About Gretchen Dykstra

Image of author Gretchen Dykstra standing on a dock near a lake — *Photo by Kyle Good*

Gretchen Dykstra does not have a classic “career”, but she does have a rich professional life. Born in New York City and raised outside of Philadelphia, she attended a Quaker elementary school that taught her to care about the world and other people, and a girls’ high school that taught her how to write.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a long family tradition, and then, not knowing what to do, she attended Bank Street College of Education and learned that teaching is great preparation for a whole host of jobs.

She taught in a middle school, worked as a freelance writer, and then taught English at a college in Wuhan, China from 1979-1981.

Back in New York, Dykstra cut her civic and political teeth at the NYC Charter Revision Commission of 1989. During the ‘90s she ran the highly visible and successful Times Square BID where she and her staff did everything from cleaning and patrolling the streets to advancing the rezoning of porn shops to lowering the New Year’s Eve ball.

An image of Gretchen Dykstra sitting on a bench next to a statue of Teddy Roosevelt

Post 9/11, she was appointed Commissioner of the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs where she regulated small businesses and protected consumers. In 2005 she became the first CEO of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation, but resigned within a year frustrated by the political confusion.

Gretchen was an at-home student of William Zinsser (1922-2015) who helped her through her first book, Pinery Boys, and inspired Civic Pioneers. She released her memoir, Echoes from Wuhan, in July 2022.

After decades in New York, she now lives in the Hudson Valley. Having finished her book about Berea, Dykstra is now exploring the beautiful and complicated town of Manchester in eastern KY.