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Museum Officers and Trustees
The Mahwah Museum runs on the energy of its volunteers. We encourage members to become docents, join committees, and join the Board of Trustees and office-holders. Trustees serve three-year terms and are elected at the annual meeting, usually held in April. If you are interested in learning more about serving on the Board, or want to suggest a member, contact the President.
Officers (Elected Annually)
President: Diane Stripe
Diane Stripe is a twenty-plus-year resident of Mahwah and worked in the Mahwah School District as an art educator for the majority of those years. An avid museum and gallery enthusiast, she works actively as a graphic designer, photographer, and exhibit curator.
Diane also serves as Exhibit Chair.
Current board term: 2024-2027
Vice President: Cathy Moran Hajo
Cathy Moran Hajo has a Ph.D. in History from New York University and is a graduate of Mahwah High School and Ramapo College of New Jersey. She is the editor and director of the Jane Addams Papers Project at Ramapo College and was previously the associate editor of the Margaret Sanger Papers. She was one of the curators of the Mahwah’s Herstory Exhibit (2016) and A College Comes to Mahwah (2019). She is a former president of the Museum and serves as Archives Director.
Current board term: 2023-2026.
Secretary: Irene Calotta
Current board term: 2025-2028
Treasurer: Kim Sciancalepore
Kim is a 30-year resident of Bergen County. Her background in accounting, finance, bookkeeping, and tax preparation allows her to perform all the duties needed in her position as treasurer.
Current board term: 2025-2028
Board of Trustees (Three-Year Terms)
Diane Adler
Joining in 2005, I have served as a docent, trustee, vice-president, exhibit builder, and Education Chair. Having been a teacher for 37 years, I love to conduct tours for students, scouts, and senior groups, as well as providing support for teachers, scout leaders, and history clubs. I have judged National History Day for over 30 years and encouraged the formation of a school history club in the Mahwah Schools. Besides partnering with Bob on creating the Donald Cooper Model Railroad, we build a temporary Lionel layout for the children in the Mahwah Library each November.
Current board term: 2023-2026
Robert (Bob) Adler
Bob has been a member of the Mahwah Museum Society since 2005. He has served as the chair of the Old Station Museum and is responsible for bringing the Donald Cooper Model Railroad and Jerome Margolis Lionel Collections to the museum. He is currently the Chair of the Model Railroad Exhibit. Bob is a life-long resident of Mahwah.
Current board term: 2025-2028
Janet Ariemma
Janet Ariemma is a lifetime resident of Mahwah. She works as an adjunct mathematics professor at Rockland Community College. Janet serves on the Mahwah Township Council and the Mahwah Environmental Commission. She is also the council liaison to the Historic Preservation Commission and the Mahwah Board of Education.
Current board term: 2024-2027
Bill Dator
Current board term: 2023-2026
Marion Brown
Mahwah resident Marion Brown grew up in Ho-Ho-Kus and has been active in the history community of Bergen County for 24 years, having previously served on the Board of Trustees for the Mahwah Museum Society and the Ridgewood Historical Society. She is a former director of the Hermitage, co-author of The Rosencrantz Cotton Warp Mill – The Industrial Revolution at the Hermitage 1830-1891, and currently a genealogist and archivist of historic photos, books, and documents in private collections. She spent 22 years in Finance and Administration for ABC Network News and 8 years as a photographer for North Jersey Media.
Marion serves as Lectures Chair.
Current board term: 2023-2026
John Edwards
John is a lifelong resident of Mahwah, living in the family home in Cragmere. He joined the museum in 2011, later became president, and currently serves as Docent Chair, Buildings and Grounds Chair, Technology Chair, and Old Station Chair.
Current board term: 2023-2026
Randy Fuchs
Randy has been an educator in the Mahwah Public School System since 1996, teaching social studies in both the middle and high schools. He is also the high school’s class and club advisor and coaches the Girls Varsity Soccer team.
Current board term: 2025-2028
Tom Grissom
As a 40-year-plus Township resident, I’m well aware of the desire to be sure that Mahwah keeps its history alive and available for residents to view to help maintain and add their own personal touch to the history of “Maua.” I’m proud to be a trustee of the museum, and I hope to contribute in my own way as a trustee.
Current board term: 2023-2026
Sarah Koenig
Sarah Koenig is Assistant Professor of American Studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey, where she teaches courses on Native American history, American culture, and religion. She earned her Ph.D. in History and Religious Studies from Yale University. She has worked on exhibits, including Ramapough: Legacy and Heritage, which features a digital map of Ramapough Munsee history researched by Ramapo College students and co-created with research partners in the Ramapough Munsee Lenape Nation.
Current board term: 2023-2026
Wade Morgan
Wade also serves as our master of ceremonies for trivia nights.
Current board term: 2024-2027
Susan Ramirez
I graduated from Ramapo College in 1976. I have been a resident of Mahwah for 36 years. I retired from the Mahwah High School Library after 30 years, and also worked at the Mahwah Public Library part-time. I have been interested in the history of Mahwah as a town and its diverse residents.
Current board term: 2023-2026
Warren Storms
Warren is a lifelong resident of Mahwah and feels like he can never leave town because his relatives have been here since the 1700s. Warren was a trustee in the beginning when the museum took over the old library in 2001, helping to get the building ready and setting up the first major exhibit, “Mahwah’s Farming Past,” including the ice-cutting tools used to harvest the ice from the
pond by his grandfather and great-grandfather.
He is a past member of the Historic Preservation Commission.
Current board term: 2024-2027
Martha Meyer Steinbach
I am a 20-year resident of Mahwah, having moved here in 2005. I am a
former member of the Mahwah Historic Preservation Commission, having
been a member of the cemetery committee and chairing the Mahwah Day
booth committee. This latter entailed designing and constructing the booth.
I coined the phrase ‘Save the Caboose’ and devoted three years of MHPC
Mahwah Day booths were used to educate the community through pictures and its
history, to understand how dire the caboose’s condition was. My Mahwah
Day pictorial presentation of the community’s original caboose restoration
project is now on permanent display in the caboose museum.
Current board term: 2025-2028
Colleen McSpirit-Brush
Colleen McSpirit-Brush serves as chair of the Les Paul Committee. As chair, she coordinates committee initiatives, develops community events, and works with partners to honor Les Paul’s impact as a pioneering musician, inventor, and cultural figure.
A former award-winning journalist, Colleen currently works as a communications and marketing manager for a faith-based nonprofit organization.
Colleen grew up in Pompton Lakes and lived in Kinnelon for 30 years before moving to Bergen County in 2022. She holds degrees from the Fashion Institute of Technology,
New York University and Drew University. She also serves on the Kinnelon Volunteer
Animal Shelter Board of Trustees.
Current board term: 2025-2028
Linda Dator
Current board term: 2026-2029
Emeritus Members of the Board of Trustees
Charlie Carreras
Charlie is a retired Ramapo College professor. He is a former president of the Museum.
Tom Dunn
Tom Dunn moved to Mahwah in 1968 and shortly thereafter became involved with the Mahwah Historical Society after Governor Hughes landed in a helicopter on Commodore Perry Field and spoke at the dedication of the Old Station Museum. He served for ten years as President of the Mahwah Museum and has frequently presented programs on topics of historical interest including Cragmere, Havemeyer, Mapping Mahwah, Mahwah and Mount Laurel, Stag Hill and Mahwah Inventors.
Carol W. Greene
Carol is Mahwah’s town historian, and author of The Ramapough Chronicles and Mahwah: Images of America. She has been a president and vice-president of the Museum, and chair of the New Jersey Historical Trust.
Barbara Knichel
Barbara was one of the founding members of the Museum, helping with exhibits and serving on the Board for many years. She was also a long-time member of the Mahwah Historical Society that predated the Museum.
