Equator Education began as a series of teacher workshops that focused on the works of Mark Twain. Taught by Dr. Cindy Lovell, teachers explored the challenges and rewards of tackling Twain in the 21st century classroom.

In October 2008, Cindy was named executive director of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri and continues to serve as associate professor of education at Quincy University in Quincy, Illinois.

Although Cindy no longer conducts teacher workshops under the auspices of Equator Education, she continues her collaboration with museum curator Henry Sweets in teaching weeklong teacher workshops at the museum each summer. She also teaches Saturday writers’ workshops during the spring and fall. Graduate credits are available for these workshops through Quincy University. A schedule of workshops can be found online at: http://www.marktwainmuseum.org.

Cindy also continues to direct the weeklong Mark Twain Young Authors Workshop for students in grades 5-8.

In addition to teaching on site at the museum, Cindy is still available to travel for keynotes, conferences, and workshops and may be contacted at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum. She has presented at numerous events for The Big Read, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, with an emphasis on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and other works by Mark Twain.

In 2008 Cindy worked with the Hannibal Chamber of Commerce’s “Tom and Becky” Program to help the ten ambassadors write and publish a book about their experiences. The book, Double Take: The Story of the Tom and Becky Program in Hannibal, Missouri, is available through the Museum’s online gift shop: http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/shop/proddetail.php?prod=DoubleTakeBook

Links of Interest:

Skype-ing Mark Twain
http://fremdamericanstudies.ning.com/forum/topics/skypeing-mark-twain-with-dr

Op-Ed in Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindy-lovell/marking-twain_b_539288.html

“Teaching Twain in the 21st Century” – contributed chapter in textbook
https://www.novapublishers.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=11835

Cindy is a contributing editor to the Mensa Research Journal
http://www.mensafoundation.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Journal

She collaborated with fellow writers to launch The Village Pariah, a literary journal published by the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal, Missouri. http://marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/community-projects/the-village-pariah

Also, Cindy wrote the narrative for the Mark Twain legacy CD project (Mark Twain: Words & Music), produced by Grammy award-winner Carl Jackson. http://marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/community-projects/mark-twain-cd