Debbie Rankin, Executive Director
A lifelong resident of Montgomery County and a graduate of the College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, College Park, Debbie was named Executive Director in 2008.  With a broad array of experience in non-profit management as well as development and marketing expertise, Debbie served as Executive Director at the Sandy Spring Museum and Development Director at BlackRock Center for the Arts.  Debbie has also worked in advertising/public relations and served as PTA President/Vice President for over 5 years.  As one of the first nominees for the Athena Award, presented by the Olney Chamber of Commerce, she is also a member of the Leadership Montgomery Class of 2009.

Image: Gladys Neale Hilton (1895-2002) Married to Thomas Pickering Pratt, Jr.
“She epitomizes grace, class and style”

Beth Hickey, Assistant Director

Beth, a native of Rockville, has worked in the museum and cultural heritage fields since the late 1990s when she found her calling as a MCHS high school intern. While working on an undergraduate degree in anthropology at Northern Arizona University, Beth worked as an archaeologist in Arizona and New Mexico. In 2003, she returned to MCHS as the Waters House Site Director for a year before moving back to Arizona to pursue a Master’s in Anthropology. Although she enjoys working as an archaeologist, and occasionally misses being out in the field, Beth has discovered that her true passion is sharing the past. This is thanks to her experiences in public archaeology and at the Museum of Northern Arizona where she particularly enjoyed working with researchers and giving tours, in addition to caring for the archaeology collections. She looks forward to continuing the tradition of developing innovative programs at MCHS and fostering an appreciation of Montgomery County heritage in the community.

Image: Kitty Poole, c. 1910, donated by the Poole family.

Joanna Church, Director of Collections
Joanna works with the MCHS artifact collections and also researches, fabricates and installs most of the exhibits in the museums.  A Montgomery County native, Joanna has a BA in anthropology from Grinnell College, and an MA in museum studies from the George Washington University.  She has worked at MCHS since 1998 and is particularly fond of the textile and ceramic collections.

Image: Mary Shaw Bennett, ca. 1895. Donated by Laurence Halstead.

Elizabeth Otey, Education Manager

A native of Kauai, Hawaii Elizabeth has been a life long lover of history.  She graduated from Meredith College, in Raleigh, North Carolina with a major in history and a minor in marketing.  Her graduate degree is from East Carolina University, also in history.  After teaching high school social studies for three years in North Carolina she decided to explore other learning environments.  A student of history, Elizabeth believes that our past can teach us much about honoring our environment, and applying the lessons learned to our future.

Image: Dorothy Helen Clark, ca. 1925-1930.  Scanned from a photo in the possession of Elizabeth Barrett Prettyman Guay.

Jennie Cottrell, Office Manager
Born in Takoma Park, Jennie has lived in Montgomery County for almost all of her life.  A theater major in college, she spent several years working in local theaters before enjoying a variety of other professions, including many years in the hotel industry.  After a post-9/11 layoff from the professional training department of Marriott International, Jennie took advantage of the opportunity to stay home and focus on raising her son. She began working for MCHS in 2005.  In addition to the usual assortment of office manager duties, her responsibilities include maintaining memberships, handling sales, orders and inventory for the gift shops and coordinating the summer camp program.

Image: Everette Stratmyer Gormley. Donated by Gladys S. Benson. "Dressed to appear in a play, Everette has star quality."

Patricia Andersen, Librarian
Pat has been with MCHS since 1996, and was formerly a library volunteer for 10 years.  She has over 30 years experience as a professional genealogist, researcher and writer and was a former editor and publisher of Western Maryland Genealogy, as well as an abstractor and publisher of Frederick and Montgomery County court records.  She is available to assist our researchers in their local history and genealogy quests and is also a participant in the Speakers Bureau.

Image: Mildred Zeitler, ca. 1913, donated by Mildred Zeitler Burroughs

Emily Correll, School Program Coordinator
Emily’s duties include scheduling and helping to give school tours, pre-school programs, and Girl Scout programs.  She is the District Coordinator for Montgomery County for National History Day.  She began at MCHS as a school docent volunteer in 1993 and came to work on a one-year grant in 1994.  Emily has a BA in history from Birmingham-Southern College and an MSLS and MA in history from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.  Before moving to Montgomery County in 1992, she was a reference librarian.

Image: Lavinia Engle, first Director of the Maryland League of Women Voters.