8/25/10

Lincoln College hires new assistant director for the Lincoln Heritage Museum

Lincoln College is proud to announce the recent hiring of Melissa Weissert as the new assistant director of the Lincoln Heritage Museum.     Starting August 30, she will be working along side the Lincoln Heritage Museum director and curator Ron Keller.

Weissert was most recently employed as a park guide for the Lincoln Home National Historic Site, where she led tours, and developed and led interpretive programming.    In this role, she also was responsible for cataloging artifacts and developing temporary exhibits.  While working at the Lincoln Home, she also served as research assistant and wrote articles for the monthly publication Illinois Issues.   

Weissert is a native of Belleville, Illinois.  She is a graduate of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, with a major in History and minor in Business Administration.  She earned an M.A in history, with an emphasis in Public History, from University of Illinois Springfield.  She has always been fascinated by the 16th president and his legacy, and moved to Springfield because of its Abraham Lincoln connection.  After graduating from UIS, she decided to become the lead living history guide at the Lincoln Home.  In her recent role, she supervised four living history interpreters and sixteen members of the Lincoln Troubadours.  Additionally, she dressed in period costumes and offered daily programs, such as neighborhood tours, period demonstrations, and vignettes. 

Weissert is joining the museum at a crucial time.   She will be joining the design team in preparing its new space in the Lincoln Center, where the museum will move to in 2012.    Weissert will also create new marketing and educational initiatives, and will assist in grant writing for the museum.    Keller said, “Melissa brings a great depth of Abraham Lincoln knowledge to the job.   Having worked in public settings, she understands tourism and working with the public.    We were immediately attracted to her breadth of experience on so many levels in relation to public history, and she will help this museum advance tremendously in so many different areas.  We are very fortunate to have her.”

Of her new position as museum assistant director, Weissert remarked, “I am very excited to join the Lincoln College community.  The opportunity to help develop and plan a new museum dedicated to furthering Lincoln's legacy is a dream come true!”    Lincoln Heritage Museum invites all to visit the museum again, and to welcome Melissa.

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Lincoln College was founded in 1865 as Lincoln University, the only institution of higher education named for Abraham Lincoln during his lifetime. It is a selective, two-year, private, liberal arts college located in Lincoln, Illinois. Lincoln College is designed to prepare a student for university study through a structured, supportive approach to learning. Approximately 89% of Lincoln College graduates transfer immediately to a four-year school where they succeed as well as or better than the native student. Student-teacher ratio at Lincoln College is 13:1 and the average class size is 16 students.