Using Your Mission Statement to Make Your Organization More Nimble - Day 1/Session 1 - Small Museums Virtual Summit

Ann Bennett has more than 20 years’ experience working in museums, education and archaeology. Before coming to LHS, she served as the curator of the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum, as coordinator of the Hays-Heighe House at Harford Community College, and worked at PastPerfect Museum Software. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, with an MA in historical archaeology from the College of William and Mary in Virginia. She is very active in local and regional historical and cultural organizations, and is the past-president of the Archaeological Society of the Northern Chesapeake.

Marieke Van Damme has worked in non-profits for over fifteen years, starting as an Americorps VISTA volunteer in Alaska right out of undergrad. She worked in collections management for the National Park Service in Sitka, Alaska, and in Salem, Massachusetts; managed an 18th-century historic site in Peabody, Massachusetts; and served as Deputy Director at the Bostonian Society/Old State House. She is currently the executive director for the Cambridge Historical Society in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2014, Marieke launched Joyful Museums, a project studying workplace culture in museums, and in 2017 was a co-founder of GEMM (Gender Equity in Museum Movement). She proudly serves as a member of the New England Museum Association’s board. 

Sean Blinn is an independent museum professional based in New Jersey, with a practice focused on government relations, evaluation, and communication (including social media). His primary background is with historic house museums, where he uses stories of the past to help visitors understand the present. He enjoys showing how life has changed over time, including the social effects of technological change. He works to ensure that voices historically left out of narratives are represented in museums’ narratives and builds partnerships with libraries and other cultural institutions. He has served as a member of local government historic preservation, cultural, and zoning commissions. Prior to joining the museum field, he worked in the corporate sector, working on projects from writing and editing to leading software testing projects.