Welcome 2023 Innovators in Civic Education Fellows!
On Thursday, June 29th, the David Mathews Center for Civic Life held its fifth annual Innovators in Civic Education Workshop. During the training, Teacher Fellows assisted the DMC in educational programming by providing important viewpoints on how to generate the most relevant and valuable resources for educators, both in the classroom and in the community. These educators were chosen for the fellowship because they are dedicated to developing and implementing skills-focused and inquiry-led social studies curriculum.
This year, we were joined by four incredible educators for our first in-person session since 2019. Teachers received training in moderator development as well as skills for implementing deliberation in the classroom. Learn more about our Teacher Fellows for 2023-2024 below:
Danielle Seymour: Baker High School, Mobile County Public School System
AP Psychology and 12th Grade Honors Economic and Government
Danielle Seymour currently teaches at Baker High School in her hometown of Mobile, Alabama. She spent the first half of her teaching career in East Central Alabama in Lanett and holds dual certification in English Language Arts and Social Studies, as well National Board Certification in Social Studies. She has taught a variety of courses in her career, including AP Language and Literature, Government and Economics, AP Psychology, and AP Seminar and Research, including being a reader for the AP Psychology exam every year. Danielle commented during the workshop that her favorite part of her job is seeing understanding develop in students.
She is married with one daughter. All three of them graduated from Auburn University and love their alma mater! She has two Westies, Jackson and Barkley, and loves to read, travel, and attend concerts and sporting events. She and her husband are loyal supporters of the New Orleans Saints, and she has been to over 120 concerts.
Jacob Goodwin: Cooperative Middle School, SAU 16
6th Grade Social Studies
Jacob Goodwin is a Social Studies educator with over a decade of experience in public schools. He focuses on engaging young people in renewing civic life in and out of the classroom. Mr. Goodwin has facilitated service learning across the US. He holds a BA in History from The Honors Program at The University of New Hampshire, an M.Ed in Secondary Education from UNH, an MA in Political Science with classes completed at UNH and Georgetown, and Post-Masters Certificate from Antioch University. A James Madison Fellow, Mr. Goodwin was the 2021 NH History Teacher of the Year.
Caitlin Halperin: Auburn High School, Auburn City School District
11th Grade AP U.S. History
Caitlin Halperin teaches AP US History and US History 11 at Auburn High School and has been teaching in Auburn City Schools since 2015. She received her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Social Science Education at Auburn University. She was nominated Gilder Lehrman’s 2022 Alabama History Teacher of the Year. She is also a James Madison Fellow for the state of Alabama.
Ms. Halperin’s deep love for history and the inventive ways she uses to communicate that history to her students create a classroom full of discussions, debates, investigations, and real-world dilemmas. She strives to prepare her students to be civic-minded participants in America’s present democracy.
Mindy Walker: Holt High School, Tuscaloosa County School System
10th Grade U.S. History and 12th Grade American Government
Mindy Walker, originally from Pickens County, Alabama, graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Minor in English from the University of Alabama. After teaching in private and religious based high school institutions, she decided to pursue her Masters in Teaching History at the University of West Alabama which she completed in 2010. The last class that she completed at UWA involved a Holocaust Study Tour in Europe and featured sites in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Germany. After visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau, Mindy felt convicted to become an advocate for this era in history and wanted to making sure that teaching tolerance and civility for all must be interwoven into all her courses no matter the topic. She then began teaching in the Tuscaloosa County School System, and she has been dedicated to teaching students there since completing her Master’s degree.
Due to her interest in Holocaust education, she became a part of the Teacher Cadre at the Alabama Holocaust Education Center in Birmingham. The AHEC sent her to Columbia University in 2018 to a Teacher Institute hosted by The Jewish Foundation for the Righteous. After this training, she completed multiple Advanced Seminars with the JFR and then traveled with the renowned historian for Auschwitz, Dr. Robert Jan van Pelt with the organization for their European Study Tour in July 2019. Here she completed research for a Holocaust curriculum on locations in the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany. Mindy also made contributions to an upcoming Teacher’s Curriculum by the JFR entitled: How Was It Possible? A Holocaust Curriculum for and by Teachers. She will be traveling this summer to complete research on Holocaust photography in Germany and Poland for two weeks in July. Mindy is also a Teacher Ambassador for another Holocaust organization entitled The Defiant Requiem Foundation. This past August, Mindy finished her Educational Specialist Degree in Secondary History Curriculum at the U of A. She writes grants in order to take her students on a variety of field trips to learn in-person about content taught in her classroom. She is married to Robert Walker and they have three daughters, Mataea (15), Talisa (7), and Elora (6).
The goal of the fellowship is to provide teachers with training and resources to integrate civics and Social Studies into their classrooms. Rachel Mosness, DMC’s Executive Director, led a practice deliberation training with the Teacher Fellows utilizing the “Monuments, Memorials, & Memory” issues guide. The workshop additionally touched on Place-Based and Deliberative Learning in the Classroom. Creative Director Justin Lutz gave a presentation on the impact of deliberations and examples of how they are used in real-life situations. The training course wrapped up with a brainstorming session in which the fellows shared their ideas on what they thought might make good research topics for future issue guides. These educators will play a critical role in the coming year for the David Mathews Center.
Thank you to our 2023-2024 Teacher Fellows for attending this year’s workshop! We are eager to see how they incorporate deliberation and civics into their classes this year and look forward to collaborating and engaging with them.