The public history community is mourning the passing of Dr. Jannelle Warren-Findley, who passed away on February 4, 2015, in Arizona. Jann was one of the founding directors of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites in 2004 and served until 2007. During that time, she was a conference organizer for the West/Southwest Regional Meeting of the National Collaborative for Women’s History Sites in 2004-2005. When Jann left the NCWHS board, she recommended that Mary Melcher replace her.
Jann was an inspiration to many who work at the intersection of women’s history and public history. One particularly memorable and powerful contribution was her work in organizing (with Mary Rothschild) the Second National Women in Historic Preservation Conference (1997), a watershed event for those of us interested in the documentation and interpretation of places associated with women’s history. Many of us working in public history today found the series of conferences of which this was a part a turning point in our own careers, where scholarship was sharpened, networks thickened, and friendships forged.
Jann served as president of the National Council on Public History and on the executive board of the Organization of American Historians, among many other professional activities. Her public history practice took her around the world, from New Zealand to China. She retired from the Department of History at Arizona State University, where she taught public history, in 2014.
Her obituary is available at http://www.tempemortuary.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=2952345&fh_id=14347.
The National Council on Public History has a blog of memories about Jann at http://publichistorycommons.org/remembering-jann-warren-findley/