Biography
Ellen M. Rosenthal, President and CEO
Ellen M. Rosenthal became the President and CEO of Conner Prairie Museum, Inc. in December 2005. Since taking on her current role, Conner Prairie has received several high honors including reaccreditation by the American Association of Museums, a status earned by only three percent of all the museums in the country; the Indiana Achievement Award; and the BKD Indiana Excellence Award. Conner Prairie has also seen continued growth in fundraising, attendance and membership and, in 2008, reported the highest fundraising and membership records in the museum’s history.
Ellen has spent her entire career, more than 25 years, working in the museum field. Dr. Ford Bell, President and CEO, American Association of Museums and the nation’s foremost museum professional noted in August 2008 that Conner Prairie was, “an outstanding museum…fortunate to be led by Ellen Rosenthal, one of the museum field’s very best directors.”
Prior to coming to Conner Prairie ten years ago as Vice-President, Rosenthal worked at a variety of museums, including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Frick Art and Historical Center, the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center and served in a number of different capacities, as curator, space planner, exhibit developer, grant-writer and supervisor. In recent years, she has been particularly interested in visitor behavior, fund-raising strategy and financial metrics for museums.
Rosenthal attended Barnard College, Columbia University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Art History. She then earned a master’s degree in Early American Culture from the H.F. DuPont Winterthur Program. After working in the field for several years, Ellen became interested in the broader scope of museum issues, which led her to earn a second master’s degree in management at Carnegie Mellon University.
Ms. Rosenthal lives in Indianapolis and is married to Dr. Theodore Logan, a medical oncologist at the Indiana University Medical Center. They have three sons: Daniel, a junior at Haverford College near Philadelphia, Sam, a senior in high school, and Paul, in the eighth grade.