Lee Wright
Founder and President
Lee Wright, moved to New England in 2005, bought an old house (c 1780), and soon was serving on the board of his local historical society and historical commission. He started The History List in 2011 and History Camp in 2014.
In 2019 he founded The Pursuit of History with Carrie Lund after seeing the success of History Camp and believing that there was a need for more History Camps and more innovative ways to engage people from all walks of life with history.
Lee has spoken at the New England Museum Association conference and the annual conference of the America Association for State and Local History. He has a Masters of Management from Northwestern University and lives in Marlborough, Massachusetts.
J. L. Bell
Founding Board Member
J. L. Bell is proprietor of the Boston1775.net website and author of The Road to Concord: How Four Stolen Cannon Ignited the Revolutionary War and numerous articles about Revolutionary New England. Living in Massachusetts, he has spoken at History Camp Boston every year since its inception. Bell has edited books, directed writing conferences, and administered a non-profit organization linked to a local historic site.
Rose Doherty
Founding Board Member
Rose A. Doherty is a founding board member of The Pursuit of History. She is president emerita of the Partnership of Historic Bostons, an all-volunteer group dedicated to preserving the legacies of Boston, Massachusetts, and Boston, England, in the seventeenth century. She is also a Fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society, an officer of the Needham Historical Commission, and a member of The Colonial Society of Massachusetts.
Rose is the author of Katharine Gibbs: Beyond White Gloves, the first book about the world-renowned Gibbs College. She formerly served as academic dean and chair of the board of trustees of Gibbs College, Boston. Doherty has taught at Gibbs College, Boston College, and the Boston Conservatory. Before retiring, she was assistant dean and director of the liberal arts and criminal justice programs at University College, Northeastern University.
Dr. Sam Forman
Founding Board Member
Dr. Samuel A. Forman, MBA, MPH, a historian and Harvard University faculty member, is educated in the history of the American Revolution as well as the practice of clinical and preventive medicine. Throughout his successful careers as a physician, military officer, and businessman, he has published and lectured on historical topics that inform current issues.
In 2012, Dr. Forman published the award-winning biography Dr. Joseph Warren: The Boston Tea Party, Bunker Hill, and the Birth of American Liberty. His next book, Ill-Fated Frontier: Peril and Possibilities in the Early American West, will be published in 2021.
Dr. Michael Shire
Founding Board Member
Michael Shire, PhD, MA, grew up in Birmingham, England, and completed his BA with honors in Hebrew literature and Jewish history at University College, London. He continued his studies at Hebrew Union College in New York and Los Angeles, where he completed an MA and PhD in Jewish education. Returning to the UK in 1988 to serve as national director of the Centre of Jewish Education, he was later ordained as a rabbi at Leo Baeck College in 1996.
In 2001, Dr. Shire merged the Centre of Jewish Education with Leo Baeck College and became its vice principal for eleven years. In 2011, he became professor and dean of the Shoolman Graduate School of Jewish Education at Hebrew College in Newton Centre, Massachusetts, and was appointed chief academic officer there in 2015. Dr. Shire has published widely in the fields of Jewish education and spiritual education.