Elected Members

President: Beth Purcell

Beth Purcell moved to Capitol Hill in 1987, and later joined the CHRS board, serving as President from 2009 to 2012. After a career at the Treasury Department, she earned an MS in historic preservation from George Washington University and chairs the CHRS Historic Preservation Committee. She is also the President of Trees for Capitol Hill and a member of the Committee of 100 on the Federal City.  In her spare time she walks her dogs. 

Past 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 organizes exhibits for the Hill Center’s Young Artists Gallery. She also serves as 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.

First Vice-President: Maygene Daniels

Maygene Daniels and her husband Steve have lived on Capitol Hill for more than 45 years and raised their children here. She began her career as an archivist at the National Archives, where she advocated for preservation of historic DC Building Permits, which remain a key resource for house history on Capitol Hill. After leaving the National Archives, she founded the archives at the National Gallery of Art, where she worked for more than 30 years. In her decades of archival work, she explored subjects relating to the history, urban development and architecture of the city of Washington, the Mall and Capitol Hill. She selected images and wrote text for the historic signs in the Hill center, and is currently co-orgnizer of the Ruth Ann Overbeck capitol Hill History Lecture Series.

Second Vice-President: Tina May

Tina May moved to Capitol Hill in 1982 for an affordably priced rental house with college friends. 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. She joined the board in 2017 as an At-Large position. 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

Treasurer: Susan Oursler

Susan Oursler moved to Capitol Hill in 1979, and together with her husband, Richard Kasting, has restored  a 1912 home that they share with their two daughters. She has been the CHRS representative to EMCAC (the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee) since 2015 and has perviously served as CHRS Secretary.  Susan retired in 2014 from the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations where she was responsible for the Committee’s budget, procedures, rules and precedents.  Most recently, Susan retired from the Washington DC office of Indiana University.  She currently teaches classes on U.S. Congressional Committee procedures to visiting foreign government officials. 

Secretary: Jim Thackaberry

Jim Thackaberry is a registered architect. He moved to Washington in 1974 to work for Harry Weese Associates, the Metro architect.  He has been both in private practice and government employment having concluded his career five years ago, after working many years as a project manager and staff architect for the District Department of Housing and Community Development. Upon arriving in the city, he settled on Capitol Hill and immediately loved living here.  He then bought the townhouse that he’s been slowly renovating and restoring. He joined the Restoration Society shortly after moving here and currently serves on the Historic Preservation Committee, as he has for several years,  and greatly enjoys reviewing and commenting upon the many proposed projects in the Historic District.

At-Large Member: 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 Affairs 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.

At-Large Member: Chris Mullins

Christine Mullins and her husband Daniel have lived on Capitol Hill since 2003 when they moved here from Adam’s Morgan. They came to love the Capitol Hill community through their involvement in Maury Elementary School with their two children. Since 1984 Chris has been happy to call Washington, D.C. her home, where everyone and everything seems to have an intriguing and thought-provoking story! She led a higher education nonprofit that advocates for community colleges that teach online for nearly 25 years, and now works with faculty to create free online courses for college students across the globe. Chris brings her love of historic buildings, tin ceilings, old fixtures, finished wood, and walled gardens to CHRS. She has lobbied on behalf of our trees, helped with the CHRS House & Garden Tour, and is looking forward to organizing the CHRS Preservation Cafés.

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At-Large Member: Beth Hague

Beth Hague grew up in a historic house in Maine.  Her lifelong appreciation of historic buildings, preservation, and community all contributed to her falling in love with Capitol Hill instantly when she arrived in Washington, DC in 1998.  Drawing on expertise from CHRS and the city, Beth led the 2016-2017 effort to establish the Emerald Street Historic District, where she has lived since 2002.  She has served on the CHRS Zoning Committee since 2017 and with the House Tour for the last couple of years.  Beth works at the State Department on China-related issues during the week.  In addition to doing things with CHRS, in her free time Beth enjoys singing with the Capitol Hill Chorale, attending Chiarina concerts on Capitol Hill, and hiking with her husband Libo and son Nathaniel.

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: Angie Schmidt

Angie Schmidt moved to Washington in 1990 and bought the circa 1881 house on The Hill she shares with her family in 2002. She edited and published non-profit newsletters, magazines and scholarly journals before taking a break from her career to focus on her family. During that time, she volunteered in neighborhood schools (SWS, Peabody and Watkins) and was a Girl Scout Troop Leader for 8 years as well as the local area GS Registrar. Through her children, she has been involved with neighborhood institutions such a MoTH, Sport on The Hill, Capitol Hill Little League, St. Mark’s Dance Studio and the NE Neighborhood Library. She started volunteering with CHRS in 2016, serving as an editor for the CHRS News. Angie has always loved cities (her degree at GWU in American Studies focused on the urban environment) and thinks that The Hill encapsulates all the best parts of what Washington has to offer, both in the very old and historic, and the new and improved.

At-Large Member: Allison Ross

Alison Ross has degrees in historic preservation and architectural history from the University of Mary Washington and the University of Virginia.  Alison’s love of preservation and architecture was kindled at a young age during her visits to Thousand Island Park, a community of Victorian summer cottages on the St. Lawrence River in upstate New York.  Alison is currently an advisor to the Board of the Thousand Island Park Landmark Society.  Prior to moving to Capitol Hill with her family in 2014, Alison lived in Hanover County, Virginia, where she worked for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, renovated a 1930’s farmhouse, and served on both the County Architectural Review Board and Historical Commission.  Alison loves the sense of community on Capitol Hill and is committed to preserving the architectural heritage that strengthens the bonds between neighbors here.  Alison has served on the CHRS Historic Preservation Committee since 2015. 

 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 (Joanna Kendig), Historic Preservation (Beth Purcell), House Tour (Elizabeth Nelson), Membership (Maygene Daniels), Public Safety (Undine Nash), Zoning (Gary Peterson)