Gretchen Dykstra

Gretchen Dykstra (born NY August 22, 1948) was the founding President and CEO of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation. The former Commissioner of New York City's Department of Consumer Affairs under Mayor Bloomberg, Dykstra left that post in April 2005 to head up the foundation, which raises funds and operates the memorial and museum designed to pay tribute to the victims of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. In May of the following year Dykstra resigned the post because excessive politics resulted in gridlock, making it "difficult for anyone to move expeditiously." Dykstra then spent the summer in Masaka, Uganda, volunteering at an orphanage for children with AIDS.

Dykstra was also the founding president of the Times Square Business Improvement District (now the Alliance) throughout the 90s. Representing the private sector in Times Square, she managed a host of supplemental city services, led the move to limit the number of pornography shops in the area, and marketed the district including the production of New Year's Eve and Broadway on Broadway. Hr was integral to the economic and cultural renaissance that the center of Manhattan enjoyed during the 1990s. Her activities were an integral part of the dramatic reclamation of that area.

Before that Dykstra worked at the Rockefeller Foundation, the NYC Charter Revision Commission and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Trained as a teacher, Dykstra was one of the first Americans hired by the Chinese to teach English and she lived in Wuhan from 1979-1981.

Dykstra currently serves as a consultant to not for profit organizations as she writes a series of articles about North Dakota, inspired by her grandfather, one of the early song catchers.