Anthony Birthplace's Executive Director Leaving

02:49PM / Monday, December 22, 2025Print Story | Email Story

ADAMS, Mass. — The leadership at the Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum is changing with the departure of Executive Director James Capuzzi.

Capuzzi, hired in fall 2023, will be leaving at the end of the year to pursue a new opportunity closer to family in New Orleans. Museum officials say he leaves behind an impressive record of stability and growth.

"We are deeply grateful for James' dedicated leadership over the past two years, said Carol Crossed, museum founder and president of the board of directors. "During this time the museum has experienced tremendous growth in community engagement, grant funding, and educational programming."

According to Capuzzi, the decision to leave was not an easy one.

"It is hard to leave a role and a community that has been so welcoming to me and my family," he said. "I am proud of our impact locally and regionally and know that the museum board will continue its commitments to Adams and Berkshire County."

Thanks to Capuzzi's leadership and vision and through support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, museum's educational programs will reach more students.

"With these educational grants, we will be able to reach five schools and over 300 students in 2026," said Muriel Dyas, a longtime museum volunteer, historical re-enactor, and now a board member. "The Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation has been an invaluable partner, providing funding for educational outreach programs like 'Your Neighbor, Susan B. Anthony,' resources for institutional strategic planning, and support for our special exhibits."

The museum board credits Capuzzi with solid planning and direction, demonstrated by the exhibits and programs he has developed. The museum is preparing to launch on May 22, 2026, a special exhibit, "The Rejected Stone: Justice & the American Founding," a collaborative effort with the Adams Historical Society that will explore Anthony's connection to Adams and the abolitionist themes of Moncure Daniel Conway, an American abolitionist minister, radical writer, and a prominent figure in the antebellum South. The exhibit is funded through a grant from William J. & Margery S. Barrett Fund for Adams, Cheshire & Savoy.

"With reliable funding sources developed by James, the museum can look towards planning events months and even years into the future," Crossed said. "His outreach is nearly unparalleled in the Berkshires."

Capuzzi has also overseen growth in the museum's internship program. Two Harvard College student interns will work at the museum this January, and a University of Massachusets at Amherst student will work in the spring.

"I am most proud of the impact our internship program has on students locally and nationally. Our student interns are exposed to all aspects of museum operations and perspectives and leave with a better understanding of their own skillset and interest areas," Capuzzi said.

He was hired after a three-year search for an executive director for the small birthplace museum, which opened in 2009. The house, built a couple years before Anthony was born in 1820, had been a private home for many years. It was restored to reflect how it would have looked when the town's most famous daughter lived there as a child.

In New Orleans, near where his wife's family resides, Capuzzi will become donor engagement manager for Catholic Charities. The Birthplace Museum board of directors will look to fill his position in the coming months. A job posting will be available on its website, www.susanbanthonybirthplace.com, and on local and regional job boards in the coming weeks.

Tags: executive director, museum, Susan B. Anthony,

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State, Local Leaders Celebrate Funding Boost For Ashuwillticook Rail Trail Extension

By Sabrina DammsiBerkshires Staff
05:39PM / Thursday, September 10, 2026

ADAMS, Mass. — State officials and local leaders kicked up their kickstands and took a ride along the final stretch of the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail on Thursday to celebrate new investments in rural communities.

Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office (FFIO) Director Quentin Palfrey joined local leaders, including State Rep. John Barrett III and Berkshire Regional Planning Commission (BRPC) Executive Director Laura Brennan, in Adams to highlight the newest round of FFIO funding. The grant will provide BRPC with $64,700 in state funds to help advance the Ashuwillticook Rail Trail expansion.

"When Governor Healey came into office, one of her big day-one commitments was to make sure that Massachusetts was fighting for every dollar possible coming out of Washington," Palfrey said, speaking about FFIO, a program created in 2023 to help the state aggressively pursue and coordinate federal funding opportunities.

This builds on a $17.3 million federal award secured last year for the project, dubbed the A2A project, which supports the design of a 9.3-mile shared-use path connecting the existing Ashuwillticook Rail Trail to the Williamstown Mohican Path.

"One of the things that she emphasized to me when we set up the Federal Funds and Infrastructure Office was that we need to make sure that these resources not only come into Massachusetts, but benefit all of Massachusetts," Palfrey added.

The additional $64,700 will allow BRPC to gather information about transportation needs in northern Berkshire County to help inform the design of the trail expansion. BRPC will partner with Williams College and Luminary Evaluation, LLC to use the University of Michigan's Transportation Security Index (TSI).

Brennan said BRPC will deploy a 16-question survey that will allow them "to research local and regional perspectives and surface the needs of our neighbors when it comes to transportation in the Berkshires."

"The best-case scenario would be if the survey turned up results that all needs are met and that everyone has access to the places and the things that they need to travel to – but we know that is not true," Brennan said. "We know that folks in Berkshire struggle to get to their place of employment, to be able to access important medical appointments, [and] other engagements. So, the transportation security index is going to help us really hone in on those specific needs, identify pockets of needs or areas where there is a strong concentration or depth of need."

She said FFIO's investment offers a "wonderful augmentation" to BRPC's current plans for the bike trail extension. It's also an investment that will make the region more competitive for other transportation opportunities.

"This is an incredibly multifaceted and valuable investment, and we deeply appreciate it," she said.

Barrett said these investments drive growth in the Berkshires.

"I've always found that if you're going to grow an area, you grow with what you have here to grow. You don't bring something in. We have a natural beauty. We have an environment that's second to none, and that's what we are going to grow on," he said.

Barrett said that in the First Berkshire District alone, 4,000 new people moved to the area.

"We're seeing that migration here. They're going to have activities. They're going to have jobs, and we're going to have a great educational system that goes with it with our two colleges that are here," he said.

Palfrey said it was clear during the initial creation of FFIO that federal funding often went to wealthier and more urban communities with larger planning departments and greater access to consultants. He added that FFIO helps reverse this trend and get projects in rural communities off the ground.

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