Lois A. Brown of Northampton, Massachusetts
Lois A. Brown is an associate professor of English at Mount Holyoke College, where she is also the director of the Weissman Center for Leadership and the Liberal Arts. The author most recently of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins: Black Daughter of the Revolution, she has also edited Susan Paul's Memoir of James Jackson, the Attentive and Obedient Scholar and published The Encyclopedia of The Harlem Literary Renaissance. Professor Brown has held one of the Society's short-term research fellowships, served on our committee to select MHS-NEH long-term fellows, and presented a paper to the Boston Seminar on the History of Women and Gender, which the Society co-sponsors with the Schlesinger Library. She received her Ph.D. from Boston College.
Christopher Clark of Storrs, Connecticut
Christopher Clark is a professor of history at the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he is also the acting head of the History Department. A native of Great Britain, he took his bachelor's degree at the University of Warwick before receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard. He taught at the University of York and the University of Warwick before accepting his present position. He is the author, co-author, or editor of five books, including The Roots of Rural Capitalism: Western Massachusetts, 1780-1860 and The Communitarian Moment: The Radical Challenge of the Northampton Association. Professor Clark has held one of the Society's short-term research fellowships, has served on the selection committee for our short-term fellowships, and has made several presentations to our Boston Area Seminar in Early American History.
Thomas F. Gagen of Auburndale, Massachusetts
Thomas F. Gagen is a freelance journalist with a special interest in health care. A graduate of Harvard College, he worked at the Taunton Daily Gazette and the Baltimore Sun before moving to the Boston Globe. He worked at the Globe between 1972 and 2008 was the Chief Editorial Writer, 2000-2008.
Levin H. Campbell, Jr., of Cambridge, Massachusetts
Levin H. Campbell, Jr., has devoted his professional life to elementary and secondary education. A graduate of Harvard College, he studied in the Teacher Training Program at Shady Hill School in Cambridge, took an M.A. in Education at Tufts University, and received a Certificate of Advanced Studies from Harvard's Graduate School of Education. Between 1995 and 2005 he held a number of teaching and administrative positions at the Willauer School at the Thompson Island Outward Bound Education Center. Since 2005, he has taught and coached part-time at Shady Hill School.
Katherine L. Kottaridis of Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Katherine L. Kottaridis is the executive director of Historic Boston, Inc., an agency for promoting historic preservation in the city. Her work includes maintaining a revolving fund for preservation projects, developing programs to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts, and helping religious congregations preserve their historic structures. She has held various executive positions in city and state government and has served as associate director of public affairs for Northeastern University.
David Quigley of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts
David Quigley is an associate professor of history at Boston College, where he is also interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Professor Quigley received his bachelor's degree from Amherst College and his Ph.D. from New York University. He is the author of Second Founding: New York City, Reconstruction, and the Making of American Democracy and a co-author of Jim Crow New York: A Documentary History of Race and Citizenship, 1777-1877. He has presented some of his research to the Boston Seminar on Immigration and Urban History, a series of the Society.
Tamara Plakins Thornton of Buffalo, New York
Tamara Plakins Thornton is a professor of history at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Professor Thornton graduated from Harvard College and received her Ph.D. from Yale University. She is the author of Cultivating Gentlemen: The Meaning of Country Life among the Boston Elite, 1785-1860 and Handwriting in America: A Cultural History. She received a short-term fellowship from the Society to work on her current project, a study of Nathaniel Bowditch and his circles in Salem and Boston.
Daniel F. Vickers of Vancouver, British Columbia
Daniel F. Vickers is a professor of history at the University of British Columbia, where he is also chairman of the History Department. Professor Vickers received his B.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. He was a fellow of the Institute of Early American History and Culture and taught at the College of William and Mary before accepting positions at the University of Wyoming, Memorial University of Newfoundland, and the University of California at San Diego prior to assuming his present post. A historian of labor, he is the author, co-author, or editor of four books, including Farmers and Fishermen: Two Centuries of Work in Essex County, Massachusetts, 1630-1850 and (with Vince Walsh) Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail.
Judith Bryant Wittenberg of Newton, Massachusetts
Judith Bryant Wittenberg is a scholar of American literature. She took her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and a M.A. at Boston University before receiving her doctoral degree at Brown University. She spent most of her academic career at Simmons College, where she rose from assistant professor of English to professor of English. She also served terms as dean of the Undergraduate College and chair of the Department of English at Simmons as well as dean of Arts and Sciences at Hood College. Her publications include Faulkner: The Transfiguration of Biography and Unflinching Gaze: Morrison and Faulkner Re-Envisioned (co-editor). She was president and founder of the William Faulkner Society.
Deborah Gates of Weston, Massachusetts
Deborah Gates is the president of the Board of Gore Place, where she has been a trustee since 1997. She graduated from Smith College and took a master's degree in history at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. She is especially interested in the architecture and decorative arts of the Federal Period. For more than a decade, she worked in the International Division of the First National Bank of Boston, rising to assistant vice president.