Lunch & Learn
MA250 Lunch & Learn program provides an opportunity to hear from the experts and embrace the Massachusetts commemorations, celebrations and events.
Lisa Krassner, Concord Museum & Reed Gochberg, PhD, Concord Museum
April 8
Lisa Krassner is the Executive Director of the Concord Museum. As an accomplished museum professional, she excels at bridging the gap between mission and revenue, driving greater reach and relevance for the institution. An entrepreneurial leader with a proven track record, Lisa has a remarkable ability to build infrastructure and manage projects with significant institutional impact. Her high emotional intelligence and commitment to innovation enable her to lead cross-functional teams effectively, fostering consensus and delivering outstanding results.
Lisa Krassner, Concord Museum & Reed Gochberg, PhD, Concord Museum
April 8
Lisa Krassner is the Executive Director of the Concord Museum. As an accomplished museum professional, she excels at bridging the gap between mission and revenue, driving greater reach and relevance for the institution. An entrepreneurial leader with a proven track record, Lisa has a remarkable ability to build infrastructure and manage projects with significant institutional impact. Her high emotional intelligence and commitment to innovation enable her to lead cross-functional teams effectively, fostering consensus and delivering outstanding results.
Gerald Ford’s Third Century: Reflection on the Bicentennial
Dr. Mirelle Luecke
Supervisory Curator, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum
May 13, 2025
Dr. Mirelle Luecke is responsible for maintaining the museum’s artifact collections and developing its exhibition program. She curated the museum’s most recent original exhibits, Ford at 50 and The Betty Blip. Trained as a curator and historian, she received her M.A. from New York University and a PhD in American and Maritime History, from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Luecke is committed to fostering public engagement through diverse and compelling programming in museums, historic sites, and cultural institutions.
Malissa Costa
Guest Experience Manager, Historic Patuxet Homesite, Plimoth Patuxet Museums
June 10th, 2025
Malissa Costa (Mashpee, Wampanoag) leads the operations and interpretation on the Historic Patuxet Homesite. The staff of this major exhibit have been interpreting the history, heritage, and traditions of the Wampanoag, Pokanoket, and other Indigenous peoples of the Northeast for more than 50 years. With particular expertise in Wampanoag foodways, Malissa is a cultural knowledge-bearer about the stories and cultural survival of the Indigenous people who have lived on this land since time immemorial and continue to thrive here today.
1775: the Year the War Began
Robert J. Allison
Professor of History at Suffolk University
July 8, 2025
The War for American Independence began in 1775. Why? Why did armed conflict not begin sooner? Could war have been avoided? Neither side wanted a war, but each would accept one in order to establish its aims. What were the aims of each side, what obstacles were in the way of achieving them, and how was the situation different at the end of the year?
Robert J. Allison is a professor of history at Suffolk University. His books include The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World, a biography of American naval hero Stephen Decatur, and short books on the history of Boston, the American Revolution, and an edition of The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Two of his classes, “Before 1776: Life in Colonial America,” and “The Age of Benjamin Franklin” are available from The Great Courses. As chair of Revolution 250, a consortium of organizations planning Revolutionary commemorations in Massachusetts, he hosts its weekly podcast (https://www.buzzsprout.com/1336051) featuring conversations on the Revolution with historians and interpreters. He received his Ph.D. in the History of American Civilization at Harvard, the first American studies doctoral program. He is President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts (https://www.colonialsociety.org/), a scholarly organization focused on early American history, and a life-trustee of the USS CONSTITUTION Museum.
For contact information, visit https://www.robertallisonhistory.com/
Mariners, Privateers, and Soldiers: Marblehead's Revolutionary History
Lauren McCormack
Executive Director, Marblehead Museum
July 22, 2025
Lauren McCormack has served as the Executive Director of the Marblehead Museum since 2018, where she has led several projects to uncover and share the history of Black individuals who lived and worked in Marblehead throughout its history, for which the Museum earned a 2023 AASLH History Leadership in History Award. The Museum’s current project is to research, preserve, and interpret the newly-acquired 1766 detached Kitchen and Slave Quarters of the Jeremiah Lee Estate. Prior to that, she was the Project Director for an Institute of Museum and Library Services National Leadership Grant, Engage Families, with the USS Constitution Museum, where she led a team that studied best practices for encouraging engagement and learning among and between all family members in museum programming (engagefamilies.org). She has also served as the Assistant Director of Education and Programming for Old Sturbridge Village. McCormack served as the Research Coordinator and Mass Humanities Scholar-in-Residence for the USS Constitution Museum, where she studied People of Color who served in the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, as well as researched over 1,000 of USS Constitution’s crewmembers during the War of 1812. McCormack has a Masters of Arts degree in American History from Brandeis University and a Masters of Arts degree in American and New England Studies from Boston University, where her major paper was a study of the Black community living on the North Slope of Boston’s Beacon Hill in the early 19th century.
Expanding the Massachusetts Story
Brian Boyles
August 12, 2025
Brian Boyles is Executive Director of Mass Humanities, a foundation that creates opportunities for the people of Massachusetts to transform their lives and build a more equitable commonwealth through the humanities. Boyles joined the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities in 2006. As Vice President of Content, he served as director of the Louisiana Humanities Center and publisher of LEH’s award-winning quarterly magazine, 64 Parishes. He was Executive Publisher for New Orleans & the World: 1718-2018 Tricentennial Anthology, a landmark book published by LEH in partnership with the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Boyles joined Mass Humanities in 2018. During his tenure, Mass Humanities has grown its impact as a grant maker focused on supporting grassroots organizations, delivering more than $9.7 million in direct funding to nonprofits across Massachusetts.
Boyles serves on the state’s Special Commission on the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution, and is co-chair of Everyone 250, an initiative of Embrace Boston to produce a citywide, curated cultural experience in Boston in 2026.
Revolutionaries: The Artists who made America
Ethan W. Lasser
John Moors Cabot Chair of the Art of the Americas & Head of Exhibitions Strategy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Ethan W. Lasser is the John Moors Cabot Chair of the Art of the Americas Department and the Head of Exhibitions Strategy at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He leads the curatorial team responsible for the Museum’s renowned collection of paintings, sculpture and decorative arts from across North, Central and South America, ancient to modern. A curator, scholar and convenor, Lasser has contributed to exhibitions and publications on a range of American art topics. His most recent show, Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina considers the enslaved artists who led the ceramics industry across the 19th-century South. Lasser has also curated exhibitions of Philip Guston, Winslow Homer, and 19th century African-American art (with artist Theaster Gates, Jr.). Prior to the MFA, he held curatorial positions at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee and the Harvard Art Museums. He received his PhD from Yale University, and graduated from Williams College, where he is currently a Trustee. In 2023, President Biden appointed Lasser to serve on the Committee for the Preservation of the White House. Lasser lives in West Newton, Massachusetts with his wife and three children.
Past Lunch & Learn
Celebrating with Collections: Utilizing Collections in Your Community’s Anniversary Celebration
Jesse Keel provides preservation consultations, training programs, assessments, and disaster advice to a variety of cultural heritage organizations nationwide. Since joining NEDCC in 2023, she has performed preservation assessments and custom consultations for museums, historical societies, historic homes, and universities both large and small in addition to presenting over 25 hours of training on topics ranging from digital preservation to disaster preparedness. Jesse currently serves as education chair and member-at-large on the Society of American Archivists Preservation Section Steering Committee and as the Web Administrator for New England Archivists.
When the Lions Write
Dr. Noelle N. Trent
February 18, 2025
Dr. Noelle N. Trent, President & CEO of the Museum of African American History | Boston & Nantucket, combines her passion for history with professional expertise to craft empowering experiences about Black history. As an accomplished public historian, Dr. Trent has served on committees in national museum organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums, American Association of State & Local History, the Association of African American Museums, and the International Sites of Conscience. She has collaborated with notable institutions including the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Previously, Dr. Trent served as Director of Interpretation, Collections & Education at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, spearheading major exhibitions as well as collections and educational initiatives, including the commemorative service for the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination, MLK50. Her contributions have garnered media attention from outlets such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and The Today Show. Dr. Trent graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Summa Cum Laude from Howard University and holds a doctorate in United States History.
Kayla Coleman, NEMA
March 11
Kayla Coleman is the Executive Director of the New England Museum Association (NEMA). With a notable background in the fine arts and museum industry, she excels in driving program and organizational development. Kayla is adept at optimizing internal workflows and processes, enhancing organizational capacity and deliverables. Her expertise in program development and project management has consistently achieved comprehensive organizational growth with reduced resource expenditures. Kayla is also skilled in identifying best practices for productivity, time management, stakeholder relationships, event planning, and management, ensuring quantifiable results.
