The LOEB Fellowship

Sarah Peskin retired from the National Park Service in 2009 after a 30-year career that included leading the planning and legislative office of the North Atlantic Region where she was responsible for planning NPS historic sites and natural areas in New England, New York and New Jersey.

She served as planning director for the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, the federal entity that coordinated development of Lowell National Historical Park and was instrumental in the establishment of new NPS areas including Weir Farm NHS, Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller NHP, and Boston Harbor Islands NRA. She led the planning effort for the Schoodic section of Acadia National Park, and managed design and planning of award-winning facilities including Harbor Park Pavilion on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston, and Mogan Cultural Center, Boarding House Park, and the Park Trolley System in Lowell, Massachusetts. She chairs the board of the Frances Perkins Center in Newcastle, Maine, where she led the successful campaign to acquire the Frances Perkins Homestead National Historic Landmark as a public site.

A graduate of Smith College, Peskin holds a master’s degree in urban planning from New York University and was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University 1993-94. She lives with her husband William Kelley in Walpole, Maine from May-October, and in Brookline, Massachusetts from November-April.