Gardner took over the leadership of the Trenton-based museum in February 2011. A veteran of nonprofit management and fundraising, he has also held key positions at the Riverview Medical Center Foundation and the September 11th Educational Trust. Gardner helped the trust to develop an interdisciplinary multi-media curriculum for students on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Gardner is an Essex County native who has been a resident of Verona for the past two years–though he points out that he knew Verona well during the 17 years his mother spent as a waitress at the former IHOP in town. He says he became interested in getting involved with the library after speaking with Mayor Frank Sapienza, and began attending meetings of the Friends of the Verona Public Library. When Donna D’Alessio and Virginia Boeck, respectively the president and secretary of the Board of Trustees, recently resigned, Gardner and fellow resident Elizabeth Giblin were proposed to join the board. (Giblin’s appointment was also confirmed at Monday’s Town Council meeting.) The Board of Trustees functions as a board of directors for the library.
Gardner, who holds a masters in museum studies from Seton Hall University and a masters in public administration from the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration, has been working to raise the profile of the New Jersey State Museum. “We have science, history and art,” he says. “There is something for people of all ages to do down here.” Mindful of the distance to Trenton, Gardner is also working on opportunities to take the museum’s collections directly to schools, including bringing the 9/11 exhibit to H.B. Whitehorne and Verona High School.
