NPS Advisory Board Education Committee Visits Lowell

Date: August 17, 2011
Contact: Phil Lupsiewicz, 978-275-1705

Lowell, MA-Education Committee members of the National Park Service Advisory Board, appointed by the Director of the National Park Service, will, for the first time, meet and tour the historic city of Lowell to learn of interpretation and education programming in Lowell and the Service as a whole, August 22 to 24, 2011.The members of the committee selected Lowell National Historical Park because of its nationally recognized and long-established relationship with University of Massachusetts Lowell, though the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a model for national park and university educational collaboration.

Lowell National Historical Park and University of Massachusetts Lowell's 20 year partnership has become a model for experiential education within a national park.Michael Creasey, Superintendent Lowell National Historical Park Superintendent and Anita Greenwood, Acting Dean, Graduate School of Education, UML will provide an overview of the Tsongas Industrial History Center and demonstrate some of the learning workshops in which some 50,000 school children a year get to participate. The Committee will also attend a canal tour that will begin at their door step at the University Inn & Conference Center, travel through three lock chambers along the 200+ year old Pawtucket Canal and out to the Merrimack River. On the River they, will dock to tour the newly established Merrimack River Classroom at the boathouse and meet with University of Massachusetts Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan.

Their itinerary in Lowell includes a review of the current and potential role of the National Park Service as an education institution in American education and life-long learning, identifying potential business planning processes to insure ongoing funding, and members serving as ambassadors for the National Park Service within their own spheres of influence.

The committee consists of:

Lois Adams-RodgersCouncil of State School Officials

Gloria AllenPlummer Elementary School

Claudia BrownSmithsonian Institution

Milton ChenGeorge Lucas Educational Foundation

Kevin ClarkGeorge Mason University

-more-

Theresa CobleStephen F. Austin University

Allison DruinUniversity of Maryland

John FlakOregon State University

Lesley FenwickHoward University School of Education

Tracy GrayAmerican Institute for research

*Anita GreenwoodUniversity of Massachusetts Lowell

Sandra HallowayCity at Peach, DC

Ana HousealNorthern Iowa University

Don KnezekInt'l Society for Technology in Education

Keith KrugerConsortium of School Networking

Stephen LockhartEast Bay Region, Sutter Health

Jonathan NelsonOrganic Inc

James PercocoWest Springfield High School

Bonie Sachatello-SawyerHopa Mountain

Mike SearsonKean University

Deborah ShanleyBrooklyn College

Carol StappGeorge Washington University

Martin StorksdieckNational Academy of Sciences

Jessica Leigh ThompsonColorado State University

Bruce VanSledrightUniversity of Maryland

Cheryl WilliamsLearning first Alliance

Deborah YandallaConservancy for Cuyahoga Valley Nat'l Park

Don YuU.S. Department of Education

*The University of Massachusetts Lowell is pleased to announce the inclusion of Anita Greenwood, Dean of the Graduate School of Education to the esteemed list of Education Committee members.

For more information on the itinerary as well as the opportunity to meet with the group, please contact Phil Lupsiewicz, Media and Communications, Lowell National Historical Park, [phone], [e-mail].