Biographies

Library Executives:
The senior management team of The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

Library Trustees:
Overseers of the establishment and operations of the Library.

Biographies of Library Executives

Lesley Pitts, Executive Manager and President
Pitts previously managed the Library archives from 2002 through 2005—these collections are at the core of its purpose and mission. Most recently, Pitts has served as Interim Executive Manager. As chief executive, she supervises all functions of the Library, including the archival collection and its exhibits and public programs.

Pitts has also served as a member of the team responsible for the development and implementation of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. As a part of this team, she helped create and manage a major traveling exhibit on the life of Mary Baker Eddy. Touring for over five years, this exhibit was featured at the National Historic Park in Seneca Falls, the National Press Club, The Martin Luther King Library, and The Gelman Library at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

As part of the Library’s engagement with the Boston community, Pitts serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of The Fenway Alliance, a consortium of academic, cultural, and arts organizations collaborating to enhance the cultural, environmental, and economic vitality of the Fenway area.

Mark Thayer, Art Director
A 1978 graduate of the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts, Mark Thayer began shooting commercial assignments while still in school. After a successful stint as a staff photographer for a Boston-area advertising firm, he opened his own studio in 1983, and acquired such noted clients as Bose Audio, Titleist and FootJoy Worldwide, Bell Helmets, Raleigh Bicycles, Fischer Skis, ESPN, Chase Bank, Hewlett Packard, and American Express. In 2001, Thayer was contracted to produce an enormous body of work for The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston. Eighteen months were spent creating images—using various film and digital formats—for a quarterly magazine, a Web site, library exhibits and interactive kiosks, historical displays, and window scrim treatments. The completed Library was then extensively photographed to create materials for advertising, public relations, fund raising, and educational programs. In August 2003 Thayer accepted a permanent position as the Library’s art director and photographer.

Judith Huenneke, Senior Research Archivist
Judy Huenneke is a graduate of the School of Information and Library Science, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. She also received a second master’s degree, in history, from University of Massachusetts/Boston. She has been active in archives and records management for over two decades. Presently she is Senior Research Archivist at The Mary Baker Eddy Library in Boston, where she explores the historical records of the Christian Science movement as well as the special collections relating to the church’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy biographer Gillian Gill, “Judy is a fine archivist as well as a dedicated student of history, and I have always been able to rely on her accuracy, her fairness, her rectitude.”

Alan Lester, Senior Curator
Alan Lester has spent the past thirty years working at several institutions with collections pertaining to the life and ideas of Mary Baker Eddy. He graduated with a degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona and began his career in Arizona working on archaeological excavations and as a park ranger. He later became a registrar for The Southern Oregon Historical Society. Recently, Lester has managed new museum building projects, and developed inventory control systems, strategic planning processes, and exhibit designs.

Jonathon Eder, Reference Room Administrator
Jonathon Eder began working with The Mary Baker Eddy Library in January 2001 as part of the team that developed the Library’s opening exhibits. With a background as a researcher/writer in documentary films and exhibit design, Eder primarily developed content for the Library’s Quest Gallery with its focus on the life story of Mary Baker Eddy. He has since been involved in administering and developing the Library’s reference and circulating collections and in its program development. Eder holds an M.A. in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico and a B.A. in English from Hamilton College. In his spare time, Eder is an independent filmmaker; his short films have been shown in festivals throughout the world.

Biographies of Current Library Trustees   Back to top

The Board of Trustees of The Mary Baker Eddy Library supervises the establishment and operations of the Library, and they are appointed by The Christian Science Board of Directors.

Dr. Mary Metzner Trammell, Chairman
Mary Metzner Trammell brings a wealth of experience to the Library, to its core research themes, and to an understanding of the scriptural foundation for Mary Baker Eddy’s life and ideas. Dr. Trammell grew up in both Louisville and Boston in a family that loved the Bible and talked about it frequently. At Smith College, from which she graduated in 1963, she took her first course in Bible history. That led her to the University of Miami, where she did graduate work in Renaissance literature and wrote her master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation on the King James Bible. She taught for ten years at the University of Miami and Florida Atlantic University.

Later Dr. Trammell turned to a new career as a Christian Science practitioner and authorized teacher. In 1991 she became church historian at The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Her doctoral degree in English literature and Bible history, and her university experience teaching those subjects, equipped her for that position—and for her move from there to associate editor of the religious periodicals in 1992. During this time she co-authored, with William Dawley, the book The Reforming Power of the Scriptures.

In June 2000, Dr. Trammell became editor of The Christian Science Journal, Christian Science Sentinel, and The Herald of Christian Science. She was elected to The Christian Science Board of Directors in 2001. Two and a half years later, on February 4, 2004, she was elected editor in chief of The Christian Science Journal, Sentinel, and Herald magazines.

J. Edward (Ned) Odegaard, Treasurer
Ned Odegaard is currently treasurer (chief financial officer) of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Prior to working for the Christian Science Church, Odegaard enjoyed a 20-year international banking career with J.P. Morgan & Co. He served as managing director of Morgan’s Private Banking Division, chairman of the Management Committee for J.P. Morgan’s Australian/New Zealand business, and as a merger and acquisitions and capital markets specialist in New York, London, and Amsterdam. Before J.P. Morgan, he worked for General Electric. He has served as a director of public and private companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Odegaard holds a B.A. from Principia College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. He and his wife, Rebecca, have two children.

Don W. Wilson, Secretary
Don W. Wilson is the principal and founder of Don W. Wilson & Associates, a firm that specializes in nonprofit management consulting. Prior to the establishment of this company in 1999, he served as executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation at Texas A&M University from 1993 to 1999. It was during that period that the library was designed and built at a cost of over $40 million. Funding was provided through private gifts raised by the foundation. From 1987 to 1993, Dr. Wilson served as the seventh archivist of the United States in the Ronald Reagan and George Bush administrations.

Besides serving in a variety of administrative positions in both state and federal historical institutions, Dr. Wilson also served on the teaching faculties at the University of Michigan, Kansas State University, and Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas. He is the author of one book and numerous articles on both history subjects and management topics.

A native of Kansas, Dr. Wilson received his undergraduate degree from Washburn University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. He also received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Cincinnati in 1988. He and his wife, Patricia, have four children and four grandchildren. They reside in Staunton, Virginia.

DiAnne Drake
DiAnne Drake was a co-developer of United Airlines’ flight attendant training program. As supervisor of the program, she developed and implemented an entirely new approach that included training in customer relations, professional grooming, inflight service, and media presentations. She also wrote about her concept in the Encyclopedia of Space and Aviation.

In addition, Drake developed training outlines and helped launch a national time management program for women, Easy Steps Towards Efficiency, which she presented in lectures for six years in Houston and St. Louis. She was a weekly contributor to The Kingwood Times, writing about universal time management principles.

While raising five children, Drake served on the boards of several community organizations, including the St. Louis Symphony, Mary Institute, St. Louis Country Day School Parent’s Association, and The Women’s Society of Washington University.

Honor Hill
A college English teacher by training, Honor Hill has had a long-term interest in the application of spirituality to health care. As a seasoned speaker, panelist, and guest faculty in college and university classrooms, she has lectured internationally on the topic of Mary Baker Eddy and her primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, to various audiences, including Harvard Medical School, Tufts University, and several hospitals in the U.S. and Canada.

Hill most recently served as the President and CEO of The Mary Baker Eddy Library from 2005 until April of 2007. In 2003, Hill served as president of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, worldwide. Prior to her work in public speaking, from 1993 - 1994 Hill sat on the Board of the parent publishing organization of The Christian Science Monitor and its NPR broadcast “Monitor Radio.”

As a legislative advocate for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, serving as Committee on Publication for British Columbia from 1987 - 1993, Honor played an active role in reform projects that reshaped legislation and policies on adult guardianship in the province. During this time, she was appointed a member of an advisory committee to the provincial attorney general that recommended and prepared amendments to the new legislation prior to its being passed by the legislative assembly.

Hill was raised and educated in England until her late teens, when she immigrated to Canada. Later, as a wife and mother of three boys, she returned to university, obtaining an honors degree in English from the University of Calgary. Following graduate work at the University of Manitoba, in 1980 she joined the faculty of Columbia College in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she taught English. She currently resides in Dallas, where she and her husband Bill have their home, commuting frequently to Boston.

Brian Pennix
Brian Pennix is an attorney and private investor who resides in Truckee, California, (near Lake Tahoe) and lives part-time in San Francisco.

He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (B.A., political science), the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law (J.D.), and the Boston University Law School (LL.M., Federal Taxation).

Pennix served in U.S. Army Intelligence as a Russian linguist and Soviet military analyst. After establishing the Palo Alto, California law firm of Arthur, Pennix & Thompson in the early 1980s, he served as general counsel of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, from 1988 to 1994. He has also served on several community charitable boards, including the board of trustees (president, 1986 - 1988) of Arden Wood Benevolent Association in San Francisco.

He has a daughter who is a trial attorney in Seattle. He devotes part of his time to the practice of spiritual healing.

Margaret Rogers
Margaret Rogers’ interest in the betterment of humanity began as a teenage volunteer in programs for children of migrant workers in her native California. While attending the University of California, Berkeley, she developed a strong interest in helping others through spiritual healing, and following graduation pursued this work as a Christian Science nurse and later as a Christian Science practitioner and teacher.

Rogers also served on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship, speaking on Mary Baker Eddy’s life and work to the general public and to college students in medicine and religious studies. She has a deep love for the Bible, and a lively interest in and respect for other great world scriptures.

Charles J. Wyly Jr.
Charles Wyly is co-founder and chairman of Michaels Stores, Inc., a publicly held company and the nation’s foremost arts and crafts retailer operating over 1000 stores in 48 states and Canada.

Upon receiving his business degree from Louisiana Tech University—where he was recently inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame—Wyly embarked on a lengthy and distinguished career that took him to IBM, where he worked eight years, before joining his brother, Sam, at University Computing Company. He is co-founder of Sterling Software, Sterling Commerce, Earth Resources Company (an oil refining and mining company), and the Bonanza Steakhouse chain. More recently, he was a co-founder of Maverick Capital, which became a multibillion dollar hedge fund.

His civic interests mirror his diversity as an entrepreneur. Wyly currently serves as chairman of the Communities Foundation of Texas. He is a member of The Salvation Army National Advisory Board, the past chairman and current member of the Dallas Salvation Army, and a member of the board of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, the Dallas Symphony, the Dallas Theater Center, the Cox School of Business, and the John Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University. Through his leadership, two private Dallas schools built their permanent campuses.

In addition to being a patron of the arts and an advocate of charity and education, he champions public policy that promotes strong economic growth while providing opportunities to achieve individual success. A dedicated public servant, he was appointed to the President’s Advisory Council for Management Improvement and served the state of Texas as its founding chairman of the Texas High Speed Rail Authority.

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