Age in America Project Staff

Diantha Dow Schull
Project Director, Age in America
National Director, Lifelong Access Libraries

Diantha Schull is principal and founder of DDSchull Associates Inc, providing advisory services to foundations, museums, libraries and other cultural and educational institutions. From 1993 to 2007 she was Executive Director of Libraries for the Future, working to advance the capacities and funding of libraries across the United States. While at LFF she designed projects and programs aimed at helping libraries extend their services across the lifespan and throughout their communities.

Prior to joining Libraries for the Future, Diantha Schull was Executive Director of the French-American Foundation, where she directed fellowships, awards and cross-cultural policy projects, including comparative studies of the French and Americans systems for Early Childhood Education and Urban Reinvestment. She has been Director of Exhibitions and Education at the New York Public Library, Director of Interpretive Programs at the Library of Congress, and Assistant Director of the Museum Aid Program of the New York State Council on the Arts. Ms. Schull has been an advisor to foundations, museums, corporations and government agencies. Ms. Schull serves as a member of the Board of the Mid-Hudson Library Foundation, and is a member of the National Advisory Committee of The Children's Partnership. She holds a Master's Degree in Museum Studies from the State University of New York and is the author of Landmarks of Otsego County.

Selma Thomas
Project Consultant, Age in America
Founder and Principal, Watertown Productions, Inc.

Selma Thomas is the founder and principal of Watertown Productions, Inc., a media design and production firm based in Washington, D.C. A filmmaker with a background in history, Thomas produced several award-winning public television documentaries before beginning her work with museums and libraries. She has designed and produced electronic programs, both site- and web-based, for a variety of cultural institutions. A partial client list includes: the Smithsonian Institution, the National Museum of American History, the National Gallery of Art, the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose (CA), the Chicago History Museum, the Exploratorium, the Franklin Institute Science Museum and the Library of Congress. A frequent author and speaker on the strategic and interpretive uses of media, Thomas is Media Editor of Curator: The Museum Journal and co-editor of, and contributor to, The Virtual and the Real (an exploration of the interpretive role of media in museums). She is the author of “Private Memory in Public Spaces: Oral History in the Museum,” in the upcoming Oral History and Public Memories (Temple University Press, 2007).

Evaluation Team
The Touchstone Center for Collaborative Inquiry is responsible for evaluating the Age in America project. Touchstone works with nonprofit and community groups, foundations and government agencies to clarify strategies, document results, and identify and use lessons for greater effectiveness. Touchstone specializes in collaborative, participatory approaches in which organizational leaders and other stakeholders are active in designing, implementing and making meaning of evaluations. Principals David Scheie, founder and president, and senior associate Nan Kari comprise the evaluation team.