The History Department congratulates Dr. Michelle Lorimer (History), who was recognized by the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences with the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Service Award. Dr. Lorimer’s students, colleagues, and regional partners have long benefited from her energetic and excellence service in local and public history, in top historical scholarship, and in history education. Most recently, Dr. Lorimer helped to organize “History Discovery Day,” which brought together regional middle schoolers and current CSUSB History students. 

In March 2024, Dr. Lorimer and some history students volunteered at Rialto’s Wilmer Amina Carter High School to serve as History Day judges (https://www.csusb.edu/history/department-news/article/580784). And in March 2025, Lorimer organized the History Day competition and held it on the CSUSB campus, in partnership with the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, bringing over 600 people to CSUSB for the event (https://www.csusb.edu/inside/article/587290/students-share-research-35th-annual-history-day-csusb). Lorimer facilitated an MOU with San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools to partner on National History Day-San Bernardino (NHD-SB). She co-created workshops and trainings for teachers, and developed internship and service-learning opportunities for CSUSB students to collaborate with regional teachers, along with primary and secondary students. CSUSB students volunteered as judges for NHD-SB in 2024 and 2025, and the college students provided research support for 5th-12th grade students at Pfau Library for Student Discovery Day in November 2024 and 2025. Lorimer also included CSUSB students in collaborations on lesson plan development for Citrus State Historic Park in 2023 and 2024.

Dr. Lorimer earned her PhD and her MA from University of California, Riverside, after earning her BA in History here at California State University, San Bernardino. Her most recent publications include “'Turn Back the Noisy Wheels of Progress': Modernization, Postcards, and California’s Romantic Booster Heritage" in California History (May 2024); and “Dancing Activist: Maria Tallchief '' in Medicine, Education, and the Arts in Contemporary Native American: Strong Women, Resilient Nations (edited by Clifford E. Trafzer, Donna L. Akers, and Amanda K. Wixon, Lexington Books. 2022). Dr. Lorimer’s work is strongly grounded in California and regional history, including the monograph, Resurrecting the Past: The California Mission Myth, from Great Oak Press (2016), which “traces the marginalization of Native Californians within mission history and critiques the romanticized narrative still presented today at many mission sites.” 

Dr. Lorimer is coordinator of the History Department’s Master of Arts program and Pre-credential History-Social Science program coordinator.  Her teaching is essential to the preparation of many excellent graduates. Her work for local history and educational initiatives includes many activities that account for this SBS College honor, including work with the California Historical Society and the California History-Social Science Project (CHSSP). This work has included developing materials for “Teaching California: Bringing Archives into the Classroom,” (https://chssp.ucdavis.edu/resources/teachingcalifornia) which supports teacher training and also connects with the California History-Social Science Framework. Many regional students have also benefited from Dr. Lorimer’s work on National History Day and affiliated activities, and she serves on the Committee on Teaching and Public Education for the Western Historical Association.

Michelle Lorimer, with collaborator Michael Karp, received a $150K grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which was intended to be used to create a transformative local history education project. It was unfortunately revoked by the Trump Administration in April 2025.