President and Leadership Team
Josh Rawitch
President, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Josh Rawitch is in his fourth year as President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and his 31st season working in the baseball industry. Rawitch oversees the daily operation of the nonprofit, educational institution, which employes nearly 100 full-time staff members with the mission to preserve history, honor excellence and connect generations.
During his first three years at the Hall of Fame, Rawitch has focused on strategic growth opportunities that help the 85-year-old institution continue to stay relevant with the next generation of fans and visitors. This includes the incorporation of technological advancements, unique events such as the Savannah Bananas game in 2023 and the creation of “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball,” an exhibit which opened in 2024 as part of a four-day event that also featured the first-ever Hall of Fame East-West Classic, a sold-out tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game.
The Hall of Fame recently announced its next major project, an exhibit to open in July 2025 titled “Yakyu | Baseball: The Transpacific Exchange of the Game” focused on the relationship forged by the national pastime of Japan and the United States.
The Hall of Fame welcomes 250,000 visitors annually and the Museum’s collections contain more than 40,000 three-dimensional artifacts and three million documents in addition to 200,000 baseball cards, 250,000 historic images and 14,000 hours of original audio and video recordings.
Rawitch came to Cooperstown following 10 seasons at the Arizona Diamondbacks and 15 seasons at the Los Angeles Dodgers. With the D-backs, Rawitch served as the Senior Vice President of Content and Communications, overseeing numerous departments within the club’s Business Operations.
Fluent in both Spanish and English, he has overseen media relations during trips to Mexico City (2003), China (2008), Taiwan (2010), Sydney, Australia (2014), and Hermosillo, Mexico (2015), in addition to goodwill tours of Japan, New Zealand and the Dominican Republic. In 2009, ‘13 and ‘17, he served as venue press chief for the World Baseball Classic.
He joined the Dodgers in 1995 and spent parts of five seasons in Marketing before moving to Public Relations. He left the organization for two seasons and became one of MLB Advanced Media’s earliest employees, serving as a beat reporter covering the Dodgers (2001) and Giants (2002).
The Los Angeles native attended Indiana University, where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Sports Marketing and Management with a minor in Business. He has taught Strategic Sports Communications at both Arizona State University and the University of Southern California.
Rawitch was honored with the 2018 Robert O. Fishel Award which goes to the “active, non-uniformed representative of MLB whose ethics, character, dedication, service, professionalism and humanitarianism best represent the standards” of the longtime baseball PR executive for which it is named.
He has previously served as a trustee for the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame and on the board of directors for the Greater Phoenix Chamber, Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, ASU’s Sports Business Advisory Board and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He has helped organize MLB’s Winter Meetings annual auction, which has raised more than $2 million for various charities.
He and his wife, Erin, have 2 children, Emily and Braden, and reside in Cooperstown.
Leadership Team
Josh Rawitch, President
Lisa Bendino-Anderson, Vice President, Museum Affairs
Sean J. Gahagan, Vice President, Retail Merchandising and Licensing
Shilpa Ketharaju, Vice President, Finance and Administration
Ken Meifert, Vice President, Sponsorship and Development
Ryan Selzner, Vice President, People and Culture
Jon Shestakofsky, Vice President, Communications and Content
Department Directors
Bruce Brodersen, Director of A/V Services
Evan Chase, Director of Security and Facilities
Stephanie Hazzard, Director of Education
Whitney Horn, Director of Special Events and Travel
Kourage Kundahl, Director of Digital Content
Cassidy Lent, Director, Library
Sue MacKay, Director of Collections
Scot Mondore, Director of Licensing and Sales/Marketing Coordinator
Craig Muder, Director of Communications
Mary Quinn, Director of Exhibits and Design
Jason Schiellack, Director of Membership and Annual Giving
Tom Shieber, Senior Curator
Anne Smullens, Director of Finance
Phone: (607) 547-7200 Email
