Dr. Kriste Lindenmeyer is a member of the Department of History at Rutgers–Camden. Her scholarship and teaching focus on American history with specializations in public policy, diversity, as well as childhood and youth. A first-generation college student, Dr. Lindenmeyer thinks it is important for her to share her story with today’s students. She dropped out of college after her junior year. Got married, started a family, and had a multi-year career in business. It was clear, however, that earning a college degree would be key to future success. She returned to the University of Cincinnati, finished a B.A., then an M.A., and a Ph.D. in American History. She strongly believes that completing college is a path to opportunity and a more fulfilling life.
Besides working at Rutgers, Dr. Lindenmeyer has held faculty positions at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; Vanderbilt University; and Tennessee Technological University. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Martin Luther Universitat, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany in 2004-2005. Her books include, The Greatest Generation Grows Up (Ivan Dee Publisher), “A Right to Childhood”: The U.S. Children’s Bureau, 1912-1946 (University of Illinois Press), Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Lives (Scholarly Resources), and with Andrew Kersten, Politics of Progress: The State and Society in the United States, 1865-1945, (Greenwood, Connecticut: Greenwood Press).
Dr. Lindenmeyer was one of the founders of the Society for the History of Children and Youth. She served as dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers–Camden from 2011-December, 2018 and was named a Rutgers University Professor by the Board of Governors in July 2019.