Hospitality | Tourism 2024: JANE KAMENSKY

Named president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in October 2023, Kamensky started work in January. The nonprofit owns and operates Monticello, the mountaintop plantation of the third U.S. president.

Kamensky previously served as the Jonathan Trumbull Professor of American History at Harvard University and as the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. Kamensky has authored or co-authored seven books across four centuries of American history.

With a bachelor’s degree and doctorate in history from Yale University, the New York City native chaired Brandeis University’s history department before joining Harvard.

The foundation has seen some key departures over the past year, including Jefferson historian Annette Gordon-Reed’s resignation from the board in January and American history scholar Frank Cogliano’s departure on June 30, when his contract as the International Center for Jefferson Studies’ interim director ended.

THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE ME: Thick-skinned, committed, self-mocking

ADVICE FOR NEW COLLEGE GRADUATES: Democracy is hard work, and a peerless privilege. Earn it, every day.