LINCs Staff

Essex LINCs is a Teaching American History grant designed to bring local primary sources directly into Essex County elementary classrooms. The staff for this grant brings a variety of skills, knowledge and interests to help educators learn more about American history both locally and nationally, and to help their students gain this knowledge as well.*** Please be advised that this information is current as of June, 2011.

Meet our Staff

Bethany Jay is an Assistant Professor of History at Salem State University and Coordinator of the Masters in Arts of Teaching History program.  Bethany earned her Ph.D. in American History at Boston College.  Her dissertation focused on the ways in which slavery has been interpreted in historic house museums from 1857-2000.  While completing her Ph.D., Bethany served as Academic Director of Using ESSEX History, a highly successful Teaching American History project for Essex County's middle and high school teachers.  Since joining Salem State, Bethany has expanded her work in both American memory and education, offering courses in American history, public history, and history education.

Brad Austin is an Associate Professor of History at Salem State University, where he also serves as the secondary education coordinator. He earned his Ph.D. in modern American history from Ohio State University in 2001, and he has continued his research on American cultural and sports history since then. He has been involved in creating four Teaching American History grant programs in Massachusetts and Ohio and served for three years on the American Historical Association’s Teaching Prize Committee, one year as its chair.

Elizabeth Duclos-Orsello is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Salem State University and Coordinator of the American Studies Concentration. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Boston University. Her research and teaching interests include the construction and experience of “community” in the US, ethnic and immigrant studies/literarature, gender studies, midwestern culture, and cultural geography. Current projects include work on the relationship between public culture and public discourse of community in modernizing America, radical activism of the women’s movement, and the relationship between place and memory. In addition to having taught at the college level, she has worked as a museum educator. She is the former Director of the TAH grant Salem In History and has designed and/or taught in a number of other TAH and NEH projects. She has also served as a scholar-in-residence and consultant for Boston-area museums and K-12/university/museum collaborations. She sits on the Board of Trustees at the House of the Seven Gables and the Beverly Historical Society and writes on the relationship between Humanities and public policy for “The Public Humanist” blog.

Rebecca Zimmerman has ties to both public education and museum work. An historical interpreter, and museum education teacher at Old Sturbridge Village for 13 years, Rebecca has experience researching and making use of primary source materials in work with the public. Her committment to using material culture and hands-on experiences with both children and adults has led her to endorse inquiry based learning as a primary way to reach learners. Subsequent to her museum career, she has taught both elementary and middle school. As a fifth grade teacher in Connecticut she taught all subjects and still feels a strong pull to include many areas in her lessons. After coming to the Salem Public schools in '98, she created social studies and language arts lessons for middle school children. She served as a master teacher for the Salem In History grant and has consulted for the National Park Service at the Salem Maritime Site and the Sargent House in Gloucester. She also served as Scholar In Residence at the North Andover Historical Society for a Mass Humanities grant during the summer of 2011. She presented workshops on interdisciplinary activities at the 2010 New England Museum Association conference and the 2011 New England Regional Conference of Social Studies Teachers. She serves as the author of our main lessons, consultant to teachers and is responsible for creaton of the website.