Biographies

Library Trustees:
Chairman of the Board of Trustees: Margaret Rodgers
Trustees: DiAnne Drake, Honor Hill, Laura Roberts, Deborah Velders, Lyle Young, John Fawcett, Sandra Rygel, and Lisa Stepanski.

Library Officers:
President: Lesley Pitts, Executive Manager
Secretary: Brian Pennix
Treasurer: Holly Stark, Director of Finance and Operations

Library Managers:
Archivist: Nicole Lapenta
Director of Creative Services: Mark Thayer
Programs Producer: Jonathon Eder
Senior Curator: Alan Lester
Senior Research Archivist: Judith Huenneke

The Mary Baker Eddy Library Board of Trustees

Library Trustees provide expertise and support to the Library’s operations and initiatives, as well as recruit new board members and advisers to support the Library’s mission. To foster successful collaboration between experienced insights and fresh perspectives, Trustees are elected to a maximum of two three-year terms.

Chair of the Board of Trustees: 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 has a deep love for the Bible, as well as interest in and respect for other world scriptures. She has 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.

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, in-flight 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.

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

Honor Hill
Raised and educated in England, Honor Hill immigrated to Canada as a teen. She obtained an English Honours degree from the University of Calgary and after graduate study at the University of Manitoba, in 1980 she joined the faculty of Columbia College in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she taught English. In 1987, Hill began her work as a legislative advocate for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, serving as Committee on Publication for British Columbia and a member of an advisory committee to the provincial attorney general. From 1993 to 1994, Hill sat on the Board of the parent publishing organization of The Christian Science Monitor and its NPR broadcast "Monitor Radio." In 2003, Hill served as president of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, worldwide. From 2005 to 2007, she was the President and CEO of The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

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.

Brian Pennix
Brian Pennix holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley, a Juris Doctor from  the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law, and a Master of Law, Federal Taxation, from Boston University Law School. He 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 and again from 2005 to 2006. Pennix has served on several community charitable boards, including two years as the President of the Board of Trustees of Arden Wood Benevolent Association in San Francisco.

Pennix is a Christian Science practitioner who resides in Alamo, California.

Laura Roberts
Laura Roberts holds an Master of Business Administration in public and nonprofit management, with high honors, from Boston University School of Management, a Master of Arts in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program of the State University of New York, and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Anthropology, magna cum laude, from Harvard University. From 1988 to 1994, Roberts was executive director of the New England Museum Association. She has served as the Director of Education at the National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Mass., the U.S.S. Constitution Museum in Boston, Mass., and the Rhode Island Historical Society. From 1994 to 1996, she was executive director of the Boston Center for Adult Education. Since 1991, she has been teaching graduate students in arts and nonprofit management at Tufts University, Bank Street College of Education, Boston University School of Management, and Lesley University. She is also on the faculty of the Seminars in Historic Administration and is a frequent presenter at professional meetings and conferences.

Roberts is the principal of Roberts Consulting and currently chairs the advisory board of the Tufts University Art Gallery and serves on the University’s Gifts of Art Committee. She is vice chair of the board of directors of First Night, Boston and treasurer of the board of the Institute for Learning Innovation.

Deborah Velders
Deborah Velders received a Master of Arts in English and American Literature from the University of Houston as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Art History. She has been in the museum business since 1976. In her previous role as director of the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, NC, Deborah was responsible for the museum's curatorial and fiscal direction and oversight.  She initiated a major endowment campaign to cover operational expenses, increase overall fundraising, and restore financial stability to the institution.  

Velders is currently the deputy director and chief executive officer of Asia Society Texas Center and was recruited to that position toward opening a major new architectural facility designed by Yoshio Taniguchi in Spring 2012. She has assumed operational oversight and is creating organizational, staffing, strategic plans, and time lines for the Society's new building. Velders has been charged with researching, designing, budgeting, and organizing exhibitions and art programs for the Center's new 4,000 square foot gallery.

Lyle Young, John Fawcett, Sandra Rygel and Lisa Stepanski
Young, Fawcett, Rygel and Stepanski are newly appointed members of the Library's Board of Trustees. Their biography will be available soon.

Library Officers

President: Lesley Pitts, Executive Manager
Pitts managed the Library archive from 2002 through 2005—the Library’s collections are at the core of its purpose and mission. Pitts 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 Executive Manager and President, Pitts supervises all functions of the Library, including the archival collection and its exhibits and public programs. As part of the Library’s engagement with the Boston community, Pitts serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of The Fenway Alliance and on its Executive Committee, a consortium of academic, cultural, and arts organizations collaborating to enhance the cultural, environmental, and economic vitality of the Fenway area.

Treasurer: Holly Stark, Director of Finance and Operations
From an extensive background in her field as a Senior Accountant and Finance Director, Holly Stark has been the Director of Finance and Operations at the Library since 2002. Stark is integral in all areas of the Library and specifically in financial, accounting, and Library operations. She manages the areas of administration, human resources, information technology, legal services, youth and community programming, marketing and web, visitor services, and the Library’s shop. In 2011, Holly Stark was appointed Treasurer by the Board of Trustees of The Mary Baker Eddy Library.

Library Managers

Archivist: Nicole Lapenta
Nicole Lapenta has been the Archivist at the Library since September 2003. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Simmons College. Lapenta’s roles include: working with interns and volunteers, processing and updating the collections, database administrator, answering queries, working with the special exhibit team, collection updates in the database, annotation, and managing the Object of the Month articles online.

Director of Creative Services: Mark Thayer
A 1978 graduate of the New England School of Photography in Boston, Massachusetts, Mark Thayer began a career in advertising photography 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, ESPN, and American Express.

In 2001, Thayer was contracted to produce a significant body of work related to the opening of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. Eighteen months were spent taking photos of the Library and its historical collection for print, web, and on-site exhibits. Since 2003, Thayer has been the Library’s Creative Services Director, managing the Library’s branding and identity, collateral materials, and on-site signage. Thayer manages the design and implementation of the Library’s exhibits as well as on-site visitor experience.

Programs Producer: Jonathon Eder
Jonathon Eder holds a Master of Arts in Dramatic Writing from the University of New Mexico and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Hamilton College. Eder began working with The Mary Baker Eddy Library in January 2001 as part of the team that created the Library’s opening exhibits. With a background as a researcher/writer in documentary films and exhibit design, Eder developed content for the Library’s Quest Gallery with its focus on the life story of Mary Baker Eddy.  Eder has overseen reference services at The Mary Baker Eddy Library, and has been developing and producing programs since 2007.  Eder has written scripts for the Library’s orientation film on Mary Baker Eddy and for Library events.

Senior Curator: Alan Lester
Alan Lester is an Anthropology graduate of the University of Arizona with graduate work in museum studies. In his early career he worked for the Arizona State Museum, Arizona State Parks, and Southern Oregon Historical Society. Upon a move East he worked for Longyear Museum in the positions of Curator, Assistant Director, and Director. During that time he initiated and implemented the plan for their new museum facility. In 1999 he became one of the team members brought together to organize The First Church of Christ, Scientist’s collections in preparation for the creation of The Mary Baker Eddy Library. With over thirty years of experience working with collections pertaining to Mary Baker Eddy, her life and ideas, Lester is Senior Curator. He is responsible for the documentation, preservation, restoration, and storage of historic objects and photographs from the Library’s collection. In planning exhibits, Lester interprets how the objects from the Library’s collection can best represent the ideas, life, and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy.

Senior Research Archivist: Judith Huenneke
Judy Huenneke has been active in archives and records management for over two decades. She has a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from Rutgers University, as well as a Master of Arts in History from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.

As the Senior Research Archivist at the Library, Huenneke and the Research staff answer thousands of questions annually, and aid researchers in accessing the historical records of the Christian Science movement as well as the special collections relating to the church’s founder, Mary Baker Eddy.