Elizabeth L. Hillman, the president of Mills School, has been appointed president and chief govt of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum in Decrease Manhattan.
The board made the place official on Thursday, saying Hillman, 54, who served as a U.S. Air Pressure house operations officer within the Nineties earlier than turning into a legislation professor within the 2000s, can be the third particular person to steer the group and would begin in October. She replaces one of many museum’s founders, Alice M. Greenwald, who stated in December that she was stepping down after 16 years there.
Former New York Metropolis Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who serves because the establishment’s chairman, stated in an announcement that Hillman “brings a uncommon set of abilities from her expertise as school president managing massive establishments by difficult instances, as a veteran who remains to be relied upon by our armed providers, as a historian whose deep sense of service is grounded in a lifelong dedication to studying, and as a trailblazer who has fought for justice and equality her complete profession.”
Different board members celebrated Hillman’s experience with the navy, like Adm. William H. McRaven, retired, a trustee who stated in an announcement that this background has “ready her to steer this establishment and meet these sacred tasks” of guaranteeing that new generations perceive what occurred in 2001.
“With the choice of Beth Hillman,” Greenwald stated in an announcement, “each the Museum and the Memorial will proceed to thrive in service to our nation as a landmark web site of commemoration, schooling and inspiration.”
Nonetheless, Hillman is an unconventional alternative to steer a corporation that has struggled lately to cowl its excessive bills, recuperate its viewers dimension and retain staff. She has by no means labored for a museum, and whereas she was the president of Mills School in California, the faculty merged with Northeastern College due to low enrollment and troubled funds. In July, the Oakland Metropolis Council handed a decision urging an investigation into the merger, calling it “sudden, complicated, and achieved with little or no transparency.”
When you think about making modifications in establishments, Hillman stated in an interview, “that creates some repercussions which are typically robust on folks.”
“I’m actually gratified by the outcomes,” she added. “We saved jobs and made new pathways for college kids.”
When an govt recruitment agency reached out to Hillman to ask if she was inquisitive about main the establishment, she had not but visited the galleries, however shortly rectified that.
“It’s a exceptional story of resilience,” Hillman stated, reflecting on her go to, including that she wished to see the museum “proceed telling the highly effective and impactful story of Sept. 11 to achieve new audiences.”
Critics of the museum’s earlier management had been cautiously optimistic that Hillman’s outsider perspective and background in navy justice — she had experience in sexual violence and gender points within the navy — would assist curators write the establishment’s subsequent chapter. In any case, little has modified throughout the web site’s galleries since they opened in 2014.
Elizabeth Miller, the daughter of a firefighter who died on Sept. 11 and a former museum worker, stated that Hillman ought to revisit how the story of that day is informed. “More often than not, change could be uncomfortable,” she stated. “However I need to go to a museum the place messages of peace and inclusivity are current.”
