Today we’d like to introduce you to Tracie Liberatore.
Hi Tracie, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My career started in the finance sector. Upon graduating college with a finance and manager bachelor’s degree, I began working at a bank where every 8 months, employees could apply for a new position within the bank and I did just that. I moved around quickly. I went from teller, to financial representative, to small business analyst, to credit analyst, to underwriter, to Access database manager, to portfolio manager and finally to project manager. After 18 years at the bank, I lost my job during a corporate merger. At this time, my children were very young and I had no desire to travel to the city for work and my husband was working out of town. Someone needed to be close to home for them. So, I got involved with the local private school that my kids attended. I joined the school board and I managed fundraisers. I also think I have been on every one of our local sport team’s board. Then, a friend approached me and asked if I could help another local non-profit, a historic museum. Her mom was on the museum’s board, I knew very little about history but I had the business skills to help this organization out. What started as a very small part-time job of providing a monthly report, turned into me becoming the Executive Director and eventually the CEO of the organization. I even was the recipient of the 2025 International Athena Award for leadership. During my 15 years with the Bradford House, I have deepened my understanding of our rich local history. But most importantly, I have grown our stand alone house museum to a campus with 4 sites (the Bradford House, the Whiskey Rebellion Education and Visitor Center, the Meeting House and Bradford Place). Basically, there are two museums and two multi-purpose education spaces. Along with the help and support of the museum’s board, I built the museum’s infrastructure complete with committees, part-time staff, policies and procedures. This year we became nationally accredited through the American Alliance of Museums. Just like my banking experience, there were many leaps and bounds in between the past 15 years. I love my job, the people I meet and the places I go. I am also very involved with Destination Greater Pittsburgh (DGP) which is a membership group of like minded group tourism folks looking for ways to get groups to come to our sites. I have been the DGP Board President for 5 years and a member for 10 years. DGP takes me to new places where I get to talk about my museums and Washington County. I am involved in several other organizations like Washington Rotary and the Peters Township Chamber. Each organization offers a means to connect with my community. I find volunteering very rewarding and a great use of time. You should never dread going to volunteer somewhere. The Bradford House would not exist without our tremendous volunteers.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When I joined the Bradford House, I received a lot of slack because I did not have a history background but I have proven myself in the community. I honestly still tell people, I have a crew of volunteers that are retired teachers. They are the experts on the history, not me. We work very well together. Additionally, my banking position paid much better than my museum position. But the flexibility of the museum job, greatly out weighed the income for me, especially when my kids were young. Now I have adult children and I stress the importance of volunteering and being a part of the community.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am the Executive Director and CEO of the Bradford House Historical Association (BHHA) located in downtown, Washington Pa. I am the only full-time employee. I manage 9 part-time seasonal docents (tour guides). I can give a tour if needed, but they do a much better job than me. I wear many hats from human resources to marketing and everything in between. The BHHA mission is to educate as we preserve and promote the history of the Whiskey Rebellion and the 18th-century life and times of David Bradford. The Bradford House was home to David Bradford, a leader in the Whiskey Rebellion. Our largest education program is the Whiskey Rebellion Festival which is held the 2nd weekend in July. This free family festival uniquely focuses on history with historic street theater, demonstrators, history display areas, a history parade and museum tours. www.bradfordhouse.org
I am most proud of the Bradford House Historical Association becoming nationally accredited through the American Alliance of Museums, in the spring of 2026. The accreditation process is a huge undertaking that took 5 years and a ton of paperwork. Only 3% of museums are accredited and even less are small museums, like ours. That number is around 1,300 museums nationally.
I am also the part-time Administrator for the Main Street Farmers Market. This seasonal market is held at the Main Street Pavilion, May through October, on Thursdays from 3-6 pm. Our market accepts SNAP/EBT. The market features local vendors, a musician, community table, and special events. The volunteer board members run the SNAP processing. As Administrator I schedule the community table, process the SNAP checks for the vendors, secure funding/grants, manage Facebook and the website. www.msfm.org
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I love flowers and gardening. I make my own spaghetti sauce and I can several different things such as sauce, peppers, relish, applesauce and salsa.
Pricing:
- General admission is free at our museums.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bradfordhouse.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bradfordhousemuseum
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bradfordhousemuseum
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracie-liberatore-33464415/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BOMwO5DtJQOCRibvJdB7xYQ%3D%3D
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPuuES0WYU508syF-xQv5RQ
