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To the editor:
It is with a mixture of deep gratitude and profound sadness that I write to share that Lauren McCormack, our executive director at the Marblehead Museum, will be leaving her position effective June 30.
As board president, working alongside McCormack has been one of the greatest privileges of my tenure. Over the years, our professional partnership grew into a close personal friendship. I will miss her collaborative spirit, her unwavering energy and her presence at the museum more than words can say. She has been an incredible leader to our organization and a dear friend to me.
While McCormack has brought numerous projects to life, her signature legacy will undoubtedly be the monumental preservation, acquistion and opening of the Jeremiah Lee Brick Kitchen & Slave Quarters. Under her vision, the museum successfully reunited the Jeremiah Lee estate for the first time since the 18th century by purchasing the Washington Street property in 2021. McCormack then masterfully championed a 1.4 million community-backed restoration of the 1768 structure, turning it into one of only three surviving detached slave quarters accessible to the public at a museum site in New England.
Because of her relentless dedication to research and community storytelling, this newly opened space now houses the profound permanent exhibition, "Resistance & Resilience: Slavery and Freedom in Marblehead." Thanks to McCormack, our museum can now honor the complex humanity, agency and lives of the enslaved individuals who lived and labored right here in our town. Her efforts have forever enriched the historical record of Marblehead and ensured these critical stories will teach future generations.
While we will greatly miss McCormack's leadership and warmth, she leaves us on a brilliant trajectory. On behalf of the board of directors, staff and volunteers — and from the bottom of my own heart — I want to publicly thank McCormack for her transformative service and wish her the absolute best as she takes on her exciting new role as the executive director of Freedom's Way National Heritage Area.
With love and blessings,
Patty Pederson
President of the Marblehead Museum.
Front Street
