The Richards Center is excited to welcome Rachel Shelden as its new executive director, effective July 1. Dr. Shelden comes to Penn State from the University of Oklahoma, where she was associate professor of history. She succeeds William Blair, Walter L. and Helen P. Ferree Professor of American History, who retires on June 30 after 21 years as the center’s director. Shelden is the author of Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War and many articles, book chapters, and reviews. She also is co-editor of A Political Nation: New Directions in Mid-Nineteenth-Century American Political History. Her current book project is titled, The Politics of Judging: The U.S. Supreme Court in the Long Civil War Era. Shelden serves as the Book Reviews editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era, which was established by Dr. Blair in 2010. Read more about this exciting transition at Penn State News online.