Elected Members

President: Elizabeth Nelson

Elizabeth Nelson and her husband, Nick Alberti have lived on Capitol Hill since 1985. She joined the Board in 2005 serving three terms as an At-Large member before becoming Community Relations Chair in 2010, webmaster in 2014 and President in 2016.  Elizabeth is a prolific knitter with an interest in arts education. She volunteers at Maury ES and Eliot-Hine MS and organizes exhibits for the Hill Center’s Young Artists Gallery. She is the Treasurer of Trees for Capitol Hill, Chair of the North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Assn. and a member of the ANC 6A Transportation and Public Space Committee. She’s committed to preserving Capitol Hill’s charm and neighborhood feel and to maintaining public space as a community asset.

Past President: Lisa Dale Jones

Lisa Dale Jones and her husband Gary have lived on Capitol Hill since January 2010 when they moved to DC from Boston – where they also lived in a one hundred-year- old home. Lisa is interested in history and historic preservation. She was co- editor of the CHRS newsletter from January 2011 until taking on the role of President in June 2014. While President, she planned CHRS’s 60th Anniversary celebration in January, 2015 and worked on the team that produced the inaugural Dick Wolf Memorial Lecture in March, 2015. Lisa has a background in journalism and for ten years was a radio producer for The Christian Science Monitor, winning the prestigious Gabriel Award. She is a public speaking and communications specialist, helping others confidently share their message in public.

First Vice-President: Monte Edwards

Monte Edwards has been a resident of Capitol Hill since 1984. He began his professional career as an engineer and then as an attorney for Washington Gas from which he retired in 1997. He has been a member of the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee since its inception in 1999 and served as Vice Chair, Secretary and Chair of its Capital Improvements Committee. He served as a member of the Steering Committee and Co-Chair of the
Land Use Committee of Stanton Park Neighborhood Association. He was a member of the 2001 ANC Redistricting Task Force for Ward 6. He is currently a member of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City and has served as Vice Chair and now serves as a Trustee and Co-Chairs the Planning Subcommittee. He has served as a CHRS Board Member, Chair of the Transportation Committee and 2nd Vice President and now chairs the Dick Wolf Lecture Program and City Planning Committee of CHRS.

Second Vice-President: Patrick Lally

Patrick Lally is a native Washingtonian and has lived in the Stanton Park neighborhood with his wife and children for 34 years. Pat restored an 1891 townhouse in the new Swampoodle addition to the Capitol Hill Historic District (CHHD) and lives there with hhis wife and Children. He is currently serving in the office of Governor Larry Hogan after completing an appointment as Special Assistant in government affairs and communications at the National Transportation Safety Board. Prior to that, he ran the Congressional A airs Division at the National Trust for Historic Preservation and directed Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s Federal Affairs Office in Washington. An ardent preservationist, Lally has served on the boards of CHRS, the DC Preservation League, and Congressional Cemetery, and was a trustee of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City. Most recently, he worked on the successful campaign to expand the CHHD into his neighborhood.

Treasurer: Adam Apton

Adam Apton moved to Washington with his wife in 2013. After a number of years living in and around the Brooklyn Heights Historic District in Brooklyn, New York, the Hill felt like home in almost no time at all. Adam is an attorney by profession. While living in New York, he focused his practice on construction-related matters representing both property owners and developers. He now spends the majority of his time representing private investors in corporate investigations and securities fraud actions. Adam and his family enjoy helping preserve the charming tree-lined streets that made their transition from the Heights to the Hill so wonderful. 

Secretary: Susan Oursler

Susan Oursler moved to Capitol Hill from Indiana in 1979. Over the past 30 years she and her husband, Richard Kasting, have owned and lovingly restored the 1912 home that they share with their two daughters. Susan has been an active volunteer for various Capitol Hill organizations including the North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association and the Peabody, St. Peter, Maury and Capitol Hill Day schools. Susan retired from the Senate in 2014, where she served as the Chief Clerk of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As chief of the nonpartisan staff, Susan worked closely with the Senate Historian to preserve Senate and Committee records and to publish previously classified documents created in the 1960s and 1970s. She also provided input to the staff of the Architect of the Capitol on renovations of buildings in the Capitol complex and to landscaping of the Capitol grounds. She now works part time for the Indiana University Office of Federal Government Affairs.  

At-Large Member: Susan Burgerman

Susan Burgeman arrived on Capitol Hill in July of 2005. She discovered CHRS when in the process of restoring her dilapidated 1890 home and has been a member ever since. Susan joined the Board in 2013, served two terms as Secretary and is now completing a term as Second Vice-President; she has agreed to continue on the Board as a member at-large. Susan was born and raised in Washington and the DC metro area. She lived for many years in Los Angeles and New York before returning to the District in 2003. She holds a PhD in Political Science, working for the last decade as a research consultant in the areas of peacebuilding, public security, and human rights; her work has primarily taken her to Central America and Colombia. Now semi-retired, she has been chipping away at an historical novel based in her Barracks Row neighborhood, where she lives with her husband and three cats.

At-Large Member: Michelle Carroll

Michelle Carroll began her love affair with DC when she came here from New York for college and eventually made it her home. She owns and operates her business, Pilliod Meeting Planning. She brings her grace and expertise in overcoming the complexities of the meeting planning process to her work with CHRS. Twice she has chaired the House Tour, including one year when she planned her daughter’s wedding to take place the same weekend! Due to her planning and organizational skills, it is second nature for her to undertake contract negotiations, deal with organizational structures and budgetary constraints, and adjust to last-minute changes. She is also a partner in N&M House Detectives, a house history company. She and her husband Dennis have lived on the Hill for 20 years.

At-Large Member: Steve Kehoe

Steve Kehoe and his spouse, Bill Crews, have lived on Capitol Hill since late 1998.  Steve retired from the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) over 2 years ago where he worked on various public space policy and regulatory initiatives.  His regulatory and public space permitting expertise has proven valuable to the Society since he joined the board in January of 2016.  Steve has a passion for preserving the unique character of the District’s public space and maintaining public access to Capitol Hill’s numerous small parks.  Additionally, he has been named Chair of the Society’s ad-hoc Public Space Committee.  His interests include gardening and wood working. 

At-Large Member: Joanna Kendig

Joanna Kendig fell in love in Capitol Hill while shopping for a house in 2008.  While organizing neighborhood tours for the 2012 National AIA Convention she benefited from CHRS support and learned of benefits of CHRS advocacy on Capitol Hill. Growing up post war Europe where much of historic fabric endured horrific destruction she saw both cities preserved and cities reconstructed.  In her architectural career she worked for many years in an office that successfully mixed new architecture and historic preservation projects.  Joanna is a firm believer in balancing preserving the past while supporting the new. She has served on the CHRS Historic Preservation Committee since 2014.

At-Large Member: Tina May

Tina May moved to Capitol Hill in 1982 for an affordably-priced rental house with college friends and has lived here ever since. Soon thereafter, she and her husband Peter bought their first house in need of restoration. Working with little more than a subscription to the Old House Journal and a lot of patience, they completed that house, and then a second, and are now working on their third (the “gut job”). They have been members of CHRS since at least 2002—back in the days when a membership included a subscription to the OHJ. The Mays raised three sons in the middle of these renovations who not only survived the occasional lack of plumbing and more than a few splinters, but they actually became (sometimes) willing renovation workers before leaving to become engineers. Tina has been active in many local issues, especially neighborhood public schools and the Boy Scouts. She cares deeply about public institutions and the public realm. Tina works in the music business doing concert production. 

At-Large Member: Janet Quigley

Janet Quigley has served on the CHRS Board since 2009, including two terms as President from 2012 to 2014 and currently in an At-Large position where she assists with the annual Capitol Hill House and Garden Tour.  Dedicated to preserving the residential nature of Capitol Hill, she previously served as an Advisory Neighborhood (ANC) Commissioner, Stanton Park Neighborhood Association (SPNA) Land Use Committee member, and Capitol Hill Coalition for Sensible Development Chair.  She was active in the effort to redevelop a vacant portion of the MedLink Hospital property (now BridgePoint) into an architecturally compatible apartment building in scale with the Stanton Park neighborhood.  After a civil service career with the Navy, bringing Armed Forces Radio and Television to ships at sea, she retired in 2016 to pursue interests in history and travel.  She has lived on Capitol Hill since 1995. 

 Chairs of the following committees also serve on the Board:

Budget & Administration (Susan Oursler), City Planning (Monte Edwards), Communications (Nina Tristani), Community Development (Chuck Burger), Community Relations (Elizabeth Nelson), Environment (Greg Holeyman), Historic Preservation (Beth Purcell), House Tour (Michelle Carroll), Membership (Susan Burgerman), Public Safety (Undine Nash), Zoning (Gary Peterson)