Pete Watson, President (Term Expires June 2013)

Pete Watson is director of the Mercer County Park Commission’s Howell Living History Farm, in Titusville, New Jersey.  Throughout a 25-year career spent developing the site’s facilities and programs, he has led efforts to use and interpret historical farms as a resource for agricultural research and training – an interest linked to his earlier work in Peace Corps animal traction projects in Africa.  He is chair of the New Jersey Living History Advisory Council, advisor to the NJ State Agricultural Tourism Council and member of the New Jersey History Advocates.  He has served on the boards of the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture, the Friends of Howell Farm and ALHFAM; he was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative and chair of the 2003 Annual Conference.  He was the Mid-Atlantic Regional Representative and chair of the 2003 Annual Conference. 

Pete is a graduate of Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. He is the author of several books, including Animal Traction and a Peace Corps manual for agricultural extension agents.  He lives in Summit, NJ with his wife Mary, a childrens book publisher, and sons Kevin and Harry, both of whom are dedicated Howell Farm volunteers and ALHFAM plowmen.  

The President is the chair of the Committee on Organizational Partnerships (COOP)

Debra A. Reid,  Ph.D, Vice President (Term Expires June 2013)

Deb joined ALHFAM thirty years ago and considers it the best decision she ever made. She first attended a conference in 1981 at Land Between the Lakes, Kentucky; she loved reading through the folksy and newsy Bulletin, and dreamed of the day when she could contribute to the organization. She first spoke at the 1987 ALHFAM conference and first helped edit a Proceedings for the 1988 conference. She produced two editions of the Guidebook to ALHFAM Institutional Members in 1990 and 2000. She served on the ALHFAM board from 1996 to 1999, and received the John T. Schlebecker Award in 2000. She serves as treasurer of the Midwest Open Air Museums Coordinating Council (ALHFAM’s Midwest region) and as the First Vice President of the International Association of Agricultural Museums (AIMA). This service combined with her career trajectory [she has lived and worked in four ALHFAM regions (from Maine to Texas and in Denmark] gives her a good grasp of living history’s past, its current state and its potential for growth. Since 1999 she has taught at Eastern Illinois University, including courses in collections care and material culture analysis for the graduate program in Historical Administration. For fun she plays vintage base ball with the St. Louis Brown Stockings  and the Rock Springs Ground Squirrels; and undertakes projects as wide ranging as replicating sleeve puffs for a workshop at the Arkansas Living History Association and researching early twentieth century canning practices. She has learned from every experience that the public is passionate about the past, that the past can be hotly debated and that visitors value the history lessons that museums deliver.

The Vice-President is the chair of the Committee on Regional Networking (CORN)

Judith M. Sheridan, Secretary-Treasurer (Term Expires June 2012)

Judi Sheridan, as Secretary-Treasurer, spends 30 hours a week working on ALHFAM business, which includes returning phone inquiries, answering letters, mailing to the association's 1,150 members, maintaining the membership rolls and handling the association's finances. Her degree is in banking & finance is from Case Western Reserve University. Judi tries to attend as many regional meetings as possible and visit sites worldwide as an ALHFAM ambassador. She also serves as the treasurer of the Harriet Taylor Upton Association. Mrs. Upton was a pioneer suffragist and friend of Susan B. Anthony. She is the secretary of the Northeastern Ohio Inter-Museum Council. She is active in the Mahoning Valley Civil War Roundtable. She serves on the board of the Western Reserve Architectural Historians. She is an acknowledged Western Reserve restoration consultant and local historian living at Brownwood Farm, a national register property.