Staff

Leianne Neff Heppner has been with The Summit County Historical Society of Akron, Ohio since 1999 first serving as curator and government records consultant to the County of Summit.  Leianne was named the head of the organization in 2010 and was proud to serve during its 90th anniversary in 2014. She assisted the City of Akron in its Akron History Exhibit for over a decade at Lock 3 (that project is now in a new space and will reopen in the future) and has prepared numerous changing exhibits for the County of Summit.  Leianne is an ArtsNow board member and has served on the Interpretation Subcommittee for the Ohio & Erie Canalway Association along with a variety of historically linked committees and collaborative projects. She has been a speaker at the Ohio Museums Association annual meeting and the Ohio Local History Alliance (under the Ohio History Connection in Columbus) at its regional and annual meetings and is a past board member of that agency as well as the Akron Area Arts Alliance and the Friends of the Main Library.

Leianne’s past positions include volunteer and internship coordinator at the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Akron, Ohio; interim director and assistant director of The Castle, an historic house museum in Marietta, Ohio; and intern at Zoar Village State Memorial, an Ohio Historical Society site featuring a communal society in Zoar, Ohio. Leianne holds a Master of Arts in Public History from Kent State University and a Bachelor of Science in Historic Preservation from Southeast Missouri State University. Leianne is a transplant moving here in the late 1990s from southeast Ohio. She and her family are rehabbing a HUD foreclosure home in Fairlawn Heights and enjoy living in Akron where life is good.