AASLH Meeting of the Membership

Email: nburns@connerprairie.org

Norman Burns, President and CEO of Conner Prairie Museum in Fishers, Indiana, has been actively involved in museum administration and entrepreneurial leadership, fund raising, preservation, conservation, education, and cultural heritage tourism for over 34 years. As the CEO and Executive Director of six different historic properties and general museums in Tennessee, Virginia and Indiana, he has successfully developed nationally recognized-award winning programs, and created innovative approaches and compelling visions for operating history and general museums. Burns has served on various boards and committees for local, state, regional, and national cultural organizations including  AAM Accreditation and MAP programs, and is the Chair for the American Association for State and Local History. 

Email: dichtl@aaslh.org

John Dichtl became AASLH President & CEO in 2015. Prior to that he was the executive director of the National Council on Public History (NCPH) for nine years, and worked for the Organization of American Historians for fourteen years as deputy director and in several other roles. John received his MA and PhD in early American history from Indiana University, and from 2006 to 2015 was an adjunct faculty member of the history department at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Before graduate school he worked for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. He is a 2004 graduate of the Seminar for Historical Administration, a program that stems from an AASLH partnership with the Indiana Historical Society and other organizations. John helped to found the History Relevance Campaign, the International Federation for Public History, and is active in the National Coalition for History.

Dina Bailey is the CEO of Mountain Top Vision, a consulting company that works with organizations on trainings and strategic initiatives that support more inclusive communities. She has been the Director of Methodology and Practice for the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, the inaugural Director of Educational Strategies at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, and the Director of Museum Experiences at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, and a high school English teacher at Pike High School. Dina holds a Bachelors in Middle and Secondary Education, a Masters in Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation, and a graduate certificate in Museum Studies. She has been an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University and has been published in both the formal education and museum fields. Dina is proud to be the Secretary of the American Association for State and Local History, the Board Chair of Next Generation Men and Women, and the Chair-Elect of the American Alliance of Museums’ Education Committee. 

Email: becky@taftmuseum.org

Rebekah Beaulieu, Ph.D. is the Louise Taft Semple President & CEO of the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati, Ohio. She previously served as Director of the Florence Griswold Museum in Old Lyme, Connecticut and as Associate Director at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. She serves as Treasurer of AASLH and on the faculty of AASLH’s History Leadership Institute. Becky is also an Accreditation Commissioner for the American Alliance of Museums.

Becky is the author of Financial Fundamentals for Historic House Museums (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 and of Endowment Essentials for Museums (2022)). She holds an M.A in Art History and Museum Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and in Arts Administration from Columbia University; she earned her Ph.D. in American and New England Studies at Boston University.