Lee Ann Caldwell has been named director of ASU’s Center for the Study of Georgia History, effective August 2008. Dr. Caldwell, who was a faculty member at ASU from 1988 to 2002, will be returning to Augusta State after serving as chair of the Department of History, Geography, and Philosophy at Georgia College and State University. She was previously named as the center’s interim director.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell has agreed to take the position of director of the Center for the Study of Georgia History. Her research in the field of Georgia history and her long association with its former director, the late Dr. Ed Cashin, make her uniquely qualified to head our center,” says Samuel Sullivan, vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. Cashin was chair of the department when Dr. Caldwell joined the faculty in 1988, and she continued to work closely with him following his retirement and after her move to Georgia College and State University.

“We are truly pleased Dr. Caldwell has agreed to take on the responsibilities of the center. She brings with her both her expertise as a scholar, as well as a firsthand knowledge of Ed Cashin’s work. Moreover, her vision about what the center can become is compelling. I have full confidence she will bring together Dr. Cashin’s vision and work with an even greater reach for the center into the community and throughout the state,” says Dr. Robert Parham, dean of the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Caldwell has received numerous awards in recognition of her research and service. She was recently honored with the 2008 Governor’s Award in the Humanities for her commitment to teaching and to sharing Georgia’s stories with communities. She has researched and published articles on women’s, Georgia, and colonial American history topics. In 1997, she was the co-recipient of the Spencer Award, which recognizes the author of the best article published over the preceding three years in the Journal of Georgia Association of Historians. In 1998, she was named ASU’s Outstanding Faculty Member and the following year received the Alumni Association’s Town and Gown Award.

Other awards include the J.W. Brown Award from Paine College for her contributions to African-American history in Augusta, a Woman of Excellence in Education Award from the Central Savannah River Area Girl Scouts, and a William Bacon Stevens Award from the Georgia Historical Society. She was also named an Outstanding Young Woman of America. Dr. Caldwell has served on the boards of the Augusta Ballet, Historic Augusta, and Leadership Augusta, and served as president of the Richmond County Historical Society.

She received an associate’s degree from Gulf Park College, a bachelor’s degree from the University of Tennessee, and master and doctoral degrees from the University of Georgia.

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