Edward Salo, PhD, is an assistant professor is the History Department as well as the Heritage Studies PhD program at Arkansas State University. He also serves as a historic preservationist supporting the Heritage Sites program. Dr. Salo grew up in the mountains of East Tennessee, where he learned to appreciate the cultural heritage of the region, and is proud to call himself a hillbilly. He received his BA with a double major of History and Political Science from East Tennessee State University, and a Masters of Arts in history and a PhD in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University. He also was part of the initial class of Normandy Scholars at the University of Tennessee in 1992. While in graduate school, Dr. Salo served as a graduate teaching assistant and held a fellowship from MTSU. His thesis examined the model of masculinity presented by the early NASA astronauts in Life magazine, and his dissertation was a multidisciplinary examination of ferryboats in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Before coming to Arkansas State University, Dr. Salo had a varied career path. Before graduate school, he interned with Senator Al Gore Jr. and later with the House Transportation Committee for the Tennessee General Assembly and the Tennessee Treasury Department. In summers during graduate school, Dr. Salo was a camp counselor at the US Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp, where he operated a space shuttle trainer. After receiving his master’s degree, he was employed as a consulting historian/architectural historian for three cultural resources management firms, serving as head of the History Division in the last firm. In his consulting work, Dr. Salo completed historic resources surveys, management documents, and National Register of Historic Places nominations for projects across the continental United States as well as in Alaska, Cuba, Germany, Guam, Hawaii, the Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. He also served as a co-Principal Investigator for the ethnographical study of traditional cultural properties along the Alabama and Florida coasts as part of the response to the BP oil spill. He also served as the project manager for several client endeavors, ensuring their projects were completed on time and under budget.Dr. Salo’s work has been recognized for its excellence. In 2002, he received the National Council on Public History’s New Professional award, and 2005 the South Carolina Library included one of his reports in the 10 Notable State Documents of the year. Most recently, he served as a contributing author to the Inventory and Analysis of Coastal and Submerged Archaeological Site Occurrence on the Pacific Outer Continental Shelf report that was selected for an Outstanding Resource Document award by the California Association of Environmental Professionals in 2015. During his 14 years in consulting, Dr. Salo authored or co-authored over 250 reports that were peer reviewed by professionals in their fields at the state and national level.Since arriving at A-State in 2014, Dr. Salo has been active in all aspects of the university and its role in the community. He has created various new courses for the History and Heritage Studies programs, and has reorganized the History MA with an emphasis in Public History curriculum to ensure that students receive the training they need to be employable. He has also been active in working with the community to identify projects on which graduate students can work to gain real-world experience. Dr. Salo also assisted the Honors College with the planning and execution of the World War II in the Western Front course and overseas trip