At the turn of the 20th century, Belle Marion Greener crossed the color line from Black to white reinventing herself as Belle da Costa Greene, personal librarian and confidant to American banker J.P. Morgan, pioneering career woman, glamorous "it girl," and first director of the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Boss Like Belle charts how this path-breaking librarian who hid her Blackness to succeed in the 1900s helped Anne-Marie Eze find her authenticity as a Black leader at Harvard Library a century later.
About Belle
Belle da Costa Greene (1879–1950) was a trailblazing American librarian who significantly shaped the landscape of rare books and manuscripts in the United States. As the initial private librarian for J. Pierpont Morgan and later the inaugural director of the Pierpont Morgan Library (now the Morgan Library & Museum) in New York City, Greene transformed a private collection into a major public resource with robust programs of exhibitions, lectures, and research services. Born Belle Marion Greener, she grew up in Washington, DC, in a predominantly African American community. Her father Richard T. Greener was the first Black graduate of Harvard College and an advocate for racial justice. Following her parents' separation, Greene, her mother and siblings changed their surname, and passed as white in a segregated society. Greene’s career began at Princeton University Library, she joined the Morgan in 1905 and retired in 1948. She died in 1950, leaving a powerful legacy in American librarianship marked by significant contributions to bibliography, scholarship, and the promotion of women in the field.
-
Anne-Marie Eze
Dr. Anne-Marie Eze is an award-winning British art historian and rare book librarian at Harvard University’s Houghton Library. Her life's work has been connecting the public with books and art in libraries and museums in the United States and United Kingdom, including at Harvard Library, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, British Library, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Cambridge University’s Trinity College Library. She is driven by a desire to empower everyone to feel at home in historically exclusive cultural spaces and entitled to participate in the arts.
Anne-Marie is a member of the advisory committee for the Morgan Library and Museum’s exhibition Belle da Costa Greene: A Librarian’s Legacy (October 2024-May2025), and wrote a chapter on Greene as a medievalist for the accompanying book.
-
Rachael Lowell Ellison
Rachael Ellison is an executive coach and management consultant with decades of experience helping high-performing leaders navigate the complexities of today's rapidly changing work environment. As the creator of SHIFT, a cutting-edge leadership framework for the new abnormal, Rachael empowers executives to adapt and thrive in uncertain times. Her collaborative, evidence-based approach focuses on leveraging clients' strengths, clarifying their vision, and developing actionable strategies for success. Rachael's insights have been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Fortune, and Slate. Through her transformative coaching, leaders gain the confidence and skills to create lasting impact in their organizations and beyond.
-
Diego Senior
Diego Senior is a documentary producer with a background in radio journalism. His work has been featured in outlets like NatGeo, CBS News, Discovery and NY1. Mr. Senior has focused on technology, science and social justice. He co-founded and runs his own storytelling company “La Central”, through which he has executive produced and directed several audio series for outlets like Spotify, PRX and Johns Hopkins University, amongst others. He also worked as News Correspondent and Content Executive at Caracol Radio in his native Colombia. Mr. Senior has an MA in International Affairs from The New School University in New York.
-
Nikol Pizarro
Nikol Pizarro is a professional in music and sound engineering, focused on audio post-production. Since 2021, she has worked for various audiobook publishers in Spain, Mexico and Colombia, accumulating solid experience in the editing of more than 100 audiobooks. Her work has ranged from production to post-production, guaranteeing the quality and sound impact of each project. Additionally, she specializes in sound design and foley for films and series on platforms such as Amazon, Disney+, Paramount+ and Vix.
-
Big Piph
The podcast’s theme music, The Ballad of Belle da Costa Greene, was composed and performed by for the Epiphany “Big Piph” Morrow, a Stanford-educated engineer turned rapper. He is rolling out new music for the "FAR FROM FINISHED" soundtrack and performs with his band, Tomorrow Maybe. A community builder from Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Big Piph founded The F.A.M. Project to empower high school students in underserved areas. As a Cultural Ambassador, he promotes Hip Hop and has worked in over 10 countries. His one-man show, “The Glow,” likened to a "Hip-Hop TED Talk," became a PBS digital series. He is now releasing "Far From Finished," a web series and soundtrack.
-
Erica Ciallela
Erica Ciallela performs the voice of Belle da Costa Greene in the podcast. Erica was an Exhibition Project Curator for Belle da Costa Greene, A Librarian’s Legacy at The Morgan Library. Erica comes from the Prudence Crandall Museum in Canterbury, Connecticut where she worked on reinterpreting the National Historic Site, bringing to light the stories of its African American students in the 1830s. Erica joined the Morgan as a Belle da Costa Greene Curatorial Fellow and processed the early Director’s Office files of the Morgan to create a better understanding of Belle da Costa Greene’s time as Director. Erica is invested in seeing institutions tell more inclusive histories, especially those of African American women. She also believes that looking at archival collections in non-traditional ways will help contribute to the multiple narratives that are waiting to be told.