Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center

Kimberly Hatcher-White, Executive Director

Kimberly Hatcher-White (Mashantucket Pequot) was named Executive Director of the Museum and Research Center in September, 2006, succeeding Theresa Bell (Mashantucket Pequot), who had held the position since 1994. Ms. Hatcher-White oversees all aspects of the facility, including the building financial operations, staff administration, policy development, collections growth and management, public programming, and scholarly and archaeological research conducted on behalf of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

She is a magna cum laude graduate of Eastern Connecticut State University where she majored in Sociology and Applied Social Relations and minored in Anthropology. She has worked for her tribe in various capacities since 1994. In January 2002, Kimberly began working at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center in the Research Department. She worked intensively with the museum’s collections and exhibits as Registrar/Collections Manager providing for the long-term care and preservation of the tribe’s cultural heritage. Kimberly also played an instrumental role in the museum’s 2004 IMLS National Leadership Grant for Museums in the Community project aimed at fostering communication and cooperation among six northeastern Native Museums and Cultural Centers. She also trained at the Jekyll Island Management Institute, affiliated with the Southeastern Museum Conference (SEMC) as part of her training for her current position. She is also enrolled in the Certificate Program in Museum Studies at Tufts University and anticipates graduating in the spring of 2007.

Kimberly holds membership in the New England Museum Association (NEMA), American Association of Museums (AAM) and the American Association of State and Local History (AASLH) and is on the Native Advisory Board at Boston Children’s Museum.

A descendent of the Anna Williams family line, Ms. Hatcher-White was born and raised in Willimantic, Connecticut, and is the youngest daughter of tribal elder Marion Madeline Harris-Hatcher.

Dr. Jack Campisi, Museum Consultant

Dr. Jack Campisi is an authority on American Indian affairs and was involved in the formal planning for the Museum and Research Center, from the conceptual design and implementation of the permanent exhibits to the architectural scheme for the building.

Dr. Campisi became affiliated with the Pequot Tribal Nation in 1978 as a consultant for its Petition for Federal Acknowledgment, and assisted with Congressional approval of the Mashantucket Pequot Indian Land Claims Settlement Act, which was enacted in 1983. His historical research on the Tribe has contributed to the founding of the Museum and Research Center.

For the past 25 years, Dr. Campisi has served as a consultant and federal recognition expert for numerous American Indian tribes, and has testified on tribal rights in hearings before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs, the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and District Courts.

Dr. Campisi is the author of numerous books, most recently, The Mashpee Indians: Tribe on Trial (1991) and The Oneida Indian Experience (1988), and of many scholarly articles on American Indian-related subjects. He is currently Associate Professor of Anthropology at Wellesley College, and an Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at State University College in Oneonta, New York. He received a bachelor's degree, two master's degrees (in social studies and anthropology) and a doctorate in anthropology from the State University of New York, Albany.

Dr. Kevin A. McBride, Director of Research

As Director of Research for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, Dr. McBride supervises all programmatic areas and research functions for the new facility. He established and oversees field study programs on the reservation for graduate students, and directs all ongoing archaeological excavations and ethnohistorical research for the Tribe.

Dr. McBride was approached in 1983 by Richard Hayward, Chairman of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council, about conducting archaeological research on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation. At the time, Dr. McBride was Director of Public Archaeology Survey Team, Inc., and an Anthropology Research Associate at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he is currently an Assistant Professor of Anthropology.

A frequent guest lecturer and author of scholarly articles, Dr. McBride is currently writing two volumes, The Fox People: Ethnohistory of the Mashantucket Pequot, and Long Pond: The Archaeology and Social History of a Seventeenth Century Mashantucket Pequot Cemetery. His research interests include the prehistory and ethnohistory of eastern North America, the historic archaeology of Euro-Americans, settlement systems, and paleoethnobotany.

Dr. McBride is a member of the Society for American Archaeology, the American Anthropological Association, and the Society for Historic Archaeology and Ethnohistory. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Museum of Natural History (1986-1988) and of the Governor's Task Force on Indian Affairs (1988-1991). He received his bachelor's degree from Assumption College, and his master's and doctoral degrees in archaeology from the University of Connecticut.

Trudie Lamb Richmond, Director of Public Programs

As Director of Public Programs, Ms. Richmond oversees the development and implementation of educational programming for visiting school and youth groups as well as for museum outreach efforts. More than 50,000 students a year take part in classroom offerings or focus exhibit tours. Public Program interpreters stationed throughout the exhibits also help disseminate information and answer questions from museum visitors. Prior to being named Director of the 15-member Public Program Department in 2003, Ms. Richmond served as the museum’s Program Manager for Education since 1996. She was responsible for developing educational programs for children and adults on the history and culture of the Pequots and other Native peoples of southern New England. In addition to writing educational resource materials for classroom use, she also conducts workshops, lectures and demonstrations on contemporary and traditional Native culture and topics.

A member of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation, Ms. Richmond has been involved in Native American educational and political issues for more than two decades. She was the assistant director for Public Programs for the Institute for American Indian Studies in Washington, Conn. from 1993 to 1996 and its Director of Education from 1988 to 1993. She co-founded in 1974 and served as Assistant Director of the American Indians for Development in Meriden, Conn. until 1986. Among her duties there was a statewide census of Native people in Connecticut and arranging a conference for Native youth in southern New England that was cosponsored by Yale University. In 1987 Connecticut Governor William O’Neill appointed her to a task force on Native American issues. She was a member of the Connecticut Indian Affairs Council from 1974 to 1985.

A graduate of Long Island University with a master’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut and a master’s in Education from the Bank Street College of Education, Ms. Richmond has written, edited and served as a consultant for numerous publications and educational projects and exhibits, including Perspectives: Authentic Voices of Native Americans (Curriculum Associates, Inc. 1996) and The Spirit of the Drum (Cobblestone Publishers for the American Museum of Natural History, 1986). An accomplished lecturer and storyteller, she has made presentations all across the Northeast to school and community groups and performed recently at the Mohegan Wigwam Festival. She serves on the Native American Heritage Committee as a legislative appointee.

Doug Currie, Head of Conservation

Doug Currie, Head of Conservation for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center, has been a conservation consultant for the last 18 years. He began working as a consultant for the design and development of laboratory and collections storage areas and museum environment standards for the Mashantucket Pequot Museum project in 1992.

Mr. Currie did his undergraduate work in art history, and received a master's degree in historical archaeology at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. His graduate work included the study of archaeological metals at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and two years as a researcher on medieval metals in the Research Laboratory of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He has been a consulting analyst for the Department of Archaeological Research at Colonial Williamsburg since 1993, and from 1992-95, was the archaeological conservator for an urban highway project in Boston, which required the treatment of more than 100,000 objects from the 17th and 18th centuries.