OUR BOARD AND STAFF

 

Board of Directors
The Montana Preservation Alliance is directed by an Executive Committee of up to fifteen members. Our Executive Committee includes volunteer historians, architects, city planners and other professionals with an interest in Montana's historic and cultural resources.

 

PRESIDENT
James R. McDonald, Missoula

Jim McDonald is a Principal Architect and Partner in A&E Architects, P.C.  As of November 1, 2000, his firm of 22 years, James R. McDonald Architects, P.C., merged with A&E Architects, P.C.  The principal firm is in Billings, Montana; Jim oversees the Missoula, Montana office.  He is also an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Montana, where he teaches a preservation course on Architecture of the West.

Jim has extensive experience in the field of historic preservation, restoration, renovation, and adaptive reuse of historic structures, as well as historic resource surveys, National Register of Historic Places nominations, and Historic Structure Reports.  Much of his work involves the renovation and adaptive reuse of historic buildings, which includes providing space for contemporary needs, bringing buildings up to code, providing new environmental systems, and developing standards for the preservation of these buildings in order to retain their historic architectural character in compliance with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation.

 

VICE PRESIDENT
Cindy Kittredge, Great Falls
Cindy is the Director of the Creative Arts Enterprise program at Montana State University-Great Falls. Prior to her current position, she served for 17 years as the Executive Director of the High Plains Heritage Center, home to the area’s historical museum and archives.  She was instrumental in developing the grassroots Hands of Harvest effort, served as the City-County Historic Preservation Officer; spearheaded the development of the Ulm Pishkun Interpretive Center; served on the Museums Association Board for 12 years, four of those years as President, and founded the Great Falls Area Museums Consortium, a collaborative effort of ten museums.  For her work, she was named as the 2003 recipient of the Montana Governor’s Award for the Humanities. She lives on the family ranch, a historic site, outside of Cascade, MT.  She and her husband raise registered Highland cattle and Icelandic sheep, marketing natural meat and wool products.

 

SECRETARY
Melisa Kaiser-Synness , Helena

Melisa was raised in Prairie Village, Kansas and has a B.A. in Political Science from Mount Vernon College of George Washington University. She moved to Montana in 1987 after serving two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mali, West Africa. Her early onset wanderlust led her to visit all 50 states and four continents. Her career passion has been to raise money and manage grants for various non-profits.  Currently she is the Director of Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies in Helena.  From September 2001 to August 2007 she worked as grant manager for the State Historic Preservation Office of the Montana Historical Society and was a grant writer for the Montana Wilderness Association from 2007 to 2009.  She loves to hike, kayak, play with her two fuzzy white dogs and practice interior design in her 125 year-old home.  She, her husband Curt and teen-aged son Kelen live within walking distance of about everything they ever need, but they love to regularly escape to the mountains, especially the Bears’ Tooth aka 'Sleeping Giant' north of Helena.

 

TREASURER
Mara-Gai Katz, Bozeman

Mara-Gai Katz has been working as a designer and collaborator with her clients for eighteen years; the last twelve of those years in Bozeman, Montana. While many of her projects are in the Gallatin Valley, her work takes her to both coasts and throughout the American west. Her early exposure to historic preservation influenced her work; many of her projects have a historic component. Living in Montana has allowed her to expand her restoration work to historic ranches and properties.

After spending 10 years as an Adjunct Professor at MSU’s Department of Architecture, Mara-Gai’s approach is as an educator. She is a collaborator by nature, and seeks projects with clients who will enjoy involvement. She works on a range of project types, including custom residences, residential remodels and additions and historic restoration and preservation.

 

DIRECTORS

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, Helena
Stephenie is co-author of The Lewis and Clark Companion: An Encyclopedic Guide to the Voyage of Discovery. She lectures nationally about her experiences and observations on the Lewis and Clark Trail which she first followed in 1976 with her father, best selling author Stephen Ambrose.  She works with conservation and citizens groups to preserve and protect the trail and adjoining wilderness areas. Stephenie holds two degrees in History from the University of Montana and currently writes local history and serves on the Boards of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation, the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Friends of Montana PBS and the American Prairie Foundation. Her book of essays on Lewis and Clark will be published by the University of Nebraska Press in the Fall of 2008. Stephenie and her husband John live in Helena with their sons Alex and Riley.

Kris Komar, Hamilton

Milo McLeod, Missoula
Milo McLeod has a long history of protecting, restoring, and interpreting cultural resources in Western Montana and has traveled the globe pursuing interesting archeological opportunities. Milo was the Forest Archaeologist on the Lolo since the early 1980s.  He received his Master’s degree from the University of Montana, with a thesis focused on the Lolo Trail.  McLeod started out with the Forest Service in the mid 1970s, and throughout his career has contributed to archaeology fieldwork, historic resource survey, documentation, and physical preservation of our heritage. 

His work with the Passport in Time volunteer projects has endeared him to people throughout the West, and resulted in the restoration of many historic places in Montana, including the Nine Mile Ranger Station and the Morgan Case Homestead.  In the summer of 2007 he lead a PIT project at the terraced gardens, brining his career full circle, as he was on the original discovery team of that mysterious place.

Gayle Shanahan, Helena

Don Sorenson, Loma
 It was Don Sorensen’s visionary dream to restore and preserve what remained of Virgelle, a homestead-era town along the Missouri River between Loma and Big Sandy. Don was raised on a farm near Big Sandy, graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in Pharmacy, and worked as a registered pharmacist for over 20 years. As a child, he and his father would often haul hay from the Virgelle area to their farm, and years later in 1975, he purchased and began restoring the historic Virgelle Mercantile building, now centerpiece of a thriving antiques, river outfitting and bed and breakfast enterprise with worldwide clientele.
 
Don’s passion for preservation has led him to rescue and restore Virgelle’s bank building and several original homesteader shacks and cabins, moving them to Virgelle where they serve as colorful and practical reminders of Montana’s history.
 
In addition to Virgelle's preservation, Don has served for many years on the Russell Country Tourism Board as representative of Chouteau County. He was president of the organization from 2003 to 2005. He can claim to be an accomplished recycler, and his work to save and restore antique furniture is known nationwide. He enjoys sharing Montana’s past with visitors to Virgelle. Both the Mercantile and the Virgelle Bank are listed on the National Historic Register. He was honored by being named Travel Montana’s "Tourism Person of the Year” in 2002.  Virgelle's website: www.VirgelleMontana.com

 

MPA STAFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Chere Jiusto, Helena

Chere’s career in cultural resources and public history in Montana has spanned over two decades.  She served as architectural historian and coordinator of the MT SHPO’s National Register program from 1990 to1998, and spent two years overseeing MT SHPO’s community preservation and state survey program from 2000 to 2002.  She also operated a private consulting business from 1988 to 1990, and again from 1998 to 2000, completing broadly diverse projects including community surveys, historic property nominations, historic research and interpretive writing. She has extensive background with cultural resource documentation on every level, including historic properties, determinations of eligibility, cultural landscapes, traditional cultural properties, Section 106 compliance, Section 110 projects, National Historic Landmarks, reconnaissance surveys, preservation planning, threatened site planning, mitigation proposals and heritage education.  

DIRECTOR, COMMUNITY PRESERVATION PROGRAM
Patty Dean

Patty Dean received her A.B. in history from Carroll College and an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program/State University of New York. In the early 1980s, she was Curator of Collections at the Montana Historical Society and later founding curator of the Arkansas Arts Center Decorative Arts Museum in Little Rock. Patty worked at the Minnesota Historical Society in St. Paul for sixteen years, first as Museum Collections Manager and later as Supervisory Curator. As an independent public historian in Helena, Montana, from 2005–2008, she was adjunct faculty for the history and music departments at Carroll College and a historian for the Montana Historical Society’s “Identifying African-Americans in Montana Heritage Resources” project.From 2008 to 2010, she was Curator of History for the Montana Historical Society and also served as a board/commission member for the Montana Preservation Alliance, Drumlummon Institute, Helena/Lewis & Clark County Historic Preservation Commission, and the Montana Heritage Commission.

DIRECTOR, OUTREACH AND EDUCATION PROGRAM
Christine W. Brown

Christine has a diverse background as a writer, editor, and architectural historian. Ms. Brown earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from DePaul University in 1996, and a Master of Science Degree in Historic Preservation from Ball State University (BSU) in Muncie, Indiana in 2001. Christine moved to Helena in 2002 and began as a volunteer at MPA not long after. After serving on the Board of Directors for two years, Christine was hired as a part-time employee in January 2006.

At MPA, Christine coordinates all outreach and education programs, including quarterly publication of the Preserve Montana newsletter, memberships, conferences, workshops, website maintenance, and tours. She also works on special publication projects, such as Hand Raised: The Barns of Montana and Of Sage & Stone: A Guide to Southwest Montana's Rural Treasures, a back roads guide to fine crafts and cultural heritage.