American and New England Studies Program at Boston University

Alumni

The Program is particularly proud of its alumni and their accomplishments in the field of preservation. That network stretches across the country and includes many leaders in preservation and related fields. Particularly in Boston and New England, the Program's network provides advice and contacts for current students and faculty, as well as other alumni. Drawing on that strength, the Program relies on its alumni for advice through the Advisory Council and for role models, including those described in the Alumni Focus.

The Alumni Advisory Council

The Alumni Advisory Council of the Preservation Studies Program supports the educational mission of the Program, its students, and faculty. The Council offers advice in matters of curriculum; administration; program development and advancement; communication with regional and national preservation professionals, agencies, and organizations; student recruitment; and resource development. It serves as an advocate for the Program within the broader Boston University community and acts as a conduit for fostering mentoring relationships between alumni and students.

AAC Members

Shantia Anderheggen (BU MA 1993) is the Historic Preservation Planner for the City of Newport, Rhode Island, where she advises on and represents the City's preservation initiatives and administers a local historic district which encompasses 50% of the city's parcels and land area, and includes over 2000 properties. Prior to working in Newport, Shantia was the Historic Preservation Team Leader at Historic New England (formerly the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, SPNEA), overseeing the organization's Stewardship Program, homeowner services, and general historic preservation outreach. HNE's Stewardship Program is nationally known as one of the first programs providing permanent protection for historic buildings through the use of preservation restrictions. Shantia's began working at HNE in 1991 as intern in the Collections Department, cataloguing the architectural elements collection, and she later served as Stewardship Manager and then Director of Stewardship. Shantia has served on several boards and preservation commissions, most recently on the board of the Vernacular Architecture Forum's New England chapter.

Marilyn Fenollosa (BU MA 1990) is a consultant and preservation attorney in private practice. Formerly Senior Program Officer and Regional Attorney for the Northeast Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, based in Boston, she also worked as Community Preservation Program Manager for Historic Massachusetts, Inc. Before earning her Masters degree, she specialized in banking law.

Susan Hollister (BU MA 1985) is an architect at Goody Clancy and Associates, where her work emphasizes preservation architecture and historic resource planning. Her 20 years of preservation experience include work as a preservation planner at the Massachusetts Historical Commission, the Cambridge Historical Commission, and Historic Boston Incorporated, as well as the private consulting firm, Public Archaeology Laboratory. Ms. Hollister worked for a number of firms, including McGinley Hart Associates and Jean Carroon Architects, before joining Goody Clancy. Ms. Hollister has a strong interest in architectural history, has been on the Board of the NE Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians and is currently a board member of the Northeast Chapter, Association for Preservation Technology..

Karen Jessup (BU MA 1983) was formerly a member of the faculty at Roger Williams University and Director of the Center for Historic Preservation there. She has been the recipient of many awards and grants and has served a wide array of preservation organizations, including Preservation Action and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is currently completing work toward a Ph.D. in Landscape Studies at the Centre for Conservation Studies, Leicester School of Architecture and the Faculty of Art and Design, DeMontfort University, Leicester, England.

Ellen Lipsey (BU MA 1981) has held the position of Executive Director of the Boston Landmarks Commission since 1992. In the early 1980s Ellen worked as a consultant to the Boston Landmarks Commission, followed by employment with a Boston-based exhibit design firm. In 1985 she became the historic planner at the Boston Parks and Recreation Department. She has been a professional in historic preservation since 1973, working in San Francisco in the non-profit and private sectors.

Judy McDonough (BU MA 1979) was a member of the first Preservation Studies class, having already launched her career in 1966 as a preservation planner for the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the city's planning department. As the field grew, Judy formulated the City's preservation programs and legislation, both as Survey Director and later as Executive Director. Her decade as State Historic Preservation Officer and Executive Director of the Massachusetts Historical Commission was marked by growth in the Massachusetts Preservation Projects Fund, the local survey program, the MACRIS database system, and the Archaeological Center, as well as by extensive outreach to federal, statewide, and local preservation organizations.

Elizabeth Muzzey (BU MA 1991) serves as State Survey Coordinator for the New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources. Previously she worked as historian and cultural resources manager for the New Hampshire Department of Transportation and as a consulting architectural historian. Among her special research interests are railroads and 20th century history and housing.

Gretchen Schuler (BU MA 1984) taught preservation planning courses in the Program from 1997 to 2004 and served as preservation planner in Newton, MA, throughout the 1990s. In her private practice, she has worked on a variety of preservation projects, including surveys and National Register nominations for metropolitan Boston communities. More recently she was part of a team that established a methodology to identify, evaluate, and preserve heritage landscapes and prepared a booklet Reading the Land, now being distributed by the Department of Conservation and Recreation. Ms. Schuler has also worked with the Massachusetts Historical Commission to develop training programs for local historic district commissioners.

Elaine Stiles (BU MA 2002) is a preservation planner and architectural historian with the transportation, land development, and environmental services firm Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Inc., in Watertown, MA. Before joining VHB, she worked as a senior historian at Preservation Company, a preservation consulting firm in Kensington, NH. Elaine is also active with local preservation advocacy efforts in her hometown of Boston.

Barbara Thibault's (BU MA 1985) preservation career arose from a passion for history, architecture, teaching, and the environment and was launched after she and her husband raised three children. She began working for the Andover Historical Society in 1986 and served as their first director of education and as executive director. In 2001 she became the first full-time executive director of the Gibson House Museum in Boston's Back Bay.

Sarah Zimmerman (BU MA 1981) is Preservation Specialist at Historic New England, staffing the Historic Homeowner Program. Ms. Zimmerman worked for many years as a preservation planner at the Cambridge Historical Commission, where her work focused on neighborhood conservation districts, an innovative alternative to traditional local historic districts. She has also worked at the Massachusetts Historical Commission, as a member of the reconnaissance survey teams, as preservation planner, and as director of the Preservation Planning division. She is author of numerous district study reports and National Register nominations, as well a guide for homeowners and preservation commissions on historically appropriate exterior paint colors.

July 23, 2007

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