Maureen O. Vanterpool, Ph.D • Senior Advisor – has an enduring personal interest in the stories of freedom seekers and those who helped them, as well as the places where they found refuge a-long the Underground Railroad (UGRR). She has visited numerous sites in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York and she hopes to visit sites in other states. She is a friend of the Little Beaver Historical Society, which operates the Greersburg Academy Museum in Darlington, PA, a site reportedly associated with the UGRR.
Several structures in that community are identified as UGRR stations. She is working toward helping the Society to join the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. Dr. Vanterpool has dedicated her professional life to educating others. She retired from Geneva College in Beaver Falls, PA, where she served as a Professor of Organizational Leadership. In that role, she contributed to development of over 1,000 leaders across the Pittsburgh region. Currently, she is a Leadership Development Consultant who works with leaders of nonprofit organizations. She is a native of St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a B.A. in Philosophy at Howard University and later she returned to St. Thomas. There, she served as a teacher and as a school administrator, while pursuing an M.A. in Education at the University of the Virgin Islands. Subsequently, she earned a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership at The Ohio State University. She plans to expand her professional pursuits to include educational projects that draw lessons in leadership for the present and the future, from the rich history of the UGRR.