Donna Pedace

Albuquerque Historical Society Speakers Bureau

Donna Pedace’s business career included management positions in large and small businesses before she moved into the non-profit world. She served as the Executive Director of the Spanish Colonial Art Society and Museum in Santa Fe, Eugene O’Neill Theater and Museum in Connecticut, and the National Director of OASIS, a nationwide educational program.

Several years ago, she created a private museum for a businessman which featured exhibits telling the stories of individuals who had a significant impact on New Mexico’s history following the arrival of the first Spanish expeditions. While researching those subjects, she discovered many extraordinary but little-known women of the Old West period who she felt deserved more recognition. Her book, “Scandalous Women of the Old West: Women Who Dared to be Different,” is her tribute to ten of these amazing women.

Speaking Topics

• Doña Tules 
  One of the more fascinating and financially successful women in the Southwest during the early-mid 1800s was a woman known by many names, but today she is most commonly known as Doña Tules. She was already a legend in her own time and the most notorious woman in Santa Fe, in fact, of all New Mexico.
• Susan McSween Barber
  Susan and her husband, Alexander McSween, were at the center of the infamous Lincoln County War in New Mexico and deeply connected to the rise of the Billy the Kid legend. She was a first-hand witness to the violence in the Lincoln County War. In a time when women seldom received much recognition, her name was well known during her lifetime, and she became known as “The Cattle Queen of New Mexico.”