Executive Director
Sara Fisher sfisher@iwasm.org
Sara joined the team at IWASM in November 2020. Before coming to the museum, she ran one of only two history-focused AmeriCorps programs in the country. She has more than eight years experience in the museum, historical society, public history, and archives field. Sara previously worked as the Curator/Collections Manager at the Lakewood Historical Society, AmeriCorps member with the Quaker Heritage Center of Wilmington College and the Oberlin Heritage Center, the Ohio History Connection as AmeriCorps Manager & Local History Services Coordinator, and Community and Operations Manager at CoWork Oberlin. Since 2013, she’s worked with more than 40 local history museums in Ohio to better serve their communities, care for their historic collections, develop interactive programming, establish strategic planning, and more. Sara is actively engaged with the Ohio Local History Alliance, American Association for State & Local History (AASLH), and National Council on Public History. In 2018, she served as Impact, Relevance and Engagement Co-Team Lead for the StEPs Enhancement Project, which brought together professionals from across the country to update the StEPs (Standards of Excellence Program) workbook for small to medium size history organizations.
Beginning in April 2022, she serves on Ohio's America250 Showcasing Committee which is charged with planning the United States' 250 commemoration in 2026.
She earned a B.A. in History with a Women & Gender Studies Certificate from Ohio University, and a M.A. in History concentrating in Public History from Wright State University. One of her pet research interests are the “Night Witches” – the nickname given to the all-female 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Union during WWII.
Collections Manager
Elizabeth Konopka, collections@iwasm.org
Liz joined IWASM in July 2022 after graduating with her M.S. in History concentrating in Museum Studies from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro (UNCG). While at UNCG, she worked in the Special Collections & University Archives. She previously interned with the Experience Design team at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Democracy Tables at the 
Greensboro History Museum, and the Historical Resources department at The Henry Ford Museum of American innovation. She served as a curatorial team member for the North Carolina Council on the Holocaust exhibit Roots of Resistance: The Tuchyn Story. She earned a B.A. in History from the University of Toledo, where she became fascinated with aviation history after completing a research project on the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II.
