, she served as president of Mitchell College in New London, Connecticut. During her five years at Mitchell, she led a transformational period in which the college built a strong financial foundation, clarified its distinct mission, and developed a campus master plan that illuminates the history of the campus and addresses the future. Under her leadership, Mitchell developed a unique, ability-driven educational experience designed to make higher education accessible to many who might not otherwise reach their potential through formal education. President Steinmayer also fostered strong community partnerships to give students opportunities to learn skills and abilities relevant to today’s workplace. President Steinmayer has a longstanding commitment to and passion for Lesley informed by her experience both as a trustee and the parent of a Lesley student. Her son is an alumnus of Lesley’s Threshold Program, giving her firsthand knowledge of the university from a family’s perspective. President Steinmayer’s higher education experience also includes 17 years on the board of Bryn Mawr College, her alma mater, where she serves as a vice-chair, and prior service on the Board of Visitors of the John F. Welch School of Business at Sacred Heart University. Ms. Steinmayer received a Bachelor of Arts with honors in English and History magna cum laude from Bryn Mawr College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago. She is serving or has served on the Board of Directors or Trustees of numerous organizations, including the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the NCAA Division III Presidential Advisory Group, the Business Council of Fairfield County, the Fairfield County Community Foundation, the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, and Pequot Chapel. She also is a trustee emerita at the Eagle Hill – Southport School (now the Southport School).

Ann Taylor

Keswick, VA/Nantucket. Ann and her husband Peter began spending time together on Nantucket in 1979, and their extended family made 98 Main Street their summer home in 1993. Ann is Chief Relationship Officer for the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, where she furthers relationships that accelerate the research and development of therapeutic focused ultrasound technology. Previously, Ann spent three decades as Executive Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), and as Executive Director of the Darden School Foundation at the University of Virginia. Along the way, she co-founded an award-winning marketing company dedicated to helping the 50+ population meet their vision, hearing, and mobility needs. Ann served on the boards of the Darden Graduate Business School and the Alumni Association at UVA, her alma mater. She earned her MBA from Darden and was named a Shermet Scholar. Ann is enthusiastic about creating opportunities for young women and serves on the board of the Emily Couric Leadership Forum.The Taylors have two grown sons and a daughter-in-law, who are delighted to spend time on Nantucket as often as possible.

Chairs Emeriti

Alice F. Emerson
Robert A. Greenspon
Joan L. Gulley
John W. Loose

Trustees Emeriti

Nan Geschke
Nancy A. Newhouse
Jane Tyler

Honorary Trustees

Margaret Ritchie Battle
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Diamond Jr.
Lucile W. Hays
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Menschel