Debra L. Mecky, Ph.D., executive director and CEO of Greenwich Historical Society for over 29 years, has announced her decision to retire in 2025. During her tenure, she dramatically advanced the organization’s mission, transformed its site and operations, and expanded its reach and audience to become one of America’s foremost regional history museums.
Under Mecky’s leadership, the Historical Society experienced significant growth, prominence, and relevance in the Greenwich community and beyond. With the support of an extraordinary board, staff, and design team, Mecky oversaw the 2018 Reimagine the Campus transformation and expansion with state-of-the-art galleries for permanent collections and special exhibitions, and the installation of a new highly accessible world-class library and archives, reception lobby and museum store. She obtained accreditation from the American Alliance of Museums, oversaw the restoration of the Justus Luke Bush Storehouse to accommodate administrative offices, and the expansion of the historic barn into the Vanderbilt Education Center. The interpretive plan she developed for Bush-Holley House and its historic landscape advanced its status as a National Historic Landmark and recognition as the site of the first art colony in Connecticut.