Officers and Board of Directors
WW1HA Board of Directors
The dedicated members of the World War One Historical Association working to preserve the legacy of the Great War.
Executive Committee
Timothy Westcott, Ph.D.
President
Westcott has served as vice president of the World War I Historical Association over the past few years and recently chaired the Strategic Planning Committee which issued an RFP and selected a web design vendor to redesign the World War I Historical Association website. During his service as vice president, he initiated the virtual “14-18 Book Club” for members to discuss recent World War I publications. Westcott is the director of the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War which is authorized by the U.S. Congress to conduct a valor medals review of minority World War I servicemembers who may have been denied the Medal of Honor due to racial or religious discrimination.
Johannes Allbert, Ph.D.
Vice President
Allbert served previously as secretary of the World War I Historical Association. His past work experience includes work in social service, corporate travel, and the medical device ondustry. As an Adjunct in the academic world, he has taught at Moorhead State, Rogers State (Oklahoma), and Minnesota State, Mankato. Since 2011, he has participated in several historical conferences and has written peer reviewed pieces published in Air and Space Power (U.S. Air Force), Minnesota History, North Dakota History, and Ramsey County History.
Shelle Altieri
Treasurer
Altieri joined the team at World War I Historical Association in 2023 as the administrative assistant and now also as treasurer. Though not a trained historian, she has edited historical books, articles, and newsletters and become a competent family genealogist. She is a professional etiquette and protocol consultant, and is a retired military spouse of a 33 year Army veteran.
Christopher Prest
Secretary
Prest, a Canadian living in Ottawa, caught the World War I bug in the fall of 2020. He found a passion and belongs to various World War I related groups. He hosts a YouTube channel (search name — Nangwaya) and a bi-weekly live show, dedicated to all things World War I.
Board of Directors
James Bruns
(Class of 2026)
Bruns is a nationally recognized not-for-profit and museum professional with over 35 years of experience. He oversaw the design and construction of the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Centennial Olympic Museum in Atlanta, Ga., and led efforts to create the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, D.C. Bruns served as the National Executive Director of the Navy League of the United States; a Smithsonian curator, museum director, deputy to the Assistant Secretary for American Museum and National Programs and fundraising for the entire Smithsonian Institution. He oversaw administrative duties of the U.S. Navy’s ten officially designated museums, with the Naval History and Heritage Command. Bruns served as association presidents for the Atlanta Historical Society and Theodore Roosevelt Association. He served as a vice president for Montclair State University in New Jersey. He has published 19 books on naval and postal history and numerous articles on naval history and heritage.
Allison Finkelstein, Ph.D.
(Class of 2028)
Finkelstein studied U.S. History and historic preservation at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her first book, Forgotten Veterans, Invisible Memorials: How American Women Commemorated the Great War, 1917-1945, was published by the University of Alabama Press in 2021 and released in paperback in 2023. The book won the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference’s 2022 Arline Custer Memorial Award for best book. From 2017 to 2018, the Arlington County Board (VA) appointed Finkelstein as the Chair of the Arlington World War I Commemoration Task Force which created interpretive panels at the Clarendon War Memorial, a project that won the 2020 National Alliance of Preservation Commissions’ Excellence Award in the category of Best Practices in Public Outreach/Advocacy. A specialist in the First World War, she was a featured expert on the History Channel’s 2024 program, “The Great War.” Her experiences include the creation of museum exhibits and education programs, documentary films, interpretation, battlefield and cemetery staff rides, and innovative public history programs.
Ed Klekowski, Ph.D.
(Class of 2027)
Klekowski is a professor emeritus (biology) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a passion for early 20th century history. He, with his wife Libby, have produced two World War I documentaries for American Public TV and wrote three nonfiction books about the war, all published by McFarland Press. He has been the editor of World War One Illustrated since 2019.
Larry Lyons, Ph.D.
(Class of 2026)
Lyons worked for forty years on defense and intelligence projects while associated with the US Government, General Electric and British Aerospace (BAE). He retired from a subsidiary of BAE as Vice President and Chief Engineer. Lyons’s co-wrote Missed Signals on the Western Front – How the Slow Adoption of Wireless Restricted British Strategy and Operations in World War I and George Owen Squier, U.S. Army Major General, Inventor, Aviation Pioneer, Founder of Muzak both published by McFarland Press.
Susan Neeson
(Class of 2027)
Neeson began her interest in World War I while living in Europe and traveling often to Alsace/Lorraine and other areas of France. Additionally, her grandfather, formerly Gunner Alfred Bagley (1899-1994) was in the Canadian Expeditionary Force attached to the British Expeditionary Force. He lied about his age and enlisted in 1914 and served until 1919. She joined the Western Front Association and Western Front Association-USA in order to understand better what the war was about and ask more intelligent questions of her grandfather. Neeson has participated in the board organizations of Western Front Association-USA and World War Historical Association for more than 25 years. Her interests include Canadian contributions to the war, children on the home front, women and music of World War I.
James Patton
(Class of 2028)
Patton served in the U.S. Army, attaining the rank of SP5. He regularly contributes to Roads to the Great War and has also contributed to St. Mihiel Tripwire, Over the Top, and the University of Kansas’ Medicine in the First World War. Patton worked with Andrew McGreal at the national Commission. He helped create the Kansas Committee, wrote 420 articles for its blog, and represented Kansas at ceremonies in Washington, D.C. and the Pritzker Library in Chicago. He has visited most of the battlefields. Patton is a member of the Western Front Association (UK), the Salonika Campaign Society and the Gallipoli Association.
Andrew Pouncey
(Class of 2027)
Pouncey served for 25 years with the City of Germantown (TN) within economic and community development and administration. He served eight years on the Tennessee State Board of Architectural and Engineering Examiners and two years as President of the Tennessee Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects. He currently serves as the Germantown City Historian and is President of the Germantown Historical Preservation Association. Pouncey has studied World War I over forty years and has traveled extensively to Western Front sites. He was appointed by the governor of Tennessee to serve on the Tennessee Great War Commission. He has been a member of the West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery Volunteer Board over two decades. Pouncey served as President of the Memphis Belle Memorial Association and was honored for designing a memorial monument to the Memphis Belle for Veterans Plaza in Overton Park, Memphis (TN). He holds degrees in Anthropology, Landscape Architecture, and City and Regional Planning.
Marcus Steele
(Student)
Steele is currently studying Military History at Park University. He is an associate researcher at the George S. Robb Centre for the Study of the Great War where he researches World War I minority servicemembers related to the Valor Medals Review Project authorized by the U.S. Congress in 2018 and special exhibit projects related to World War II veterans. Steele has been a docent at the CAF Airbase Arizona Museum located in Mesa, Arizona.
Past Presidents (Ex-Officio)
Steve Suddaby
Sal Compagno
Randy Gaulke
Dana Lombardy