Christopher Thornton, Director of the Division of Research Programs, National Endowment
for the Humanities
Christopher Thornton joined the NEH in 2018 after serving as the acting head of
the Grants Program at the National Geographic Society, where he restructured the grant
process and oversaw a $15 million program supporting science, education, and storytelling.
He is an expert in the archaeology of the ancient Middle East and has worked extensively
with National Geographic and UNESCO on issues of cultural heritage in the region.
Sharon Corwin, President and CEO of the Terra Foundation for American Art
Sharon Corwin has served as the President and CEO of the Terra Foundation since
2020, before which she was Director and Chief Curator at the Colby College Museum
of Art. She is interested in expanding the boundaries of American art and utilizing
collections in dynamic ways, from curriculum integration to anchoring global conversations.
Anthony Koliha, Director, Office of Global Educational Programs, US Dept. of State
As Director of the Office of Global Educational Programs at the U.S. Department
of State, Anthony Koliha oversees a portfolio of teacher, professional, and global
mobility programs and services. Previously, he was director of international programs
in the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, where he helped
launch a new School of Global and International Studies. He has also served as a director
of the Fulbright Program in Russia and has worked at the Social Science Research Council
and American Councils for International Education.
Ed Seidel, President, University of Wyoming
Prior to coming to Wyoming, President Seidel served as Vice President for Economic
Development and Innovation for the University of Illinois system, as well as leader
of the Illinois Innovation Network. His research background lies at the intersection
of astronomy, physics, and computer science.
Carin Berkowitz, Executive Director, New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Carin Berkowitz joined NJCH in 2018 after serving as Director of Historical Research
at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia. She is a champion of public humanities
and aims to diversify New Jersey’s cultural sector. Her academic background is in
English literature and the history of science.
Maria Sachiko Cecire, Program Officer of Higher Learning at the Mellon Foundation
Prior to joining the Mellon Foundation, Maria Sachiko Cecire was founding director
of the Center for Experimental Humanities at Bard College, which explores how technologies
mediate the human experience. She researches children’s literature and youth culture,
media and digital studies, medieval literature and the role of the humanities in contemporary
society.
Darrin Pratt, Director, University Press Colorado
Darrin Pratt has served as Director of UPC since 2000 and was a past President of
the Association of University Presses. He has held editorial, marketing, and sales
positions at Ohio State University Press, Indiana University Press, and Columbia University
Press.
Shawn Reese, Executive Director and CEO of Wyoming Humanities
Shawn Reese joined Wyoming Humanities in 2020 and has a background in public service,
planning, and development. He aims to use the humanities and arts to create more vibrant
and resilient societies, expanding Wyoming Humanities mission to strengthen Wyoming
democracy, expand the Wyoming narrative and promote engaged communities.
Colleen Fitzgerald, Vice President for research and creative activity at North
Dakota State University
College Fitzgerald is responsible for advancing and supporting research, creative
activity, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, and economic development activities
at NDSU. She aims to leverage institutional and regional strengths in the development
partnerships working toward better futures. Her research expertise is in linguistics
and Indigenous Language Revitalization and previously ran an interagency funding partnership
between NSF and NEH.
Isa Helfgott, Vice Provost, Global Engagement, University of Wyoming
As VP of Global Engagement, Isa Helfgott leads global initiatives across the university
to help UW meet its strategic mission related to internationalization and global engagement.
She is a cultural historian of museums, 20th century art exhibition, and cultural
heritage and has collaborated on international projects in Cambodia, India and the
UK.
Alain-Philippe Durand, Dean of Humanities, University of Arizona
Alain-Philippe Durand’s research interests include French and Brazilian literature
and culture and public and applied humanities. He is author and editor of five books
and Associate Editor of the journal Contemporary French Civilization, among other
accolades.
Peter Parolin, Dean, Honors College, University of Wyoming
Peter Parolin is a scholar of Shakespeare and performance history and an award-winning
instructor in the Department of English. He has cultivated the Honors College as a
vibrant, interdisciplinary, and enriching space on the UW campus.
Kem Krueger, Dean, School of Pharmacy, University of Wyoming
Kem Krueger’s areas of expertise is pharmacoeconomic and outcomes research, specifically
measuring the clinical and economic impact of pharmacy services, modeling disease
interventions, and validating disease state models. He also worked for the US Public
Health Service, and for Marion Merrell Dow Inc. in the Health Economic and the Global
Scientific Competitive Intelligence departments.
Ron Broglio, Director of the Humanities Institute at Arizona State University
Ron Broglio works at the intersection of art and the environment, exploring nonhuman
phenomenology, animal studies, and what it means to be human in the world. He is the
author of Animal Revolution and Surface Encounters: thinking with animals and art,
among other books and edited collections, and is the co-editor of the Desert Humanities
series for Texas Tech University Press. He also collaborates on a number of animal
art installations that combine art, design, and science.
Gabrielle Allen, Director of the School of Computing, University of Wyoming
Prior to her appointment as the Director of the School of Computing in 2022, Gabrielle
Allen served as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Education at the University
of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as well as the Associate Director for Research at the
National Center for Supercomputing Applications. She has worked as a research scientist
at the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics and at the NSF as a Program
Director in the Office of Cyberinfrastructure.
Scott Henkel, Director of the Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research, University
of Wyoming
In addition to directing WIHR, Scott Henkel is the Wyoming Excellence Chair in the
Humanities and writes about slavery, resistance, democracy and literature in the Americas.
His book, Direct Democracy: Collective Power, the Swarm, and the Literatures of the
Americas, won a C.L.R. James Award for Best Published Book for Academic or General
Audiences form the Working-Class Studies Association in 2018.
Michelle Sunset, Director of Curatorial Affairs, University of Wyoming Art Museum
Michelle Sunset is the Assistant Curator at the University of Wyoming Art Museum.
She holds a Master of Arts in the History and Criticism of Art from Florida State
University with specializations in Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies and the Visual
Cultures of the Americas. Previously, she was the Exhibits Manager for the Florida
Historic Capitol Museum in Tallahassee, and a curatorial assistant at Vizcaya Museum
and Gardens in Miami, Florida. Her primary research interests are environmental sustainability
in museums and visitor-centered interpretation.
Michael McDaniel, Membership and Development Manager, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Michael McDaniel handles donations, fundraising, and member relations at Heart Mountain.
He is currently a doctoral candidate in higher education administration and researches
exclusionary policy, paternalism, and hate speech. He is interested in using his role
to build relationships around themes of restorative justice and educate future generations
about the dangers of racism and the erosion of civil liberties in times of unrest.
Lara Putnam, Professor of Latin American History, University of Pittsburgh
Lara Putnam is a historian of the Atlantic World, exploring race, migration, power,
and inequality in the Caribbean and beyond. She also writes and researches extensively
on information ecosystems and digital knowledge production and uses big data to explore
American politics and voting trends.
Arielle Zibrack, Professor, English, University of Wyoming
Arielle Zibrak is a scholar of 19th and 20th-century American literature, gender
and sexuality studies, and the public humanities. She is founder and director of the
Bruce Richardson Lectures in the Humanities, a series that brings renowned scholars
to the UW campus and regional communities.
Alexandra Kelly, Associate Professor, History & Anthropology
Alexandra Kelly is a historical archaeologist who works on 19th-century capitalist
expansion, most recently in the context of coal and railroad histories in Wyoming.
She is also the Director of the University of Wyoming Anthropology Museum.
Melissa Morris, Assistant Professor, History, University of Wyoming
Melissa Morris is a historian of early America and the Atlantic World. She is particularly
interested in the cross-cultural interactions that defined colonial encounters, the
role of plants in driving European expansion, the dissemination of geographic and
agricultural knowledge, and colonial failures in the Americas. She recently received
a Fulbright to conduct research in the Netherlands.
