George Washington: Leadership & Decision Making

Dr. John W. Hall

John W. Hall is the Ambrose-Hesseltine Professor of U.S. Military History at UW–Madison. He holds a B.S. in History from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and a PhD in History from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. 

He specializes in American military history with particular emphasis on early and Native American warfare. He is the author of Uncommon Defense: Indian Allies in the Black Hawk War (Harvard University Press, 2009) and numerous essays on early American warfare, including “An Irregular Reconsideration of George Washington and the American Military Tradition,” Journal of Military History (July 2014), which won an Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Prize. 

He is a past president of the Society for Military History and a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel, with past assignments as a historian to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, U.S. European Command, U.S. Central Command, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. 

He is presently a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians, a board member of the National Humanities Alliance, and a Senior Non-resident Fellow of the Global and National Security Institute. His current book project, under contract with Harvard University Press, is Dishonorable Duty: The U.S. Army and the Removal of the Southeastern Indians.

Melissa Tyer

Melissa Tyer is the Museum Educator at the First Division Museum at Cantigny Park. She coordinates the education program, including field trips, artifact loans, and teacher events.

She received her undergraduate degree in Social Science with a History emphasis from North Central College, and later earned her Master's in Education Curriculum and Instruction. She is a Certified Interpretive Trainer with the National Association for Interpretation. She also coordinates the Suburban Educator Roundtable, which allows educators from museums and nature centers to discuss best practices in education.

Chris Hoang

Chris Hoang is the Outreach Coordinator for K-12 Education at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He previously served as an intern in the Education Administration department at Mount Vernon. A recent graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he supports a wide range of logistics, communication, facilitation, and evaluation for teacher and student learning outreach programs, events, and initiatives.

Allison Wickens

K. Allison Wickens, Vice President for Education, joined George Washington’s Mount Vernon in the summer of 2014. She currently leads the Education and Guest Services division and oversees the learning goals for the institution for onsite, offsite, and digital outreach programs.  She represents Mount Vernon in national discussions about museums, historic sites, and how they relate to history and civics education today. 

Before arriving at Mount Vernon, she had been at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Postal Museum, serving as their Director of Education and Visitor Services. She received her Master’s Degree in History at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she got a certificate in Museum Studies. Between her undergraduate work at Grinnell College and graduate school, she lived and worked in Washington, D.C. at a wide variety of Smithsonian museums and offices.