Dr. Annie Polland is a public historian, author, and President of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of the American Jewish Historical Society. She is the co-author, with Daniel Soyer, of Emerging Metropolis: New York Jews in the Age of Immigration, winner of the 2012 National Jewish Book Award. She received her Ph.D. in History from Columbia University and served as Vice President of Education at the Museum at Eldridge Street, where she wrote Landmark of the Spirit.