Allison Blais

Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy & Operations Officer

Allison Blais is the chief strategy & operations officer for the 9/11 Memorial & Museum. She is also coauthor of A Place of Remembrance, the official book of the organization. Her current role combines her past two leadership positions at the institution as chief strategy officer and chief operating officer. Blais is responsible for managing priority institution-wide initiatives and oversees a team focused on the 9/11 Memorial & Museum's ongoing sustainability and relevance as well as its daily operations, leading departments responsible for strategic and operational planning, events and business partnerships, visitor services and retail, buildings and grounds, and security and life safety.

Blais has worked on the World Trade Center rebuilding and operation since 2004. Before her COO and CSO roles, she served as the organization’s chief of staff for eight years through the planning, design, building, operational ramp-up, and opening of both the Memorial and the Museum. Prior to her work at the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, she worked in the chairman’s and president’s offices of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the agency charged with planning the rebuilding and revitalization of lower Manhattan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. 

Before her work downtown, Blais managed capital projects for major cultural institutions and construction companies throughout New York City and worked at the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival.

She graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University, where she serves on the President’s Council of Cornell Women, and received a master's degree in American studies from Columbia University.