IBJ Influential Women(.pdf)
SPHERE OF INFLUENCE:
Surviving the turmoil at Conner Prairie was baptism by fire for Rosenthal. She has used her business sense and career in museums to lead the museum to increases in membership and to implementing new ways of learning through experience. Like Sommers, she's a culture executive to whom city leaders and other arts executives listen.
Most young visitors to Conner Prairie might be surprised at how much self-sufficiency was needed in the 1880s, but for the leader of the museum, self-sufficiency is second nature. Ellen Rosenthal cites her parents for encouraging self-sufficiency, independent thinking and having high expectations. Rosenthal earned money in college working as a bartender, becoming the first woman bartender for the Columbia University Student Bartending Association.
She's been making things happen at Conner Prairie since 1999, first as vice president of internal affairs and planning, then as executive director during the rocky period of negotiations with former trustee Earlham College. In 2006, she took the top spot and becarne the only female CEO of a major Indianapolis-area museum. She brought her experience at other museums and, especially, her background in museum learning, which she has used to transform the prairie.
"You have to keep moving forward," said Rosenthal, 55. "You have to think of your life as a game of chess, moving forward toward the ultimate goal. Women's lives seldom follow a straight career path." Rosenthal advises women to view their careers as a "continually gathering experience and be willing to move into areas out of your comfort zone."
Rosenthal, originally from New Jersey, has a bachelor's degree in art history from Bamard College, Columbia University. Always wanting to work in museums, Rosenthal went on to earn a master's in American culture from the Winterthur program at the University of Delaware. But after working as a museum curator, she realized "it was a terrible mistake. I didn't care about things as much as I cared about people." She went back to school, earning a master of public management degree from Carnegie Mellon.
Married with three sons, Rosenthal loves action movies and science fiction both reflected in her favorite movie last year, "Transformers."
"Being the mother of three boys has really changed my life!"