NEW YORK, NY (May XX, 2013) – The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum has elected Frances Townsend, Executive Vice President at MacAndrews and Forbes Holdings, LLC and former Homeland Security Adviser to President George W. Bush, to its Board of Trustees.

“We are thrilled to welcome Frances to our board,” said Susan Marenoff-Zausner, president of the Intrepid Museum. “With more than two decades of service to our nation, from the Coast Guard to the White House, she is a role model for our young women whom we seek to inspire every day.”

“As a lifelong New Yorker, I am honored to join the Intrepid Museum Board and contribute to its ongoing mission to tell the story of our military heroes’ service to our country,” said Townsend. “The Intrepid is more exciting than ever, and I am proud to be a part of the course it is charting.”

Townsend previously served as Assistant to President George W. Bush for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and chaired the Homeland Security Council from May 2004 until January 2008.  Prior to that, she served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism from May 2003 to May 2004. Townsend provided consulting services and advice to corporate entities on Global Strategic Engagement and Risk as well as Crisis and Contingency planning.

Townsend came to the White House from the U. S. Coast Guard, where she had served as the first Assistant Commandant for Intelligence. Prior to that, Ms. Townsend spent 13 years at the U. S. Department of Justice under the administrations of President H.W. Bush, President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush.  She served in a variety of senior positions including as Counsel to the Attorney General for Intelligence Policy. Townsend began her prosecutorial career in 1985, serving as an Assistant District Attorney in Brooklyn, New York.

Townsend graduated cum laude from the American University in 1982 where she received a B.A. in Political Science and a B.S. in Psychology. She received her J.D. from the University of San Diego School of Law in 1984.

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About the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum
Now home of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum complex includes the 900-foot-long aircraft carrier Intrepid; the guided missile submarine Growler; and an extensive collection of 27 aircraft including the A-12 Blackbird, the fastest plane in the world, and the British Airways Concorde, the fastest commercial aircraft in the world. Guests can experience areas of the ship including the Flight Deck, Hangar Deck, fo’c’sle (commonly known as the anchor chain room), new multimedia presentations and exhibit collections, interactive educational stations and a state-of-the-art public pier. 

Guests to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum also can experience the 12,240 square-foot interactive Exploreum – which contains a variety of hands-on exhibits – that teaches guests about the different properties of the sea, air, space and living at sea as each relates to the ship Intrepid. In the Exploreum, guests can experience a flight simulator, transmit messages using Morse code, sit on the bunk of a crewmember, learn how the Intrepid turned salt water into fresh water and perform various tasks while wearing space gloves.

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