The D&L Blog

By Miranda Alvarez, Community Engagement Manager

The Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor welcomes aboard Elena Ostock as the new Education Manager.  In this role, Elena is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the education program for schools, groups, and individuals, with the goal of increasing awareness of the region’s nationally significant transportation and industrial history.

Elena joins the D&L after having served the Allentown Art Museum in various museum education capacities, most recently serving as the School and Family Programs Coordinator. Here, she wrote standards-based tour curriculum, developed lesson plans for art workshops, and advocated for accessibility improvements for all visitor programming.

Elena Ostock, additionally, holds a Bachelor of Arts in Museum Studies from Juniata College. Before her previous role, she was a Cole Research Fellow at Thomas Cole National Historic Site where she worked on cataloging a collection of 200 works. Elena, also, has experience in curation, collections, and development, picked up from her work with sites like the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art,  Huntingdon County Arts Council, and the Schwenkfelder Library and Heritage Center.

“We are very excited to welcome Elena to our team at the D&L,” said Elissa Garofalo, Executive Director. “Not only will she bring a tighter focus on programming at the National Canal Museum, but also continuity to our popular Tales of the Towpath curriculum and Immersion Days field trips.”

Fun fact: before settling in on a career in education programming, Elena dreamed of being a medieval knight or an artist. She keeps those interests alive in her artistic and historic pursuits. When not creating art in various mediums, she also enjoys skateboarding, kayaking, and sailing.