Our Board

PRESIDENT

A seasonal resident of Madeline Island since 2005, Linda Mack covered architecture and urban design for the Minneapolis Star Tribune from 1987 to 2007. Her book, Madeline Island Summer Houses: An Intimate Journey, was published in 2013, and in 2021 she wrote a chapter on Madeline Island’s history in the last 100 years for the book celebrating the centennial of St. John’s Church.

VICE PRESIDENT

Jeannie Teisberg introduced Jay to the Museum on his very first day on Madeline Island in 1987. He has been hooked since. Jay is a mostly-retired intellectual property lawyer whose career has spanned UN work, practice, and teaching, including work on how intellectual property can help protect traditional knowledge.

TREASURER

Barbara Coffin has been a seasonal resident on Madeline Island since the early 1950s. She conducted her master’s degree research on the ecology of the Presque Isle bog and sand dunes on Stockton Island. Barbara spent much of her career as director of public programs at Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History.

SECRETARY

Pixie Martin worked at the Chateaux in 1970 and collected tickets at the Museum on her days off as she kept her friend, Jean Teisberg, company. A seasonal resident since 2004, Pixie consulted clients on cross-cultural communication throughout her career.

An enrolled member of the Red Clilff tribe, Betsy lives in Duluth, Minnesota and Bayfield, Wisconsin. She taught in the Education Department at the University of Minnesota Duluth for 18 years. With her husband, Tom, she co-owns Black Bears and Blueberries Publishing, a Native-owned non-profit that publishes Native-authored books. She loves Lake Superior and all that it has to offer.

A native of Wisconsin, Susan Chandler recently retired from a 42-year career in the arts. As executive director of Madeline Island Chamber Music, she led its successful merger with MacPhail Center for Music, where she concluded her career as Vice President of Development. Susan and her husband Bruce McLellan were introduced to Madeline in 1990 through sailing with friends and spent many summers sailing and renting cottages until they succumbed to the Island's lure and became seasonal residents in 2017.

Martin Mskowagoosh Curry is a year-round resident of Madeline Island. Aside from serving as the local recycling center supervisor, he is an active member of the LaPointe Emergency Services as an EMT and Volunteer Firefighter. He operates a small five-acre farm with a menagerie of pigs, ducks, turkeys and chickens. Martin is the President and Director of the Anishinaabe Agricultural Institute which is a leader in First Nations Agricultural advocacy including revitalizing Tribal Hemp production. He is a member of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe

Paul DeMain is a retired business owner currently living in Hayward, Wisconsin. Past CEO of Indian Country Communications, Inc., and Executive Director of Indiancountrytv digital services, Paul published the award-winning News from Indian Country. A member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin and of Ojibwe descent, DeMain,whose Ojibwe name was presented by the late Pipe Mustache is known as "Skabewis", a name that roughly translates into "The Messenger" in simple English. He has been coming to the island since a young boy to enjoy the history of his Ojibwe roots, visit the graves of his family at their old homestead on Mission Hill, and experience the power of the island.

Kip Dooley is a writer, photographer and athlete who has spent many summers on Madeline Island / Mooniingwanekaaning with his family, who steward the old Meech Cottage on Mission Hill. He enjoys gathering and telling Island stories while gardening, foraging and playing tennis, and he seeks to build bridges and foster connection through our shared love of this special place. Originally from Minneapolis, he lives year-round in Richmond, Virginia with his wife Alli and hound dog Lita. 

Mimi Heersema Smith has been a summer, now seasonal, resident of the Island since 1952. Her mother, Maggie Heersema, was the Museum’s first curator and so she grew up with the importance and value of the Museum in her daily life. Mimi’s particular interest in Island history has been that of the Anishinaabe. Mimi is a retired attorney, a career prosecutor, and the Island is and has always been her epicenter.

Laurel Lein, now retired, was an Elementary Teacher with a minor in Anthropology in the Minneapolis Public Schools for 31 years and a previous Board member of the Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve for 15 years. Laurel was introduced to Madeline Island at age 17, by her boyfriend, Eric, and his parents, Max and Mimi Lein in 1964. Eric and Laurel spend their summers owning and remodeling a cabin on Big Bay and a prefab Hodgson Home on Ross Lane. Laurel’s love of the Island, its past, present and future continues.

Sid’s family has had a cabin on the Island since 1982.  He is presently the David W. & David Cheever Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and vice-chair, Department of Surgery, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  As an American History major, Sid’s interest has been focused on first contacts between Europeans and Native Americans. He has served as vice- president of the Partnership of Historic Bostons (a Puritan organization meeting in First Church of Boston — founded in 1630) and is active in the Massachusetts Historical Society- founded in 1791.

A resident of Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, Hugh worked for Aetna Life Insurance Co. for 27 years and then was in health care management. His connection to Sand Island goes back to a family vacation in the late 1930s. As a young man, he returned to work for the resident family. He and his wife, Marilyn, came to Madeline in 1976 and enjoyed calling the 1926 Marty log cabin home for 32 years. They have been longtime supporters of the Madeline Island Museum and helped found the Apostle Island Historic Preservation Conservancy.

After many years of sailing Lake Superior and visiting Madeline Island, Bonnie and her husband bought property and have become deeply connected to the island’s history and natural heritage. The Island has been a respite from her professional life as nurse anesthetist. For the past 10 years Bonnie has facilitated educational outreach at the museum for the Madeline Island Wilderness Preserve. With these experiences she has developed a passion for our ‘storied wilderness.’

Connie Ross has been a year round resident of the island since 1986. Before that, she was a summer resident, spending every summer of her life on the island. Connie was the director of the Madeline Island Public Library and worked as a para educator at the La Pointe School for 31 years, retiring four years ago.

Keith Sowl has been coming to the island since he was a child. His family’s island history goes back to 1940, when an uncle visited for deer hunting. Keith moved to the island in 1972, making it his home, getting married to Carol and helping raise a family. He did many things to eke out a living on the island, ultimately ending up as the Town Foreman. In 2019, after retirement, he moved to Ashland — although he still spends a fair amount of time at the family glamping site on the north end. Throughout his time on the island, he served on many different town government committees and boards, and was on the MIHPA board for five years.

A retired Twin Cities attorney, Ed served as chief of staff to Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson and as a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court. He came to the island as a child but caught the Madeline Island fever in the early 1970s as he bought a sailboat and led the Madeline Island Marina out of bankruptcy. After renovating a house on Capser Road, he and his wife, Ginny, now enjoy summers on Sunset Bay.

Ginny’s career took her from IBM to the Pillsbury Company, where she met Ed, who brought her to Madeline, where they bought a house in 1993. Their support for the Madeline Island Museum includes contributing funds to acquire the six Gawboy paintings commemorating Chief Buffalo’s journey to Washington, D.C. in 1852 leading up to the Treaty of 1854. They now hang in the museum auditorium.

I am a teacher and I worked at the Madeline Island Historical Museum every summer from 1969, which was the first summer that the State Historical Society of Wisconsin operated the Museum, until the summer of Covid, 2020. I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Leo and Bella Capser and Al Galazen. I was the Site Director of the Madeline Island Historical Museum from 1981 – 1991.

WISCONSIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY LIAISON (nonvoting)

Maggie Marconi is the Deputy Administrator, Museums and Historic Sites at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Maggie brings to her role more than twenty years of experience in the field, at institutions large and small around the Midwest and the Great Lakes. Maggie has worked with historic sites on Mackinac Island and Kelleys Island, and is delighted to be working with the Madeline Island Museum.