On Sept. 11, 2001, Elizabeth L. Hillman had the same reaction as many to the horror she saw unfold on television. “I wondered what I should do next, like a lot of people,” she said.
The former Air Force officer, then in Philadelphia, had just taken a job as a law professor. She worked her way through academia, eventually becoming president of Mills College. After leading a merger between Mills and Northeastern University in 2022, she was looking for her next role, which led back to 9/11.
The position of chief executive of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum opened up, and Ms. Hillman, a military historian, had taught about 9/11 in classes. It was a natural fit: In late 2022, she became the C.E.O. of the museum.
“It’s the kind of thing that had such powerful resonance and has so many layers that I could spend a lifetime trying to understand it,” Ms. Hillman, 58, said. “The museum is dedicated to that.”
She arrived at a challenging moment. The museum, which relies mostly on ticket sales — it is $36 for adult admission — has reported a series of losses since attendance never fully recovered after the Covid-19 pandemic. Ahead of the 25th anniversary, Ms. Hillman and her team are trying to find new ways to tell the story of that day to the increasingly large number of people without memories of it.
In recent years, the museum has put a greater focus on 9/11-related illnesses. This year’s commemoration will add an extra moment of silence for those who have died from the health effects over the past 25 years.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
How does one become C.E.O. of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum?
I didn’t ever see myself as running a museum and memorial. I didn’t know much about the site itself, but I realized it reached so many people: 100 million people have come to the memorial since it opened; 28 million people have visited the museum; and we will reach 20 million students by the time we get to the 25th anniversary.
I had a chance to come here to commemorate what happened and to inspire an end to hatred and intolerance. It was a great opportunity to prepare for a significant moment in the history of the institution.
About a third of the U.S. population was born after Sept. 11, 2001. How does this change the museum’s approach?
We don’t find any lessening of interest in what happened. The stories remain compelling, and they’re still unfolding. The 9/11 health effects story is a very powerful one that speaks to young people who understand environmental toxicity in a way that I didn’t when I was young.
How does the museum deal with conspiracy theories?
The institution is an archaeological site. The museum is where this happened. The pools are in the footprints of the towers, so I think that firsthand experience and that ability to meet people where they are is the best way we can help teachers and families reckon with those who have some misunderstanding about it.
There are also the videos that show what it was like the weeks and month after the towers fell. You see news coverage and Jon Stewart’s monologue. It’s striking.
It is. That’s one reason that I think young people are drawn to this. Everyone wants to know if they can get through things that are difficult. 9/11 and the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, it shows you that you can recover — at least in some ways — from even really unbelievable loss.
It can seem uncomfortable talking about the museum as a business, but it makes money through ticket sales, a gift shop and donors. Why is that the right business model?
Nonprofits aren’t sustainable if they can’t keep the lights on.
We’re in a campaign right now to help sustain us for the years and decades ahead by raising money around the 25th anniversary. The tickets that people buy for the museum make the memorial free.
The pandemic had shown us that dependence on ticket sales made us vulnerable. We have worked to generate other sources of revenue.
Why can’t tickets to the museum be free?
There are great museums around the world that are free. There are great museums that aren’t.
Being a private nonprofit protects our independence and makes us accountable to people most affected by 9/11. I think that’s an appropriate model.
This museum has a long list of trustees. How do you manage all those perspectives? Is consensus ever possible?
This is New York, and this is about 9/11. There’s no way to build a short list of people who care about what we do here.
The board has a lot of faith in the way the institution is run, and I make sure we don’t get out of alignment or fail to talk about the challenges we face. It’s less about knowing what everybody wants as making sure they know what’s happening.
Is it harder to make decisions when there are such deep emotions involved?
It’s different dealing with people who are experiencing grief and loss. We have to be more accountable. We have to be willing to share more. We have to be willing to grant grace to people who have very strong perspectives with which we might not be able to align our next steps or correct what we did in the past.
Visiting the museum is very heavy. Do you expect visitors to come time and time again?
We recognize most people will come and spend a couple of hours in the museum once. We also realize most of the people who want to learn about 9/11 aren’t going to visit the museum.
So how do you measure success?
In terms of people in the museum, we pay attention to the number who come and we watch how they encounter individual artifacts.
The walk through the museum isn’t best for everybody to do unaccompanied. For people who are having a challenge or response in the museum, we have docents — many of whom have an experience related to 9/11 themselves.
How do you support the workers interacting with this story day in and day out?
We’ve worked with some institutions — like hospitals and health care institutions — that have workforces exposed to challenging situations. We have adopted some of the training that they do.
What do you do when the content gets overwhelming?
Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I step away. But mostly I lean into it. Realizing more about what happened that day and how it affected the people who were there is like another gate to understanding. I don’t think you ever reach the end of those gates.
How often are you talking to 9/11 families?
We have nine family members on our board. We’re in touch with them regularly. We have members of the first responder community on our board, too.
I get correspondence from family members. They’re not of one mind or one type. People from 90 countries were killed on 9/11.
Let’s turn to you. Tell me about your upbringing.
I was born in a city just east of Pittsburgh called McKeesport.
My dad served in the Army Air Forces during World War II; then he went to college and worked for U.S. Steel. My mom was a dietitian.
I’m one of five. I have a twin sister, and she is smarter and nicer than me. She’s really empathetic and helped me understand people better. My three older brothers challenged and provoked and protected us.
Did your father’s service inspire you to go into the Air Force?
It did. I chose the Air Force because of my dad’s service.
Did you imagine a long career in the military?
I wanted to become a space operations officer in Colorado Springs, and mostly I wanted be a successful lieutenant and junior officer in the Air Force. I had a lot of responsibility when I was young, which I was proud of and I took seriously.
Then, what was your “sliding doors” moment?
I knew to get promoted I needed a master’s degree. The Air Force sent me to study history at Penn. I was very focused on what I was learning and I realized I didn’t want to stay in the Air Force. Part of that was the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. I came out when I was in grad school, and that meant staying in the Air Force was a different proposition. That was another piece of it.
What did you learn from your service that you bring to your work today?
When you’re in the service, you don’t get to choose your mission and you don’t get to choose the people with whom you’re going to accomplish it. So you learn to figure out how to work with what you have.
It’s time for the lightning round. What’s something you’ve learned from one of your youngest workers?
How to use the camera better on my phone.
Speaking of the phone, what is your most used app?
We have a tool where I can see how many people are in the memorial compared with our forecast. I look at that all the time.
Do you think veterans make good C.E.O.s?
Clearly.
In hindsight, what’s a decision you would have made differently?
I don’t go there. There’s good and bad from every decision.
If you weren’t doing this job, what would you be doing?
Running a library. I always feel uplifted seeing people in a library. We have to keep trying to learn more.
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