Lisa Gilbert

Lisa Gilbert

Lecturer in Education
PhD, Saint Louis University
MA, McGill University

contact info:

mailing address:

  • Department of Education
    MSC 1183-228-107
    Washington University
    1 Brookings Drive
    St. Louis MO 63130-4899

Lisa Gilbert’s expertise includes the philosophy of education, social studies curriculum and instruction, and museum education.

Dr. Gilbert possesses a multifaceted professional background that has allowed her to develop a deep understanding of multiple educational spaces and how formal and informal systems work together.

As a teacher educator, she brings over 10 years’ experience teaching university courses in instructional methods and culturally responsive pedagogy, supervising student teachers in diverse spaces from urban charters to rural public schools, and creating custom professional development programs for school districts and cultural institutions.

As a teacher, she has worked for both public and private schools in the United States and Austria, with her courses including high-stakes college preparatory testing such as AP United States Government & Politics and AP Comparative Government & Politics. Her classroom was profiled in publications from the American Historical Association, Boston Public Library, and Saint Louis Public Radio. Under her coaching, several students advanced to the state- and national-level competitions of National History Day. She presented her approaches at multiple conferences, including those of the National Council for the Social Studies and National Council for History Education, and also served as a board member for the Missouri Council for the Social Studies. She also completed teacher professional development programs hosted by the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Yale University, National Endowment for the Humanities, Gilder-Lehrman Institute of American History, The College Board, and the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience.

As a museum educator, she first worked as a bilingual educator for the McCord Museum of Canadian History in downtown Montreal before overseeing K-12 programming for the Missouri History Museum. In this role, she created standards-based interdisciplinary lessons that tied history to subjects ranging from STEM fields to dance and world languages, ultimately increasing school attendance by over 500%. To handle this flood of students from across the Saint Louis region, she established a paid internship program that ultimately gave over 70 future teachers hands-on experience working with students of all ages and backgrounds. Additionally, she spearheaded and facilitated three years of teacher learning cohorts focused on sensitive pedagogical approaches to the history of enslavement in the United States. She also served on exhibit creation teams and managed educational partnerships with national organizations such as Monticello and Mount Vernon, along with serving as a consultant for an electronic field trip program at Colonial Williamsburg.

Dr. Gilbert’s research interests are situated at the intersection of social studies education with public & popular history. She is particularly focused on helping students engage in critical inquiry around the narratives we tell about the past in sources beyond schools, such as museums or video games. Her publications have appeared in academic journals such as Theory & Research in Social EducationTeaching & Teacher EducationThe History Teacher, Teaching Philosophy, The International Journal of Music Education, Literacy and Social Responsibility, and Curator: The Museum Journal. Her outreach has included interviews for Learning for Justice (formerly Teaching Tolerance), Education Week, and NBC News.

A skilled musician, Dr. Gilbert has taught for children’s, youth, and adult programs at the Community Music School of Santa Cruz (California), Skåne Folk Flute Workshop (Sweden), Boxwood Festival and Workshop (Nova Scotia, Canada), Saint Louis Irish Arts, and Siamsa (Montreal’s School of Irish Music) as well as maintained a private studio for individual lessons.  These rich pedagogical experiences in arts education beyond the school-based classroom also contribute to her insights on the lived psychology of meaningful teaching and learning.