Meet Alice Greenwald, 9/11 Memorial Museum Director

Alice M. Greenwald has been working in museums for more than 30 years, a job she loves immensely.

"You get to shape something from the ground up," she said.

Greenwald has been the Director of the 9/11 Memorial Museum since 2006. As director, Greenwald is responsible for creating the museum that will tell the stories of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993.  She is in charge of developing programming, preparing exhibits, choosing artifacts, designing educational components, organizing and coordinating all the operational details of the museum, including overseeing the interior build-out and administration of the museum.  The museum, when it’s complete in 2012, will be adjacent to the 9/11 Memorial.

When asked why she joined the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Greenwald said she wanted the "opportunity to contribute. . . it was a challenge I couldn't pass up."

"Museums are all about the authentic," she said.  "This site itself is authentic."

Before joining the 9/11 Memorial Museum, Greenwald served as Associate Museum Director for Museum Programs for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.  Greenwald has also served as Executive Director of the National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia; Acting Director, Curator and Assistant Curator of the Hebrew Union College Skirball Museum in Los Angeles; and Curatorial Assistant at the Maurice Spertus Museum in Judaica, Chicago.

When not working at the museum, Greenwald spends time with her two children who live in Brooklyn.  She also loves to read novels and enjoys traveling around the globe.  Her recent trips include India, England, Ireland and Mexico.

By Meghan Walsh, Communications Associate for the 9/11 Memorial