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NAHA names Mackensie Wittmer Executive Director

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Mackensie Wittmer

Mackensie Wittmer, deputy director of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA),  has accepted the position of executive director effective Aug. 22, the NAHA board of trustees has announced. She succeeds Anthony “Tony” Sculimbrene, who is retiring.

Wittmer joined NAHA as deputy director in August 2014. Prior to that, she was development researcher at the Dayton Art Institute from 1999 to 2002. For the next six years, she was associate director of advancement research and development at Wright State University.
Wittmer is an active volunteer with the Dayton Metro Library, Destination Imagination, and Oakwood City Schools. Recent volunteer experience includes serving as co-chair of the Oakwood City School District’s levy campaign in 2013, Harman Elementary Parent Teacher Organization board member in Oakwood from 2015 to 2017, board member and past chair of the Oakwood Historical Society from 2004 to 2016. She was a member of Leadership Dayton’s class of 2016.
Wittmer holds a Master of Arts degree in public and applied history from Wright State and a bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science from Miami University.
She lives in Oakwood with her husband and two children.
NAHA is the business name for the Aviation Heritage Foundation, Inc., an Ohio 501 (c) (3) not-for-profit corporation. Sculimbrene has been its executive director since 2004 and was executive director of its predecessor, the Dayton Aviation Heritage Commission.

Tony Sculimbrene

The federal commission was created by Congress and charged with supporting the development of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park and the restoration of the Wright Dunbar Historic District. The commission had a legislative mandate to identify a follow-on organization to carry on the work of preserving Dayton’s aviation heritage once it sunset in December, 2003. Sculimbrene was tasked by the commissioners to find a permanent successor to the commission, and to that end he advocated for the creation of a U. S. National Heritage Area to preserve and promote the aviation heritage of the region, and the establishment of NAHA as its management entity.

In 2004, Congress established the National Aviation Heritage Area around Dayton and designated NAHA as its management entity. Sculimbrene directed the foundation’s incorporation, drafted its General Management Plan and secured over $4 million of non-federal funding for its operations since it was established.
In 2006, under his leadership, NAHA received the Mathile Community Award.
From 1990 to 1999, Sculimbrene, a civil engineer, was the Base Environmental Manager for the 8,000-acre Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where he directed $230 million in contract work to clean up groundwater contamination and restore base waste disposal sites. In the preceding years, he managed an annual $30 million construction and contract services program as chief of engineering and construction management.
Sculimbrene is a Greene County Park District commissioner, president of the Xenia Rotary Club and a member of the Wright Dunbar Inc. board of trustees. He and his wife live in Xenia. They have two grown children in Massachusetts and Washington State. 
About NAHA
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a nonprofit chartered by Congress in 2004 as the management entity for the National Aviation Heritage Area, a region of national historical importance. It includes Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby, and Auglaize counties in Ohio. The Heritage Area is one of 49 National Heritage Areas in a program administrated by the National Park Service, and the only one dedicated to aviation heritage. Visit aviationheritagearea.org for more information.

Thunderbirds visit Wright Brothers’ Sites, Ride WW II Bomber

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Members of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds jet team toured Wright brothers’ sites and flew in a World War II bomber Tuesday and Wednesday while in the area for the Vectren Dayton Air Show.

several members of the Thunderbirds with CAM pilots Eric Shiffer and Bill Weidenhammer. NAHA photo by Tim Gaffney

An earlier-than-usual arrival at Dayton International Airport for the air show taking place this weekend gave the 65-member team some free time. Pilots and several others took advantage of the break  to explore the rich aviation heritage of the National Aviation Heritage Area, culminating Wednesday afternoon in flights on one on of the vintage World War II bombers scheduled to fly in the air show.
A group of approximately 30 Thunderbirds took turns taking familiarization flights on the Champaign Aviation Museum’s B-25 bomber Champaign Gal Wednesday afternoon at historic Grimes Field Airport in Urbana. The twin-engine, bomber can carry six passengers at a time.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, Thunderbirds members visited units of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, including the Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and the Wright Cycle Co.; Aviation Trail Inc.’s Parachute Museum; Dayton History’s Wright Brothers Aviation Center in Carillon Historical Park; Hawthorn Hill, the Wright family mansion in Oakwood, the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA), the congressionally chartered nonprofit management entity for the heritage area, coordinated the tours with its heritage partners.
“This is the first time we’ve had the opportunity to show one of our premier military jet teams the aviation heritage in our heritage area,” said Tony Sculimbrene, NAHA executive director.
About NAHA
The National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA) is a nonprofit chartered by Congress in 2004 as the management entity for the National Aviation Heritage Area, a region of national historical importance encompassing Montgomery, Greene, Miami, Clark, Warren, Champaign, Shelby, and Auglaize counties. The Heritage Area is one of 49 National Heritage Areas in a program administrated by the National Park Service, and the only one dedicated to aviation heritage. Visit aviationheritagearea.org for more information.

Dayton Praised For Historical Preservation Work

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NAHA Chair Frank Winslow, Stephanie Toothman, NAHA Executive Director Tony Sculimbrene, NAHA Trustee Amanda Wright Lane

Two days before the National Park Service celebrates its centennial anniversary, a senior NPS official visited Dayton to praise the historical preservation work in the National Aviation Heritage Area.

“I am inspired by all you are doing to preserve our aviation story and sharing these special places with the children growing up here and the many visitors that help support your local economy,” Dr. Stephanie Toothman, NPS associate director for cultural resources, partnerships and science in Washington, D.C., said Tuesday, Aug. 23.

Toothman was the keynote speaker for the 11th annual meeting of the National Aviation Heritage Alliance (NAHA). NAHA is a nonprofit designated by Congress to manage the eight-county heritage area.

As it approaches its second century—the agency turns 100 on Aug. 25—the NPS is looking for ways to engage citizens and inspire future stewards of America’s natural and historical treasures. Toothman said National Heritage Areas “are one of the best ways that the National Park Service can reach new audiences and engage them where they live, work, and play.”

The National Aviation Heritage Area is one of 49 National Heritage Areas in the country. Toothman said the NPS sees them as “invaluable partners that are working to build on the linkages between our natural and cultural heritage” through community partnerships.

Here, one such partnership is aimed at preserving and restoring the Wright Company factory—the first American airplane factory—erected in 1910 by Wilbur and Orville Wright. NAHA is working with the NPS and others to make the factory a unit of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park. It’s raised about $2 million in public and private money toward a $4 million goal to acquire, preserve and begin redeveloping the 54-acre site that includes the factory.

Toothman recognized several non-federal partners involved in the effort, including the State of Ohio, the City of Dayton, property owner Home Avenue Redevelopment LLC and the Dayton Metro Library, which has committed to build a new, $10 million branch library on the site. The Dayton Foundation also has been a significant supporter.

“This would not be possible without all of the partners here working with the National Aviation Heritage Area,” Toothman said.

Toothman, whose job includes being keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, noted the heritage area is exceptionally rich in historic sites.

“I was impressed to learn that 365 sites in the National Aviation Heritage Area are listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and that you care for the only plane to earn the title of National Historic Landmark—the 1905 Wright Flyer III,” she said.

Wilbur and Orville Wright considered their 1905 airplane the world’s first practical flying machine. On display in Dayton History’s Carillon Historical Park, the flyer is one of five National Historic Landmarks within the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park.

Toothman spoke in the auditorium of historic Woodland Cemetery and Arboretum, a NAHA partner, which hosted NAHA’s annual meeting. Woodland, one of America’s first garden cemeteries, is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.