The Guild is governed by a Board of Trustees whose members have a variety of specialties in Pacific Northwest history. Trustees serve staggered three-year terms and select a President, Secretary, and Treasurer who serve two-year terms.
Board of Trustees – 2025
President: Jim Rupp is a Seattle lawyer and former General Counsel of Fluke Corporation. A Seattle native, he is the author of Art in Seattle’s Public Spaces, from Sodo to South Lake Union (UW Press, 2019) and Art in Seattle’s Public Places, an Illustrated Guide (UW Press, 1992). He is now completing the manuscript for a book covering art in public spaces in Seattle’s neighborhoods. Jim is the author of a number of monographs and articles on local history and is researching a book on the development of Seattle in the early 1900s. Before joining the Guild board, Jim served as a trustee of MOHAI and of the Friends of the UW Libraries.
Secretary: Elizabeth Rudrud is the Executive Director at Southwest Seattle Historical Society. She has worked with numerous heritage organizations and museums in the Pacific Northwest since 2010. In 2022, Elizabeth’s work with the Muckleshoot, Nisqually, Puyallup, Steilacoom, and Squaxin Island tribes and HistoryLink.org was awarded a Leadership in History award from the American Association for State and Local History.
Communications: Megan Churchwell has been the Curator of Bremerton’s Puget Sound Navy Museum since 2014. Her background includes a Bachelor’s degree in American History from Willamette University, as well as a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from the University of Washington. Her research focuses on the intersection between the U.S. Navy and civilian life in the Pacific Northwest. Exhibits she has curated have featured the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, the naval heritage of tattoos, and historical connections between the U.S. Navy and baseball.
Elisa Law (MA Museology, University of Washington) is a museologist and public historian currently serving as a Project Manager at HistoryLink and Executive Director of Friends of Magnuson Park. Her exhibit design credits include the Vashon Heritage Museum Permanent Exhibit (2024) and The First World Flight at Sand Point Naval Air Station Historic District amongst others). As a public historian, she coordinated the First World Flight Centennial (2024) and Women’s Suffrage Centennial (2020) commemorations and as a contract archivist, she catalogued the personal papers of citizen activist Jim Ellis for the Seattle Public Library (2022) as well as the archives of the Rainier Club (2023).
Gwen Whiting (she/her) is the Lead Curator at the Washington State Historical Society. She received her B.A. in Humanities from Washington State University and holds a Master of Arts in Military History from Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. The exhibitions that Gwen has curated for the Historical Society include Hope in Hard Times: Washington during the Great Depression, COOPER, and Unlocking McNeil’s Past: The Prison, The Place, The People. Prior to her tenure as Lead Curator, Whiting worked as a museum educator for over a decade, receiving numerous honors for her work in facilitated field trip programming and the online student publication COLUMBIAKids.
Benjamin Helle is the outreach archivist for the Washington State Archives in Olympia. For the past eighteen years, he has been providing access to our state’s public records, including the original plans of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the 1889 state constitution, and historic road construction photographs. Before coming to Olympia in 2006, Benjamin served as research assistant and later the acquisitions archivist for the Ohio Historical Society Archives/Library.
Richard Heisler is the founder of Civil War Seattle and Seattle History Tours. A lifelong student of the Civil War era, Richard’s public history work aims to bring light to the historical connections of the Seattle region’s communities to the Civil War and other local history. Richard has presented and led tour programs for many regional organizations, including the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. Richard was also a presenter at the Guild’s 2022 Pacific Northwest History Conference. Richard is a member of the Bothell Historical Society and is a contributing writer for Emerging Civil War, the Western Theater in the Civil War.
Lisa Oberg is the Associate Director and History of Science and Medicine Curator for Special Collections in the University of Washington Libraries. An avid genealogist, Lisa is interested in the intersection of history and family history and is particularly interested in helping researchers understand the social context of the period when their ancestors lived. Lisa has taught online courses aimed at library staff serving genealogists through the University of Wisconsin’s School of Library and Information Studies and the University of Washington’s Information School. Lisa regularly gives genealogy-related lectures at the UW, Seattle Genealogical Society and around the Puget Sound region.
Anthony Long – As the Executive Associate & Board Relations Manager at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), Long assists the Executive Director in special projects, serves as the Museum liaison to the Board of Trustees, and provides operational support for the staff. He holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in public history from Norwich University. He is a contributor for HistoryLink and writes biographies of Pacific Northwest Sports icons for its website. Long is also a member of the board of directors of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Museum in Tacoma.
The Guild is governed by a Board of Trustees elected by Guild members for staggered three-year terms. Vacancies may be filled by the Board and are to be ratified by the membership of the Guild, upon 30 days notice, at its next regularly scheduled meeting.
Past Board Members
Lorraine McConaghy is a Seattle-based public historian who served on the Guild board many years ago. Her professional career has been devoted to work in historical museum settings. She has published with Sasquatch Press, Washington State University Press, and University of Washington Press, and is particularly interested in applied use of oral history interviews in theatrical programming. McConaghy has been honored by the Washington State Historical Society, Oral History Association, Association for State and Local History, and received the Guild’s Pacific Northwest History Award in 2006.
Trevor James Bond – Based in Pullman, Washington, Bond is an Associate Dean in the Libraries and the Director of WSU’s David G. Pollart Center for Arts and Humanities. He is the author of Coming Home to Nez Perce Country: The Niimiipuu Campaign to Repatriate Their Exploited Heritage. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2021 (finalist for the 2022 Washington State Book award). In 2018, he received the Charles Gates Memorial Award from the Washington State Historical Society for his article “Documenting Missionaries and Indians: The Archive of Myron Eells.”