About The Board

Born and raised in San Francisco, Robert Stoldal became interested in news and information at a very early age. He credits his grandfather, Walter Andersen, who, in the 1940s and ’50s, took him to see newsreels instead of cartoons at a downtown movie theater every Saturday morning. As a pre-teenager, Stoldal started a neighborhood newspaper. Then in 1957, his father went to work for the Atomic Energy Commission in Nevada and moved their family to Las Vegas. His mother went to work for the Las Vegas Police Department.His first paying media job was sweeping the floors in the pressroom of the Las Vegas Review Journal. He has worked as a radio announcer, news director, sports and weatherman, reporter and anchor. He became KLAS-TV news director in 1968, the year industrialist Howard Hughes purchased the station. Stoldal has been a television news director for nearly 50 years. United Press International honored his KLAS as Best Newscast in America. He led the fight in southern Nevada to allow television cameras in courtrooms, broadcast the first criminal trial in Nevada and, in 2002, produced the first live coverage of pleadings before the Nevada Supreme Court in Carson City.

He expanded a news operation at a newly acquired CBS affiliate in Nashville, Tennessee and he helped begin 24-hour regional all-news cable channels in Virginia, Tennessee and Las Vegas. Stoldal launched Las Vegas ONE, a 24-hour local news television operation.

Retiring in 2007, he shifted attention to Nevada and Las Vegas history through writing and support of organizations focused on preservation of Nevada heritage. By 2009, he was executive vice president of news for Sunbelt Communication. He expanded Channel 3’s daily news program by three and a half hours. Responsible for the news operations at Sunbelt’s broadcast outlets in Las Vegas, Reno and Elko, he directly oversaw the news operations of Channel 3 until 2014. In July of 2015, Stoldal joined the news operation of KNPR, public radio for Nevada, serving southern and eastern Nevada.

A graduate of Las Vegas High School, Stoldal was the student librarian and wrote for the school newspaper. At the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he was the editor of the student newspaper. He attended Notre Dame, and Belmont University.

He was first appointed to the Board of Museums and History in 1986. He is on the City of Las Vegas Centennial Commission, vice chair and charter board member of Preserve Nevada and on the board of the Las Vegas Springs Preserve. Stoldal is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists, Radio and Television News Directors Association and Nevada Freedom of Information Coalition. A veteran of community service, he has chaired many Las Vegas area boards.

Courtney Mooney

Michelle Schmitter has over 25 years of experience in the field of Historic Preservation. Michelle received her MS degree in Arts Administration from the University of Oregon School of Architecture with an emphasis in museum management and historic preservation.  Between 1997 and 2005, Michelle served as an Executive Director at museum properties listed on the National Register of Historic Place in Oregon, Maine, New York, and Nevada where she planned and implemented large-scale preservation projects and interpretive programs.  Michelle meets and exceeds the National Park Service qualification standards for architectural historian, works within the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, and has extensive technical experience with multiple preservation, restoration, rehabilitation and reconstruction projects.

 

Understanding that the greenest building is the one already built, and to further her efforts to sustain and rehabilitate buildings, Michelle received her LEED Green Associate certification in 2015. Michelle formed her firm mschmitter consulting llc in 2016. Today, Michelle concentrates her efforts primarily on projects in Northern Nevada and the Tahoe Basin and provides historic building consulting and architectural history services. In addition to historic building projects, Michelle works with non-profits on capital projects and fund development.  Michelle has over 10 years’ experience in healthcare philanthropy.  Michelle serves on the Board of Preserve Nevada and is the Vice-chair of the Carson City Historic Resources Commission.

Sarah Cowie is an archeologist specializing in industrial and historical-period archeology of the American West. She teaches in the University of Nevada, Reno, Department of Anthropology. Before teaching, she worked in cultural resource management for 12 years throughout the United States. She earned her Master of Science in industrial archeology from Michigan Technological University, and has a doctorate in anthropology from University of Arizona.Her research and teach
ing interests include the archeology of working communities such as mining towns, social theories of power relations, and collaborative archeology with American Indian communities. Her first book is titled “The Plurality of Power: An Archaeology of Industrial Capitalism.” She is collaborating with American Indian stakeholders in publishing an edited book on the archeology and preservation of Stewart Indian School in Carson City, Nevada.

Doris Dwyer is professor emerita of history and recently retired from Western Nevada College after a 35- year career of teaching history and humanities. She was the recipient of the Governor’s Humanities Award, the Regents’ Teaching Award, and numerous other teaching honors. She earned her doctorate in American History from Miami University of Ohio and a Master of Arts and bachelor’s degree from Eastern Kentucky University. She is a former member of the Churchill County Library Board, University of Nevada Press Board, the editorial board of the Nevada Historical Society Quarterly and Nevada Humanities.Dr. Dwyer has a strong interest in Nevada museums and is a long-time member of the Churchill County Museum and the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. She has performed hundreds of Chautauqua portrayals throughout the United States and is a governor’s appointee to the Nevada Board of Museums and History since 2012. She formerly served on the Museums and History Board in the 1990s and is also a board member of the Churchill County Museum.

She has been a Nevada resident since 1980 and resides in Fallon.

Daniel Markoff earned a Bachelor of Arts in history from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law. He entered private practice and was appointed assistant federal public defender, and later federal public defender for Nevada by the U.S. Court of Appeals 9th Circuit. Returning to private practice, he handled cases at all levels of state and federal courts, including winning a challenge to the constitutionality of a Nevada mandatory death penalty law before the U.S. Supreme Court.Mr. Markoff has several passions in life, including wife Ditty, to whom he has been married for 30 years. He first met her on the ranch near Tucson in the early 1960s, when she rode her horse to his home. Another is flying, acquired from his father, who was also a pilot. The third is sharing his 1875 Baldwin locomotive Eureka that he restored between 1986 and 1991. The locomotive has run throughout the West for events, and through the Colorado and New Mexico Rocky Mountains each summer for 20 years. Eureka brings history to life for people who had no idea how beautiful locomotives were when they ran through the Nevada wilderness. Other interests include reading history, rifle and trap shooting, and helping to preserve Nevada’s history.

Bob Ostrovsky joined The Ferraro Group as principal in August 2012. Since 1981, Mr. Ostrovsky has worked in the Nevada Legislature as a lobbyist representing the Nevada Resort Association, Employers Insurance, City of Las Vegas, Cox Communications, The Hertz Corporation, 3M Products and many others.Mr. Ostrovsky holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology and archaeology from the California State University at San Francisco and a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies.

Mr. Ostrovsky held various human resources management positions at MGM and Bally’s Casino and Resorts. He was the corporate vice president of human resources for Bally’s Grand, Inc. In this role, he managed all human resources and labor relations matters for Bally’s Reno and Las Vegas. He also served as vice president of human resources for MGM Grand, Inc., and handled all governmental affairs for the corporation from 1973 to 1986.

Mr. Ostrovsky serves as a trustee for IATSE Training, Disability and Pension Trusts. He is chairman of the Nevada Commission for Cultural Affairs, member of the State Board of Museums and History since 1998, and serves as chairman of the Nevada Cultural Affairs Foundation. He was a member of the Department of Industrial Relations Advisory Board from 1981 through 1998 and 2009 through 2012 and its chairman from 1989 through 1999 and 2009 through 2012. The board oversees workers’ compensation, safety and industrial insurance regulation. Mr. Ostrovsky is a also past president of the United Way of Northern Nevada, the Las Vegas Chapter of the American Society of Training and Development, and the Nevada Self-Insured Employers Association.

Seth Schorr is chief executive officer of Fifth Street Gaming and chairman of Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino. Schorr is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a major in Chinese Studies. He was recognized by VEGAS Inc. as a member of the elite “40 Under 40,” and “The Vegas Dozen.”Schorr serves on the boards of the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Nevada Restaurant Association, Jewish Federation of Las Vegas, Advisory Board of The Smith Center for Performing Arts, One Night for One Drop and was appointed by Governor Brian Sandoval to the Nevada State Board of Museums and History. He is an executive board member and treasurer of the Downtown Las Vegas Alliance and a member of Young Presidents Organization.

Since 1991, Schorr served as an integral member of the Wynn Resorts team, developing the international marketing department in Macau, the interactive gaming division and The Wynn Collection of Fine Art. He also worked at Bellagio Resort and Casino, The Mirage and Treasure Island hotels and casinos, and the Golden Nugget, Laughlin.

Schorr and partner Jeffrey Fine own and operate Fifth Street Gaming and its affiliate, Lucky Silver Management, including three casinos in North Las Vegas. The principals of Fifth Street Gaming also control, through affiliates, the LEV Restaurant Group, a food and beverage operation with more than 35 restaurants in the Las Vegas area.

Tony Timmons serves as the assistant vice president of Nevada Regional Banking Communications for Wells Fargo Bank, one of the nation’s largest consumer and commercial banks. In his role, he strategically directs media relations, executive communications and team member internal communications for the state of Nevada.He is very involved in the community, serving on the President’s Council for Nevada State College as well as on the Department of Marketing Advisory Board at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In his spare time, he is a volunteer for the State of Nevada Historic Preservation Office and is the head of the Cultural Resources committee for the Friends of Red Rock Canyon.

Timmons earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas with a concentration in marketing, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Missouri State University.