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by Avi Y. Decter (Editor), Marsha L. Semmel (Editor), Ken Yellis (Editor)
Change Is Required will empower museum professionals, institutional leaders, funders and supporters to address the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic, economic dislocation, and social protest and stimulate new thinking about the future directions of museums in America.
Author Biography
Avi Decter, Managing Partner of History Now, is known for interpreting difficult subjects, including labor unrest at the Boott Cotton Mill Museum in Lowell, MA; civil war at the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg, PA; and genocide at United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Over the years, he has helped to plan new museums in six states and the District of Columbia. Decter is the author of Interpreting American Jewish History at Museums and Historic Sites (2016) and Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures (forthcoming). With Ken Yellis, he writes the History in Progress column for History News. Marsha Semmel is an independent consultant working with cultural and educational organizations on leadership development, strategic planning, and partnerships. In 2019, she published Partnership Power: Essential Museum Strategies for Today's Networked World. Semmel has served as Senior Advisor to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement, and the Noyce Leadership Institute. She has taught at the Bank Street College Graduate program in museum education since 2015. Previously, Semmel served in leadership roles at the Institute of Museum and Library Services and NEH. She has been President/CEO of Conner Prairie, in Indiana, and Women of the West Museum in Denver. Ken Yellis, Principal of Project Development Services, served as guest curator for Passages through the Fire: American Jews and the Civil War. A historian with four decades in the museum field, Ken has been involved in over 100 history, science, and art exhibitions. Ken served as grant writer and content developer for The Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present and Future (2009-2011). He has worked for the Touro Synagogue Foundation, the International Tennis Hall of Fame, the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, Plimoth Plantation, and the National Portrait Gallery.
