Michele Zack

Michele Zack is a writer, historian, and activist interested in the intersection of history and ideas. Her career has oscillated from the global to the local: before returning to the US in 1998, she spent 8 years in Asia where she reported from Thailand for AsiaWeek and Far Eastern Economic Review and was speechwriter for three prime ministers.

Both of Zack’s local histories, Altadena: Between Wilderness and City (2004), and Southern California Story (2009), were honored by the American Association of State and Local History. Historian Kevin Starr said of her work: “This is urban history at its best… regional history that offers real insight into American life.” Eaton’s Water, a short film about the trials of Pasadena pioneers developing water resources, was adapted from her story and illuminated how history is always married to the environment. The film garnered her “Best Advocate” of the Arroyo Seco.

In partnership with the Huntington-USC Institute on the West (2004-2012), Michele wrote and programmed three national Teaching American History grants, a professional development initiative to fold California into the national narrative and make history relevant to students. She examined the globalization experience of one South East Asian minority living in three countries —Thailand, Myanmar, and China — in The Lisu: Far from the Ruler (2017).

Currently chair of LA County’s Owen Brown Gravesite Committee, Michele has led a years-long effort to designate the Altadena foothills site an LA County Landmark, achieved in 2024. The land is also now protected within the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Owen was the last surviving member of his father John Brown’s “Army of God,” whose raid on the US Armory at Harpers Ferry in 1859 has been identified as the first unofficial, battle of the Civil War. The Committee also produced a film about the Brown Family for local classrooms, and the site was just accepted into the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Program in January.

Zack was the 2022 recipient of the Alan Jutzi Huntington Fellowship. This allowed her to research her present project, an historical novel based on Benjamin Eaton and the Civil War set in Los Angeles. Since the Eaton Fire, she is working with Altadena Heritage and Altadena Steadfast to rethink the rebuilding of our public spaces.