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    • Home
    • Visit The Gage Center
    • About Gage
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    • About the Foundation
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  • Home
  • Visit The Gage Center
  • About Gage
  • DONATE - GET INVOLVED
  • About the Foundation
  • Gage Ambassadors
  • About the Gage Home
  • Matilda's Writings
  • Online Gift Shop
  • Contact Us
  • Recent Events

ABOUT THE MATILDA JOSLYN GAGE FOUNDATION

THE MISSION

The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation is dedicated to educating current and future generations about Gage’s work and its power to drive contemporary social change.

THE HEART OF OUR MISSION

At the heart of our mission is the story of Matilda Joslyn Gage, a progressive visionary of women’s rights and human liberation and an often unacknowledged leader who, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton  wrote the arguments, inspired the passions and, with Susan B. Anthony, organized the political action of the 19th century woman suffrage movement in the United States.


It is the story of a woman of courage and integrity publicly defying 19th century laws that forced complicity with slavery and denied woman their autonomy and liberty – including the right to vote.


It is the story of a remarkable corner of the world, now known as Central New York, a fount of free thought and radical activism for social justice.


It is the story of Native women whose political and social equality with men in the Haudenosaunee Confederacy helped convince Gage and her contemporaries that women’s subordination was neither natural nor ordained by God.


It is the story of a woman daring to challenge a harsh, misogynist theology dominating the churches of her day, a woman who dared to suggest that all women and men had the capacity and the responsibility to think for themselves about their relationship to what Gage called the “Motherhood and Fatherhood of God”.


It is the story of Gage leading and inspiring her son-in-law, Oz author L. Frank Baum, to conclude that the path to liberation involves uncovering one’s lost courage, intelligence and compassion and that behind the curtain of tyranny stands a buffoon who has lost his way.


It is the story of how a great feminist was once nearly lost to history because her life and ideas retained their power to threaten the forces of oppression.


Lastly, it is our story, the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, dedicated to celebrating and promoting Gage’s legacy and the continuing significance of her life, her thought, her writings and her inspiration for the present and the future.

OUR COMMITMENT TO GAGE

As Gage lived consistent with her values, our mission includes honoring her life by restoring, preserving and maintaining her home as a place where people can learn about her and her family and the life of a 19th century activist.


As Gage was an historian and scholar, our mission includes creating and sustaining a library and writings that influenced her and works of authors influenced by her–thereby making her writing and her thought available to as broad an audience as possible and inspiring new generations of feminist thinkers and activists.


As Gage was a passionate campaigner for women’s rights and dignity, our mission includes communicating the conditions of women’s lives in Gage’s lifetime and educating about the 19th century women’s rights movement, its relevance to contemporary life and the continuing work to eliminate all forms of unjust treatment of women.


As Gage was committed to ending slavery, our mission includes conducting educational programs on the abolitionists and freedom seekers of Central New York, the role and experiences of the Underground Railroad and the contributions of African Americans.  


As Gage reminded her contemporaries of their special treaty obligations to the first nations of her region and was honorarily adopted into the Wolf Clan of the Mohawk Nation as “She Who Carries the Sky,” our mission includes carrying out projects that advance understanding of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Six Nation culture and the meaning and history of Native sovereignty.


As Gage was part of a much broader community of social activists in the Finger Lakes/Central New York region devoted to abolition, women’s rights, free thought and the separation of Church and State, our mission includes promoting an understanding of our region as a wellspring of progressive social change, advancing the idea that this legacy is something in which to take pride and on which to build our region’s future.


As Gage was the mother-in-law of L. Frank Baum and an inspiration to him, our mission includes promoting an understanding of the Oz legacy and its cultural significance and peace and social justice themes.

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Our staff

Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner Founder/Co-Executive Director

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one of the first college-level women’s studies  program in the United States (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in The Renée Crown University Honors Program, Syracuse Universi

Awarded one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies (UC Santa Cruz) and a founder of one of the first college-level women’s studies  program in the United States (CSU Sacramento), Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner currently serves as an adjunct faculty member in The Renée Crown University Honors Program, Syracuse University and the St. John Fisher Executive Leadership Program.

Dr. Wagner was selected as one of “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” by Women’s E-News in 2015. 

Founder and Executive Director of the Matilda Joslyn Gage Center for Social Justice Dialogue in Fayetteville, NY. and author of articles on historic house museums, she received the Katherine Coffey Award for outstanding service to museology from the Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums in 2012.

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Heather Allison Waters was raised in Fayetteville and returned in 2016, the same year she placed her November voting sticker on Matilda's memorial headstone in the Fayetteville Cemetery. A trained mediator and experienced major gift and capital campaign fundraiser, Heather has worked in the arts and culture and education sectors on four c

Heather Allison Waters was raised in Fayetteville and returned in 2016, the same year she placed her November voting sticker on Matilda's memorial headstone in the Fayetteville Cemetery. A trained mediator and experienced major gift and capital campaign fundraiser, Heather has worked in the arts and culture and education sectors on four continents. She is proud to have helped to create the Lender Center for Social Justice at Syracuse University. She holds a BA from Mount Holyoke College and an MS from Columbia University. Like Matilda, she is an advocate for the separation of state and religion, and she swore in on the code book when she was elected to the Manlius Town Board in 2019.

Melissa S. Almeyda, Deputy Director

Heather Allison Waters Co-Executive Director

Melissa S. Almeyda, Deputy Director


Melissa is a lifelong lover of history. At SUNY Albany she had a dual major in History (American Concentration) and Political Science. Her interest has always been focused more on times when laws were created and changed. The American Revolution, The Civil War and of course times of Social change. The focus on the law led her to obtain he


Melissa is a lifelong lover of history. At SUNY Albany she had a dual major in History (American Concentration) and Political Science. Her interest has always been focused more on times when laws were created and changed. The American Revolution, The Civil War and of course times of Social change. The focus on the law led her to obtain her Juris Doctorate from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law.

Melissa grew up with strong ties to Girl Scouts and continues to want to be apart of organizations that teach young girls and women that they need to push past any limits society puts on them. 

After taking 5 ½ years off to be with her sons, she is excited to be a part of The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation. 




OUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND ADVISORS

  

VALERIE LUZADIS, President


Valerie Luzadis, Ph.D., is professor of Social-Ecological Systems and Ecological Economics at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). Luzadis served as Interim Provost and as the first Executive Vice President of ESF and held several other leadership roles in the institution. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Global Council for Science and the Environment, and she serves on the National Board of Advisors for Planet Forward, a project of the Center for Innovative Media at the George Washington University School of Media and Public Affairs. Luzadis is the founder of Heart Forward Science, created to develop holistic knowledge through a balance of intellect, imagination, and intuition to advance equitable, sustainable scientific outcomes. She is past President of the United States Society for Ecological Economics and led the effort to charter the US Society for Ecological Economics. Luzadis sings with the Syracuse Chorale and serves on their Board of Directors and she volunteers for Lasagna Love providing homemade meals for local families. 


MICHELE JONES GALVIN, Vice President 


 Michele Jones Galvin is the co-founder and former director of the ACCESS Center, an infant mortality prevention program sponsored by the Department of Social Services.   She serves on the Board of Directors of FOCUS Greater Syracuse,  George and Rebecca Barnes Foundation, Guardian Angel Society, Loretto Management Corporation and League of Women Voters.   Among her numerous awards Ms. Jones Galvin was the recipient of the Syracuse Chapter of the National Council of Negro Women Community Service Award in 2013.   In 2019, she was awarded the Junior League of Syracuse 20th Annual Spirit of Mary Harriman Award for Community Leadership.  Ms. Jones Galvin and her mother Joyce Stokes Jones have co-authored a creative nonfiction.  The work is based on genealogical research and their family ties to Harriet Ross Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad.


DIANNE APTER, Secretary


Dianne Apter joined our Board when she retired from the consulting firm she founded, Apter & O’Connor Associates.  She also served as a Project Director for The Early Childhood Direction Center at Syracuse University’s School of Education for over 30 years. She facilitates Gage House tours and visits and assists with grant writing.   In addition to The Gage Foundation Board, Dianne spends her time writing creative nonfiction and has published in several online journals. She also serves on the Board of Contact Community Services of Central New York.

  

ARIELLE BADGER NEWMAN, Treasurer  


Arielle Badger Newman is an assistant professor in the Department of Entrepreneurship and Emerging Enterprises at Syracuse University. Dr. Newman earned her Ph.D. from the University of Utah in political economy, following which she spent two years as an assistant professor in entrepreneurship at the University of Southern Mississippi before relocating to Syracuse University. Dr. Newman’s work focuses on entrepreneurs outside the “mainstream,” those who seek to legitimize themselves and their entrepreneurial endeavors despite institutions that were not made for them, or in fact, were made to exclude them. In most cases, this exclusion is a result of the entrepreneur’s gender, race, socio-economic class, or sexuality. She has studied this struggle for legitimization in various cultural contexts from her dissertation collecting original fieldwork with entrepreneurs in Kumasi, Ghana, to paladar restauranteurs in communist Cuba, working with resettled refugees in a culinary incubator in Salt Lake City, and working extensively with female entrepreneurs throughout the United States. Her work focuses on the legitimization of these entrepreneurs outside the mainstream, and the impact of these experiences on their overall entrepreneurial journey and well-being. Dr. Newman is the proud mother of two amazing boys, and the wife to her eternal ballroom dance partner, Cliff. 


BETTY LYONS


Betty Lyons, President & Executive Director of the American Indian Law Alliance (AILA), is an Indigenous and environmental activist and citizen of the Onondaga Nation. Betty has worked for the Onondaga Nation for over 20 years. Ms. Lyons serves as a member of the Haudenosaunee External Relations Committee and has been an active participant at the annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) since the first session in 2001 as a delegate of the Onondaga Nation. Betty continues to work for the protection of Indigenous peoples who are fighting to protect their traditions, territories, resources, and care for Mother Earth.

Out of her concern for Indigenous peoples and Mother Earth, Betty serves on numerous boards like: 4 The Future Foundation, Connie Hogarth Center, Center for Earth Ethics, The MOST, Skä•noñh- Great Law of Peace Center Academic Collaborative, and is Co-Chair of the Center of Earth Ethics Advisory Board.


CATHY STEVENS-TRIPICIANO


Cathy Stevens-Tripiciano is the owner and creative director of Maple Seed Creative, a public relations and content creation company. She lives in Auburn, NY with her husband and young son. An award-winning video producer; Cathy was honored with the Phyllis K. Goldman Encouragement Award by the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce in 2020. The award is given to a female business owner who has shown noteworthy entrepreneurial pursuit and inspires other women to pursue their dreams. Cathy is an adjunct professor of communications and media studies at Cayuga Community College. She began her career in media at the Syracuse public broadcasting affiliate, WCNY. It was in this role as a television producer that she first ‘discovered’ Matilda Joslyn Gage. She has worked with the foundation in the past as a volunteer to promote Matilda’s work and ideals as well as fundraising events for the foundation. 




NATIONAL ADVISORS

Michael Patrick Hearn


Coline Jenkins


Gloria Steinem


DESCENDANT ADVISORS

Mac Hudson


Gita Dorothy Morena


Robert and Clare Baum

Copyright © 2018 Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation - All Rights Reserved.

Hours: MONDAY-FRIDAY 10 am - 3 pm Weekends and holidays: by appointment

  • Visit The Gage Center
  • About Gage
  • DONATE - GET INVOLVED
  • About the Foundation
  • Gage Ambassadors
  • About the Gage Home
  • Matilda's Writings
  • Online Gift Shop
  • Contact Us