Board of Directors

Lauren Meier, ASLA, Belmont, MA (President)

Lauren Meier, ALSA, was one of the editors of The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857-1979. She is a historic preservationist with Pressley Associates in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she oversees a wide variety of historic landscape preservation projects and has participated in the Good Neighbors project of the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. She hold a bachlor's degree in botany from Pomona College and a master of landscape architecture from Harvard University. Ms. Meier was the founding coordinator of the National Park Service's Historic Landscape Initiative in Washington, D.C., and historical landscape architect for the NPS Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation. Her landscape preservation work nationwide includes the restoration of the landscape at Fairsted, Frederick Law Olmsted's home and office in Brookline, Massachusetts, and many publications devoted to the preservation of historic plant material. She is a board member of the National Association for Olmsted Parks and a former chair of the research committee.

Henry Lukas, Cambridge, MA Vice President

Henry Lukas is a retired educator with 35 years of experience including serving as high school principal for seventeen years in Marblehead, Manchester By-The-Sea and Canton. He is currently the Education Director at the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History at Regis College in Weston. He is an officer on the Board of the Boston Children’s Theatre, is the past State Coordinator of the Massachusetts Academic Decathlon High School contest and has trained to be a docent at the Museum Of Fine Arts. He also gives historic tours of Boston to tourists on cruise ships visiting the city and has volunteered at Fairsted and other area museums. Lukas lives in Cambridge.

Carol Winkler, Arlington, MA (Clerk)

Carol Winkler grew up in Memphis, TN, and is a retired teacher of history and other social sciences. She taught at Boston University, Worcester State College, Mass Bay Community College and the School of the Ozarks in Missouri. She also was a newspaper reporter and a technical writer. At Wellesley Collegeshe wrote for the Fundraising Department. She volunteered at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site for many years and lives in Arlington, Massachusetts, in a former school building.

Miriam Jost, Newton, MA (Treasurer)

Miriam G. Jost has worked in health care for more than 35 years. She is an experienced project manager and has successfully executed both operational and capital projects. As a project manager she has the ability to pair strategy with implementation planning to successfully execute strategic initiatives. She is a member of the Charles River Watershed Association and has participated in the Annual Earth Day Charles River Clean Up. She has volunteered at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. As a jogger and recreational bicyclist she enjoys jogging and bicycling through Olmsted-designed spaces.

Veronica N. Nañagas-Devon, M.D., Brookline, MA (Assistant Treasurer)

Veronica N. Nañagas-Devon has lived in the Fairsted neighborhood for the last 30 years, and started to volunteer at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in 2004, when she became interested in gardening, landscape design and preservation. This has led to a passion for all things Olmstedian--writings, parks, principles of design, and legacy. She is a retired physician, previously Associate Chief of the Department of Anesthesiology at the Boston Veterans Administration Medical Center, and Clinical Assistant Professor at Tufts-New England Medical Center and Boston University School of Medicine.

Phyllis Andersen, Boston, MA

Phyllis Andersen is a landscape historian and urban landscape specialist. She was director of the Institute for Cultural Landscape Studies of the Arnold Arboretum. Earlier she coordinated the Arboretum’s cooperative agreement with the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation. She worked on urban landscape issues for the Boston Parks Department, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management, and the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority. She is a long-time instructor at the Landscape Institute of the Boston Architectural College, a program previously situated at the Arnold Arboretum and earlier at the Radcliffe Institute. She has also taught at the Yale College Seminar Program, and Roxbury Community College. She is the author of numerous articles and several book chapters. She is currently working on a book with a working title of “A Matter of Taste: The Public Pleasure Garden and Civic Life” for the University of Virginia

Annie Blair, ASLA, West Roxbury, MA

Annie Blair is a registered landscape architect in the Town of Brookline’s Parks and Open Space Division where she is responsible for the design and public outreach associated with a wide variety of parks and open spaces, including the ongoing rehabilitation of the Olmsted-designed parks in the Emerald Necklace. She has served as past chair of the American Society of Landscape Architects Historic Preservation Professional Interest Group and is an active member of the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. Prior to joining the Parks Division, Anne spent many years in private practice, focused on a variety of parks and campus landscapes. She received a B.A. from Bowdoin College and a Master of Landscape of Architecture from the University of Virginia. Annie resides in West Roxbury.

John F. Furlong, FASLA, Marshfield, MA

John F. Furlong was the director of the Landscape Institute, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University for over twenty-five years until the fall of 2007. He has a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University Graduate School of Design. In 1998 he was given the Gold Medal Award by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. John is a registered landscape architect and a longstanding fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He has been involved in many professional activities, publications and exhibits related to F.L. Olmsted including the Program and Development Committee at the Olmsted Historic Site for the National Park Service from 1975-1980. He is a founding member of the Massachusetts Association for Olmsted Parks.

Allan Galper, Esq., Newton, MA

Allan Galper is an attorney at McCarter and English, LLP in downtown Boston, where he specializes in corporate, securities and banking matters. In addition to serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of Fairsted, Allan serves as a Trustee of the Robert Treat Paine Historical Trust, which assists in the administration of Stonehurst, a historic house designed by H. H. Richardson with Frederick Law Olmsted in Waltham, Mass., and is co-founder and chairman of the Committee to Save the H. H. Richardson House, an organization dedicated to preserving the historic house in which the architect Henry Hobson Richardson lived in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Patrice Kish, Boston, MA

Patrice Kish is the Director of the Office of Cultural Resources for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation. Educated as a landscape architect, she has worked in the field of historic landscape preservation since 1987 when she joined the staff of the Olmsted Program, the nation’s first statewide program to restore public landscapes designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and his firm. As a career preservationist, she has developed and implemented many award-winning historic preservation programs for the Commonwealth and has devoted nearly 20 years to the restoration of the Emerald Necklace.

Arleyn Levee, Belmont, MA

Arleyn A. Levee is a landscape historian and preservation consultant on stewardship of Olmsted landscapes, specializing in the work of the Olmsted Brothers firm (1898-1961). She lectures nationwide and writes about the Olmsted design legacy and its impact upon neighborhoods and cities. She has worked extensively with preservation groups, including, since 1980, the National Association for Olmsted Parks. She was a founder of the Massachusetts Association for Olmsted Parks. She is on the board of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, a Trustee for Historic New England and a member of the Belmont Historic District Commission and on the Emerald Necklace Maintenance Management Oversight Committee.

Caroline Loughlin, Weston, MA

Caroline Loughlin was an editor of The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857-1979 and co-author of Forest Park, a history of a major park in St. Louis. She is co-chair of the National Association for Olmsted Parks, which she has served as secretary and treasurer. She serves on the Steering Committee for the Olmsted Research Guide Online (ORGO). She was a founding board member of Forest Park Forever, which she served as president. She volunteers at Mount Auburn Cemetery, where she is a Trustee and served on the Preservation Initiative Steering Committee.

Patricia Suhrcke, Roslindale, MA

Pat Suhrcke is the Director of Cambridge Forum, a non-profit educational organization that produces live public discussions and radio programs on the vital issues and ideas of contemporary society. Previously she was the Dean of Students in the Humanities at the University of Chicago, the Assistant Director of the Georgia Humanities Council, and the Director of Research and Education at the Atlanta History Center. She has taught literature in college and continuing education programs as well as teaching elementary students in museum settings.

What's Coming

Find out all about all our exciting upcoming events. More…

What's Come

2011 was a banner year for the Friends of Fairsted. Be sure to read our annual report to find out all about our great year. More…

How to Get Here

Right now Fairsted is closed for internal renovations. If you want to come see the outside, including the lovely gardens, here's how... More…

Get in Touch

Want to join the Friends of Fairsted? Feel free to fill out and print an application and mail it back to us with your contribution. More…

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