Advisory Board

Lance R. Blyth is the Command Historian of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and an Adjunct Professor of History at the United States Air Force Academy. A native of the Rocky Mountain West, he served as a Marine infantry officer from 1988 to 1993 before attending graduate school, earning his PhD from Northern Arizona University in 2005. Trained as a borderlands scholar, his work, Chiricahua and Janos: Communities of Violence in the Southwestern Borderlands, 1680-1880 (University of Nebraska Press, 2012) won the Western History Association’s prize for the best non-fiction book on Southwestern America. As a backcountry skier with a history problem, Blyth is pursuing a study of mountain warfare through an examination of the US 10th Mountain Division of World War II and of US efforts towards mountain warfare capabilities after the war to the present day. He lives with his wife in Colorado Springs, Colorado, though they spend as much time as possible near and above treeline in the Rockies, often in the 10th Mountain’s old training grounds.

McKay Jenkins has been writing and teaching about the environment and social justice for 30 years. He  holds degrees from Amherst, Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, and Princeton, where he received a PhD in English. A former staff writer for the Atlanta Constitution, he has also written for Outside, Orion, The New Republic, and many other publications. Jenkins is currently the Cornelius Tilghman Professor of English,  Journalism and Environmental Humanities at the University of Delaware, where he has won the University’s Excellence in Teaching Award and both the Excellence in Teaching Award and the Outstanding Scholarship Award from the College of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of, among many other books, The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division and the Assault on Hitler’s Europe (Random House, 2003), which tells the story of America’s most famous mountain soldiers. He lives in Baltimore with his family.

Dr. Chris Juergens is the Anschutz Curator of Military History at History Colorado and the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center. He earned his PhD from Florida State University with a dissertation on Hessian contract troops in the American War of Independence. Growing up in southwestern Germany and upstate NY, he has always been interested in mountain warfare and, in addition to his work on the 10th Mountain Division, is working on a project about a Jäger Division in Army Group South.

Jeff Leich was executive director of the New England Ski Museum from 1997 through 2022. Responsible for the overall operations of the member-supported non-profit organization, during his tenure the museum grew from one location to three buildings encompassing two museum branches and one archive and collections center. He was the curator of the museum’s annually changing exhibits, and continues to act as editor of its quarterly Journal of the New England Ski Museum. Prior to his work with the museum, Leich held a variety of jobs in the ski and outdoor recreation businesses including ski shops manager, state park ranger, ski patroller and ski patrol director. He and his wife live in North Conway, New Hampshire and have two grown children.

David Little is the historian for the Tenth Mountain Division Foundation, and has served on their Board of Directors for more than 25 years. He currently serves as the chair for their Collection and Public Works team, assisting museums and other preservation activities across the country and around the world. David has been a student of 10th Mountain history for 40 years, primarily focused on artifacts and their use. David was educated at the University of Northern Colorado, Northern Illinois University and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He lives in Colorado with his wife and new puppy, “Riva.”

Sepp Scanlin is a military historian and museum professional. He served as the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum’s Museum Director from October 2016 until July 2022, overseeing the renovation of the exhibits in a new off-post museum facility. He has led numerous military groups on tours of the 10th Mountain Division battlefields in Italy and assisted in several 10th Mountain Division-focused civilian museum exhibits and educational programs. Previously, he served 21 years in the U.S. Army, providing intelligence support to Armor, Infantry, Aviation and Special Forces before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. As a 10th Mountain Division veteran, he served in the 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment and the 110th Military Intelligence Battalion at Ft. Drum, including deployments to both Afghanistan and Iraq—a unique combination of experience and education that enables him to bring the 10th’s history to life. A native of Virginia, he has a BA in International Relations from James Madison University, a MA in National Security Strategy from the Naval War College, and a Masters in Museum Studies with a specialty certification in Digital Curation from Johns Hopkins University. He continues working to preserve and educate students on a wide variety of military history topics and is working on several independent historical research projects. He is currently the Museum Director for the U.S. Army Transportation Museum at Fort Eustis, Virginia, and serves on the board of the 10th Mountain Division Foundation and the Williamsburg Battlefield Association. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia with his wife, Amy.

Keli Schmid is the archivist and librarian who oversees the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center at Denver Public Library, which is one of the largest military archives of its kind in the United States. Keli attended graduate school entirely online, through San Jose State University, graduating in 2012 with a Masters in Library and Information Science. While in school, she gained practical experience by volunteering at a number of libraries, including Denver Public Library. She knew her passion for preserving the past was leading her towards work in an archive, and she found her dream job at the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center in 2015.

Doug Schmidt is the National Association of the 10th Mountain Division‘s historian and Curator at the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum Museum. He joined the U.S. Army in 1997 as a field artillery forward observer. After serving one year on the Korean DMZ, Doug followed in his great-grandfather’s footsteps taking an assignment with the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) at Fort Drum, NY.  While assigned to the 10th Doug deployed on peacekeeping missions to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, as well as a deployment to northern Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following his time in the Army, Doug completed an Associates of Arts degree and a Bachelors of Arts degree focusing in history and military history respectively.  He then returned to Fort Drum as a civilian contractor working to train soldiers through the use of multiple different simulators. While doing this he completed a Masters degree in Military History – War Since 1945 focusing on the 10th Mountain Division and light infantry. Doug has researched and written several unit histories for 10th Mountain Division units, as well as consulted on several other projects and texts focusing on the 10th Mountain Division past and present. Climb To Glory!

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