The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has named Meredith Sorin Horsford as executive director of The Pocantico Center on the former Rockefeller family estate in Tarrytown.
“The Pocantico Center brings together many of my passions—history, community, modern art,” said Horsford. “I’m thrilled to join the incredible team at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and to partner with the Rockefeller family and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to write the next chapter for this campus, which offers many lessons from the past and so much promise for the future.”
Before joining the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Horsford was the executive director of the Historic House Trust of New York City, where she stewarded 23 historic sites across all five boroughs of New York City through advocacy, promotion, and technical expertise for the nonprofit partners that operate them. At the Historic House Trust, she focused on advancing capital projects, fundraising, and managing relationships with multiple nonprofit and government stakeholders.
Horsford served for eight years as the executive director of the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum in Upper Manhattan, where she guided her team in creative and inclusive programming and interpretation with a community-focused perspective.
In 2019, she led an extensive research project on the enslaved and free Black men and women that contributed to the prosperity of the Dyckman Farm. During her tenure at Dyckman, Horsford helped connect the past with the present through a recurring race lecture series, contemporary art installations highlighting the Black experience in America, and urban agricultural programs.
“Meredith has the distinctive skill set to manage the breadth of programming we offer at Pocantico and tackle the challenges of stewarding a century-old property,” said Gerry Watson, executive vice president for finance, operations and Pocantico at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. “With experience, enthusiasm, and openness, she will be a beacon for visitors from the community and around the world to experience, interpret, and shape The Pocantico Center in the coming years.”
Horsford previously served as the executive director of the Gracie Mansion Conservancy, the official mayoral residence of New York City. She currently serves as president of the board of the Greater Hudson Heritage Network, a museum service organization, and is on the advisory council of Lyndhurst, a property of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
She holds a master’s degree in geography from the University of Delaware, a bachelor’s degree in geography from the State University of New York College at Geneseo, and a certificate in grantmaking and foundations from the George H. Heyman Jr. program at New York University.
- rbf.org/pocantico