Who We Are
Staff
Mary Kuechenmeister
Founder / Executive Director
Email: storypreservation@gmail.com
Phone: (603) 738-7477
Board of Directors
Sara Withers
Board Chair
Sara Withers received her Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from Brandeis University in 2009. Her research was in Oaxaca, Mexico, where she was interested in a growing urban middle class—specifically in the intersection of gendered ideals and ideas about work. In Oaxaca, she focused on the ways in which female teachers negotiated their personal identities as professional women with idealized notions of motherhood in both Oaxaca and Mexico. Since Sara’s research in Oaxaca, she has shifted her interests more locally—particularly to the lives and experiences of refugees in New Hampshire.
Sara was Project Manager for the film Uprooted: Heartache and Hope in NH (2010), produced by the Center for Humanities at UNH, and since then, she has been a Humanities-to-Go Presenter and a Humanities@Work Presenter for N.H. Humanities, acting as discussant and facilitator for the film. In addition, Sara was the Humanities Expert for the World Council of N.H.’s film, Refugees of Shangri-La, about Bhutanese refugees in N.H. and the U.S. (2013-2014), as well as for their more recent film series Finding Refuge (2019). Her current work revolves around developing a collaborative public humanities project that records the stories of immigrants and refugees in New Hampshire through community-based archiving, exhibition, and educational curriculum. As a Senior Lecturer at UNH, Sara teaches various classes, including Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Peoples and Cultures of Latin America, Applied Anthropology, and the Anthropology of Migration and Human Movement.
Patricia Daly
Treasurer
Dr. Patricia Daly holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State and a Master’s of Science degree from George Washington University.
She began her career as an economist in Washington, DC, but in 2001, at the age of 45, Pat made a life-altering career change to medicine. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree in Psychiatry from MCP-Hahnemann Medical School, now Drexel University, and completed a five-year combined residency and fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH.
Since 2006, she has worked in community mental health settings in Vermont and Virginia and, for ten years, was a volunteer at the Good Neighbor Health Clinic in White River Junction, VT. In addition, Pat has been involved in clinical trial research for more than fifteen years.
Dr. Daly has a keen and lifelong interest in volunteerism and the nonprofit sector. She has been involved with Story Preservation since its founding in 2012 in a volunteer and donor capacity.
David Carroll
David Carroll is an acclaimed artist, naturalist, writer, and conservationist. The central focus of his work is freshwater turtles, with particular attention paid to the increasingly rare Blanding’s, wood, and spotted turtles and the ecosystems that support them. Bringing both an artist's and a writer's sensibility to his study, David has made detailed observations of wetland habitats throughout New England. His knowledge of the plants and animals comprising these natural and often at-risk systems made him a much sought-after lecturer and consultant to New England environmental and conservation organizations. In 2011 he was presented with the New Hampshire Science Teachers Association’s annual award for “outstanding contributions to science education” in the state.
In 2009, he was named a National Book Award finalist for his book Following the Water, and in 2006, he won the prestigious Burroughs Medal for his book Swampwalker's Journal. Other books that he has authored and illustrated include The Year of the Turtle, Self-Portrait with Turtles, and Trout Reflections. His art has been exhibited at The Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, NH; the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Dartmouth College Museum and Galleries; and the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center at the University of Connecticut. David received his undergraduate degree in art from the Boston Museum School, and his B.F.A. from Tufts University.
David was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2006.
Bennet Daviss
Secretary
Bennet Daviss spent his early career as an independent magazine journalist covering subjects ranging from archeology to oil and gas finance, subatomic physics, and sustainable development. His far-reaching interests and ability to converse on a broad range of topics make Ben a perfect fit for the Story Preservation board. He is the co-author of three books on education reform, including Redesigning Education, written with Nobel Prize-winning physicist Kenneth Wilson and published by Henry Holt & Company, NYC. In addition, Ben has been a senior research fellow at India's Institute for a Sustainable Future and a visiting scholar at Keene State College, one of New England's premiere teacher-education institutions. In recent years, Ben has focused on local school districts and New England-based nonprofits. For five years, he served as the in-house grant coordinator for Monadnock Family Services, southwestern New Hampshire's community mental health agency. Currently, Ben manages federal grants for the Keene, New Hampshire school district and continues writing about issues in science, technology, energy, and the environment for online publications.
Lisa Jelleme
Lisa Jelleme is a landscape and still life painter who works in a representational style. Her landscape paintings, set mostly in her home state of New Hampshire, are of places that hold significance to her. She has studied painting at the Village Arts, Putney, Vermont and with distinguished representational painters Brian Blood, Clayton Beck, Peter Granucci, Francis Weston Hoyt, Donald Jurney, Diane Rath, Richard Schmid, Dennis Sheehan and John C. Traynor. Her works have been exhibited throughout New England and are collected widely in the United States
Lisa brings to her position as SPI board member a passion for the arts, a commitment to education, and an understanding of the vital role that creativity plays in the lives of young people.
She divides her time between outdoor landscape painting and studio work from her home studio in East Andover, New Hampshire.
Mary Kuechenmeister
Vice Chair
Mary Kuechenmeister founded Story Preservation Initiative in 2010. Since that time she has served as the organization’s executive director and visionary leader. In 2013, Mary was instrumental in the development of the organization's flagship project, the Story Preservation Initiative Learning Lab. The Learning Lab was developed for 4-12 teachers and combines SPI primary source audio with project-based lesson plans for rich, multi-disciplinary learning. She brings a more than 30-year background in writing, editing, and broadcast production to her position. She started her career in the Broadcast/Communications Department at Save the Children, Westport, Connecticut. Mary is a graduate of the University of Connecticut.
“We are grateful to be able to access SPI resources. We are not unlike so many other schools, where our students are beginning with little to no exposure to the world of literacy. I remember a quote from college days: ‘The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.’ SPI gives us another way to enlarge on both language and world.”