FOUNDERS WORKING GROUP
The Founders Working Group, profiled below, is comprised of artists, scholars, and art historians who worked collaboratively to create Revealing a Deeper History: Intervention at the Founders Monument, the pilot project of the Monument & Memory initiative.
Renée Ater
Professor Renée Ater, PhD, is the Visiting Associate Professor in Africana Studies and Affiliate Faculty at the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University. She is the author of several books and numerous articles on public monuments. Currently, Ater is working on the third iteration of her digital repository Contemporary Monuments to the Slave Past, and writing a digital publication entitled Memoryscapes of Slavery in collaboration with the Center for Digital Scholarship at Brown University. She is interested in how communities, working with artists, archaeologists, designers, and landscape designers, negotiate the commemoration and memorialization of the slave past.
Joe Bagley
Joe is Boston’s City Archeologist and has been in the post since 2011. He specializes in Native American, historical, public, and urban archaeology. He is a supporter of community engagement in archaeology through social media, public events, and hands-on collaboration in all aspects of field and lab activities. Joe has conducted archaeological surveys from the woods of Maine to the Florida Everglades, and in 2016 was awarded the John L. Cotter Award from the Society for Historical Archaeological for early career achievements.
Shanda Foster
Shanda Foster is a versatile writer, producer, and director with a strong background in media and entertainment. She started her career in journalism and then transitioned into sports, co-hosting a podcast on NBC Sports Boston. During the pandemic, she shifted into film production, working with clients like Bose and contributing to projects such as “The Color Purple Audio Experience.” In addition to film, Shanda is a talented visual artist, creating impactful works through storytelling, installations, and film. Her role as a cancer advocate and health influencer truly sets her apart.
Sarah Hutt
Sarah is the Friends Collections Care Manager, overseeing the conservation maintenance of the sculpture collection in the three parks under the Friends care. A former Executive Director of the Boston Art Commission, Sarah is also an artist and arts consultant whose work has been exhibited nationally, receiving awards and fellowships from numerous organizations, and included in many private and public collections. Including the MFA and Harvard’s Fogg Museum. She has been a visiting artist at Emerson College and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Ross Miller
Ross Miller is an artist who works to integrate art into public places and every day experience. Through landscape integrated artwork he seeks to create community identity in outdoor spaces, create sites for private reflection and cultural expression, and works to amplify one’s experience of nature and natural processes. Rather than imposing a specific medium or content on a site, the ideas evolve by examining a location’s ecological and social history, patterns of pedestrian activity, quality of light, and proposed future uses in order to create public artwork that makes direct connection with a site, and enrich one’s experience of being in a specific place. For over 20 years, Ross has worked with 5th grade Quincy School students and Massachusett Tribal members to create a fishweir on Boston Common as a temporary installation, representing the fishweirs built for thousands of years to catch fish during the spring spawn.
Jenny Oliver
A multifaceted artist based in Greater Boston, Jenny Oliver serves as an educator, performer, choreographer, and arts advocate. Rooted in trauma-informed culturally responsive approaches, she weaves kinetic storytelling with dance and collective collaboration to create meaningful experiences. She believes that movement is the first form of communication, and has worked with an array of organizations including the Boston Center for the Arts, City of Boston, WBUR CitySpace, the Design Studio for Social Intervention, Castle of Our Skins, Museum of Science, MFA Boston, Peabody Essex Museum, and Masary Studios on projects that invite the public into creative placemaking. In addition to her art making practice she is the Head of Dance Performance at Tufts University, teaches weekly open adult modern dance technique classes in Cambridge and Somerville, and recently became a Jacob’s Pillow Curriculum in Motion Practitioner.
FOUNDERS WORKING GROUP CONSULTANTS
Gwen Hadden
Gwen is the Friends DEI consultant. A management consultant with over 25 years experience consulting to national and international organizations, her primary areas of expertise are diversity, equity, inclusion, and organizational culture change with a focus in health care and cultural and arts management.
Mike Kislovsky
Michael Kislovsky, with over 20 years of experience, is the creative lead of Digital Fiction, a video and animation consultancy that specializes in creating engaging visual content for a wide variety of clients.
Nathalie Royston
Nathalie Royston brings over 15 years of experience managing diverse art projects from conception to completion. She thrives in collaborative environments, fostering strong communication between artists, clients, and stakeholders. Her expertise spans all phases of project execution, including budgeting, scheduling, fabrication, installation, and marketing. She possesses a deep understanding of art production, from materials and techniques to leading teams in successful on-site installations.
RESEARCH WORKING GROUP
Robert Allison
Professor Robert Allison, PhD, has been a Professor of History at Suffolk University since 1992, and also teaches history at the Harvard Extension School. He has written numerous books on American and Boston history, and has edited books on American history spanning from the colonial period to the 20th century. Professor Allison has received numerous awards for his teaching. He is an elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and President of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Joe Bagley
Joe is Boston’s City Archeologist and has been in the post since 2011. He specializes in Native American, historical, public, and urban archaeology. He is a supporter of community engagement in archaeology through social media, public events, and hands-on collaboration in all aspects of field and lab activities. Joe has conducted archaeological surveys from the woods of Maine to the Florida Everglades, and in 2016 was awarded the John L. Cotter Award from the Society for Historical Archaeological for early career achievements.
Thomas Green
Thomas is a member of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag and chair of the tribe’s History Preservation Committee. He specializes in the Indigenous history of Massachusetts. Thomas is an artist and educator who highlights Indigenous history and cultural practices. His work includes constructing the annual fish weir on the Common with artist Ross Miller, and participating in the Friends Making History on the Common.
Jeanne Oliver-Foster
Jeanne is a recently retired Elementary K-5 Teacher, Schoolwide Music Specialist, and BPS Arts Liaison from Boston Public Schools for 30 years. As a third grade Teacher for many of these years, Jeanne is very knowledgeable about teaching the history of Boston and Massachusetts. However, the curriculums provided have never included the history of the Massachusett Tribe at Ponkapoag, of which Jeanne and her family have been active members since 1980.
Jeanne has worked on several other initiatives in Boston, including copywriter of Embrace Boston’s Harm Report, outlining 7 areas of life that African Americans have been negatively impacted by. This report led to the Mass. State Legislature forming a Commission on Reparations to study these areas within the City of Boston. Jeanne participated in another Embrace Boston initiative as co-author with her daughter, Shanda Foster, in writing the 65 biographies for the Freedom Plaza Honorees, which surrounds the MLK Jr. & Coretta Scott King Embrace Monument on the Boston Common.
Jeanne is originally from New Bedford, MA., and is a graduate of Bridgewater State University, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education K-5 and Music K-12, and a Master’s Degree in Communications/Media from Fitchburg State University in 2006, with a focus on photography and video production for educational purposes.
Gwen Hadden
Gwen is the Friends DEI consultant. A management consultant with over 25 years experience consulting to national and international organizations, her primary areas of expertise are diversity, equity, inclusion, and organizational culture change with a focus in health care and cultural and arts management.
Beatrice Nessen
Beatrice is a Board member of the Friends and chair of the Common Committee. Beatrice has worked both professionally and privately as an advocate for the environment and for urban issues. In addition to board membership on numerous other organizations, she is one of the founders of the Garden of Peace, a memorial to Massachusetts homicide victims in Boston.
