Joy Austin, Executive Director of the Humanities Council of Washington, DC since 2000, previously served as Program Manager for the Center for Arts and Culture in Washington, DC. Austin received her B.A. in English Literature from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada and her M.S. in Non-Profit Administration from Trinity College in Washington, D.C. Austin has provided consultation and research on a number of projects centered on museums and historical preservation. She served as lead consultant to the Chicago Housing Authority and the ABLA Working Group on a feasibility study for the development of a museum of public housing. She also consulted with the Kellogg Foundation’s Expert in Residence program, as well as with the Foundation on all aspects of the creation of a monument to the Underground Railroad. During her tenure as director of the HCWDC, Austin has worked to widen the audience for humanities in Washington DC by developing a number of programs which emphasize community access and participation. She established two television series, “Humanities Profile,” a talk-show hosted by a local poet who interviews local and national figures relevant to DC, and ADC Humanities,” which features grantees supported by HCWDC. “Soul of the City” is a four-year-old leadership program she developed that brings together community leaders and youth in order to foster emerging leadership in a context of literature, history, ethics, and sense of place. Austin is currently working on a new community heritage initiative which seeks to provide the power, resources, and leadership for local preservation efforts in the hands of residents.
David Colburn served as Provost of the University of Florida from 2000 until 2005 and has been a member of the University of Florida faculty since 1972. A native of Rhode Island, Dr. Colburn received his A.B. and an M.A. before entering the U.S. Army in 1966. Dr. Colburn served one year in Vietnam before returning to the States to study for his PhD, which he received in 1971.
Dr. Colburn's teaching and research have focused on politics, race, and ethnicity in 20th century America. He was twice named teacher-of-the-year and has edited or authored thirteen books and more than twenty-five articles and chapters in books. His most recent books include: From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and Its Politics Since 1940 (2007); Florida's Megatrends: Critical Issues in Florida (2002) with Lance deHaven-Smith; and African-American Mayors: Race, Politics, and the American City (2001) with Jeffrey S. Adler. Dr. Colburn has been a regular contributor to the Orlando Sentinel newspaper and served as one of the authors of the Rosewood Report in 1993, which was part of the inquiry of the State of Florida into the destruction of the town of Rosewood in 1923. He served as a Fellow in the United States Senate from 1993 to 1997. Dr. Colburn currently directs the Reubin O'D. Askew Institute on Politics and Society at the University of Florida, which provides public programs to civic leaders and citizens of Florida on critical issues confronting the state. He is the former chair of the Florida Humanities Council.
Margaret (Maggie) Coval has been Executive Director of Colorado Humanities since 1997. She joined the Colorado Humanities staff in 1982 and has served as Grants Officer, Assistant Director and Associate Director. Prior to moving to Colorado, she was employed by Binghamton University. She has a B.A. from Colgate University, an M.A. from the University of Denver, and is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership's Executive Leadership Program. While at Colorado Humanities, Coval has developed and directed dozens of public humanities programs. She is co-founder of the High Plans Chautauqua; served as executive producer of the NEH funded Conversations 2000 public radio programs and the Five States of Colorado documentary film; and developed several institutes for K-12 teachers. In 2004, Coval facilitated the merger of the Colorado Center for the Book with Colorado Humanities, securing the Center's future and doubling the number of CH programs.
Coval has served on advisory committees of the Rocky Mountain Book Festival and the El Pomar Foundation. Currently she serves on the advisory board of the Center for Colorado's Economic Future and is working with the governor's staff to create a Colorado Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. Coval has served on the Federation's Bylaws and Nominating Committees and hosted the 1999 Federation Conference in Denver.
Sharon Gagnon has been a resident of Alaska since moving to Anchorage with her husband Bruce E. Gagnon in 1970. She has a PhD in French literature from Harvard University, having done her undergraduate work at Indiana University and having been a Fulbright Scholar to France. Since her arrival in Alaska, she has been actively involved in civic life and higher education in her adopted state. Among her other activities, Gagnon is an officer of the University of Alaska Foundation Board of Trustees and Vice President of the The CIRI Foundation. She serves on the Wells Fargo Statewide Advisory Board, the University of Alaska Chancellor’s Advisory Council and the Best Beginnings Council. She was a member of the University of Alaska Board of Regents where she served as President for three years. Gagnon was also a member and president of the Harvard University Board of Overseers and was a member of Harvard’s Search committee for University President in 2000-2001. Previously, she was national President of the Harvard Alumni Association. Gagnon received The Harvard Medal in 2002. Gagnon served two terms on the board of the Alaska Humanities Forum and was Chair of the board in 2003-4. Forum President Greg Kimura notes that “she has been a strong advocate for the humanities, as a scholar, community leader, and professional...Her experience and influence are widespread across diverse cultural groups.”
Bob Hazel is currently a partner at the firm Moore, Taylor & Thomas where he has worked since 1998. Previously, he served as Vice President for South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. from 1985 to 1991, Vice President for Public Affairs at SCANA corporation from 1991 to 1993, and as Executive Director for the S.C. Business-Education Partnership from 1993 to 1996. In these executive positions, he developed strategy and administered public relations efforts. He earned his M.B.A. in 1972 and his J.D. in 2000, both from the University of South Carolina. During Hazel’s tenure as chair for multiple civic, community, and government organizations, he was responsible for setting policy and direction. From 1993 to 1995, he served as Chair for the Humanities Council South Carolina, and he continues to hold membership on the Council. One of only two people in the history of the HCSC to be elected twice to serve on the Council’s board of directors, Hazel helped develop the vision for and launch the first South Carolina Book Festival. Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC), Hazel’s former law partner, says that he is “personally aware of Bob’s activity to forcefully, succinctly, and clearly articulate his message” and that he has had the Apleasure of seeing Bob actively participating in the legislative process whenever he had to advocate for his particular organization.”
J. Paul Hunter is Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he formerly served as Director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and as the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Professor of Humanities. He currently teaches in the spring semester at the University of Virginia. He has taught at the University of Florida, Williams College, University of California at Riverside, and Emory University. He is the author of several books, including The Reluctant Pilgrim, Occasional Form, and Before Novels (which won the 1991 Louis Gottschalk Prize) and the editor of the Norton Anthology of Poetry and, with Jerome Beaty, the Norton Introduction to Literature and New Worlds of Literature. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a National Humanities Center Fellow, President of the American Society for 18th Century Studies, and President of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association. Paul has served on the board of the Chicago Humanities Festival and as chair of the Illinois Humanities Council. During his tenure as Director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago, he launched the “Journalists and Scholars Project,” which encouraged exchange between journalists and academics, and he began a series of late afternoon programs in downtown Chicago designed to attract people on their way home from work for a thirty-minute talk by faculty members.
Joe Kelly has acted as Executive Director for the Pennsylvania Humanities Council (PHC) since 1994. Prior to holding this position, he served as Special Programs Officer and Associate Director of the PHC from 1983 to 1993, as well as teaching classes at Penn State, Temple University, and Drexel. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in English, with a focus on Renaissance and Medieval literature, from Temple University. A contributor to the Encyclopedia of the Irish in America, Kelly has also published a variety of reviews, journalism, and poetry. As Executive Director, Kelly negotiated partnerships with several state agencies, including the Council on the Arts, the Historical and Museum Commission, and Commonwealth Libraries. He has worked to develop systematic approaches to heritage organizations, arts organizations, and public libraries, based on capacity-building for small and medium-sized institutions. Service to the Federation includes active participation in “Humanities on the Hill” for more than a decade, presentations at several past national conferences, membership on the planning committee for the Savannah conference in 2003, and chairmanship of the Task Force on State-Based Opportunities in 2005.
Craig L. Newbill is a Southwest regionalist and oral historian whose research and writing are focused on American history and literature. Born on the Llano Estacado and raised in the Canadian and Pecos River Valleys, he is a life-long resident of New Mexico. He holds an M.A. (1989) and Ph.D. (1993) in American Studies from the University of New Mexico. His dissertation is entitled, Oral History Studies from Eastern New Mexico Homestead Areas: Life Along the Caprock from 1900 to 1941. He has taught American Studies courses entitled 20th Century Cowboys, Cowboys in Literature and Popular Culture, Mountain Men of the Rockies, and Rural Life in American Literature and Film. Dr. Newbill has been employed by the New Mexico Humanities Council (NMHC) for the past fifteen years, serving as Program Officer, Assistant Director, and as Executive Director since 1996. Dr. Newbill has been instrumental in bringing many fine programs to New Mexico, such as the Smithsonian Exhibit We Shall Overcome, Photographs from America’s Civil Rights Era, The Colorado River: Moving Waters in the West, the National History Day program, and the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street exhibitions, Yesterday’s Tomorrows: Past Visions of the American Future (2003-2004), Between Fences (2005-2006), and Key Ingredients (2007). Dr. Newbill helped establish the first retirement plan for employees in 1998. In 2001, working with the NMHC Board, he helped establish, seed and raise the initial principle for the NMHC Reserve Fund, an idea in the making for almost thirty years. Dr. Newbill is presently serving on the New Mexico Centennial of Statehood Task Force to plan for the state’s centennial commemoration in 2012. He is community focused and dedicated to bringing the humanities to all New Mexicans to include all voices and perspectives in the public humanities.
Willis Lott has been President of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College since 1998, a position he assumed after serving as Vice President for the college’s Perkinston Campus from 1994-98. Willis earned his Ed.D. from the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg and was Director of Admissions and Records and then Dean of Academic Affairs at Pearl River Community College before moving to his current institution to become Vice President for Instructional Affairs. He is the chair of the Mississippi Humanities Council, whose director, Barbara Carpenter, says that “a particular benefit of Dr. Lott’s leadership is his innate, profound understanding of the political process and the operations of government at every level, from local county supervisors to the most august members of Mississippi’s delegation in Washington.” He was recently awarded the Shirley B. Gordon Award of Distinction by Phi Theta Kappa, the international honor society for community colleges, and in June 2005 received the Higher Education Award from the Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education.
Sara Ogger joined the staff of the New York Council for the Humanities in 2002 as a Grants Officer and served as Senior Program Officer and then Associate Director before being named Executive Director in 2007. Before joining the council, Ogger was a visiting professor of German at Montclair University in New Jersey. She was a guest student at the University at Tuebingen, Germany, from 1988 to 1989 and again from 1996 to 1997. Ogger organized and hosted the 2006 Program Officer’s meeting in New York City. She also served on the Federation’s 2007 Conference Planning Committee and has been a member of the Legislative Committee for the past year. At the end of 2006 she was asked to serve a one-year appointment on the Federation board to replace a board member who resigned before the end of the four-year term. She and her husband are parents of a son, who was born this summer.
Max Sherman has a rich and varied career in public service and higher education. He served in the Texas Senate from 1971 to 1977, as President of West Texas State University from 1977 to 1983, and as Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs (where he also taught courses on politics and ethics) from 1983 until 1997. He is currently the Vice President of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation. Sherman’s extensive board experience includes service on the boards of the National Academy of Public Administration, the Center for Public Policy Priorities, Leadership Austin, and the Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He was a member of the board of the Texas Council for the Humanities (now Humanities Texas) in the 1980s and has continued in subsequent years to be actively involved with the council. Sherman is also the editor of the multimedia compilation Barbara Jordan: Speaking the Truth with Eloquent Thunder, a selection of speeches given by the late U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan and presented as both a book and DVD. A review in the Austin American Statesman notes that Sherman Adoesn’t just help Jordan deliver her messageChe allows her to speak again, in her own voice.” Sherman was recognized by Texas Monthly magazine in 1973, 1975, and 1977 as one of the ten best legislators in the state government. The magazine cited his integrity, intelligence, and “genuine sense of public service.” Mike Gillette, Executive Director of Humanities Texas, says that while Sherman “has a wealth of experience in working with scholars in a university environment, he also has a public official’s skill in dealing with corporate and governmental representatives and the general public.”
Robert Underwood served five terms as the Congressional Delegate from Guam and was a senior member of both the Armed Services and Resources Committees in the House. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Guam and has been a classroom teacher, curriculum writer, school administrator, school board member, and Dean of the College of Education and Academic Vice President of the University of Guam. He has an M.A. in history from California State University and an Ed.D. in Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Southern California. According to Jillette Leon-Guerrero, former director of the Guam council, Dr. Underwood has made major contributions to the study, advancement, and promotion of bilingual and bi-cultural education. He was a founding member of the Guam council and received their Lifetime Achievement Award in the Humanities in 2004.
Deborah Watrous has been on the staff of the New Hampshire Humanities Council for 14 years, becoming Executive Director in April, 2004. She oversees a staff of seven and works with a statewide Board of 22 community and academic leaders to bring humanities programs to the general public and to public school teachers throughout the state. She served as chair of the Federation’s Public Relations Task Force in 2005-2006. Prior to assuming leadership of the NHHC, Watrous directed a variety of Council programs and events, including the Annual Dinner, Chautauqua, and What is NH Reading. Watrous also developed much of the Council’s publicity and served as a grantwriter for the organization. Watrous has been in non-profit development for over 20 years, as Membership Director for NH Public Radio and Director of Institutional and Alumni Development at NH Technical Institute as well as at the NHHC. Watrous earned a Masters of Music from University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music.
Jamil Zainaldin has been President of the Georgia Humanities Council since 1997, having assumed that position after eleven years as the President of the Federation of State Humanities Council. Prior to his work with the Federation, Zainaldin was Deputy Director of the American Historical Association and staff director of the Congressional Task Force on Social Security and Women. A historian by training, Zainaldin has taught at Northwestern University, Case Western Reserve University, and Georgetown University Law School. He is currently an adjunct professor at Emory University. He is a past member of the Governor’s Commission on History and Historical Tourism and a Governor’s appointee to the Georgia Historical Records and Advisory Board, as well as president of the Georgia Association of Historians. Upon arrival at the Georgia Humanities Council, Zainaldin launched the New Georgia Encyclopedia, which has won a number of awards and has served as a model for electronic state encyclopedias across the nation. He also developed the council’s Leadership Forum series, a civic dialogue seminar that took place annually from 1999 to 2003. He was on the planning committee of Atlanta’s Center on Human and Civil Rights and is involved in the creation of a proposed State Museum of Georgia History. During his tenure as head of the Georgia council, he has been active in many Federation activities, most notably serving as the Chair of the Federation’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee in 2004.