Bill Goodman
Kentucky Humanities Executive Director
Bill Goodman was appointed executive director of Kentucky Humanities in January 2017
As executive director, Goodman manages a staff who promotes the history and culture of Kentucky through their many programs — Prime Time Family Reading, the Kentucky Book Festival, Kentucky Chautauqua, Kentucky Humanities magazine, and much more.
Goodman is a native of Glasgow and was a host and managing editor at KET for more than 20 years.
In 2012, he received an MFA in creative nonfiction from Spalding University. In 2015, his book of essays, Beans, Biscuits, Family and Friends: Life Stories was published.
Dr. Selena Sanderfer Doss
Associate Professor of History, Western Kentucky University
Dr. Selena Sanderfer Doss is an Associate Professor of History at Western Kentucky University. Doss has been a faculty member at WKU since 2010.
Dr. Doss won a fellowship from the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery for her project titled “Involuntary Pilgrimage: Black Southerners and Territorial Separatism, 1783-1904.” She spent the spring 2020 semester living and working in the Harlem section of New York City. The Lapidus Center is housed in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, part of the New York Public Library system and one of the premier collections of material related to Black history and culture in the country. Lapidus fellows, along with other Schomburg fellows, receive office space at the Center, and participate in weekly seminar meetings where they read and discuss each other’s scholarly work.
Dr. Doss holds bachelor of arts degrees in history and sociology from Fisk University, a master of arts in history from Vanderbilt University, and a Ph.D. in history from the Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Jennifer Cramer
Professor of Linguistics, University of Kentucky
Dr. Jennifer Cramer is a professor of linguistics at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests are in the area of sociolinguistics, with a specific focus on how both perception and production of language vary within the state of Kentucky.
She is the author of Contested Southernness: The linguistic production and perception of identities in the borderlands (Duke University Press, 2016), as well as several other books, book chapters, and journal articles.
She earned two B.A. degrees from the University of Kentucky, an M.A. from Purdue University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She is a native Kentuckian, born and raised in Louisville, and she currently resides in Lexington with her husband Aaron and their four children.
Dr. Brian Clardy
Associate Professor of History, Murray State University
Dr. Brian Clardy is an associate professor of history at Murray State Universtiy. His academic research has been published in The Tennessee Historical Quarterly, The Journal of Church and State, and The Journal of Business and Economic Perspectives. His academic interests are primarily in 20th Century Diplomatic History, American politics, and the social and political protest movements of the 1960s.
While living in Chicago, Clardy was a regular columnist for Newtopia Magazine. He was a member of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, and an auxiliary volunteer for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He is also a regular contributor to the WKMS 91.3FM weekly radio program, “The Eisenhower Hour,” and is a frequent commentator to the station on such issues as U.S. foreign policy and the development of American jazz.
Chris Cathers
Kentucky Arts Council Executive Director
Chris Cathers is Executive Director of the Kentucky Arts Council. He has been with the arts council for 15 years. He serves as Advancement Chair for South Arts, a regional arts organization and on the nominating committee for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
Formerly, as program branch manager for the arts council, Chris managed community-based initiatives, developed the Kentucky Certified Cultural District program and produced The Kentucky Crafted Market. Additionally, his duties included research, development and implementation of processes, programs and initiatives to promote community building through the arts, integrating and promoting cultural heritage tourism and marketing of the arts.
Prior to the Arts Council, Chris spent three years at Eastern Kentucky University as program manager of the Kentucky Artisan Heritage Trails program, a nationally recognized cultural heritage tourism project in the Appalachian region of Kentucky. Under his direction, the program garnered numerous awards including the Kentucky Earth Day Award, Center for Information Technology Enterprise’s Best Practices in the KY120, and the University Economic Development Association’s Award of Excellence in Community Development. He also helped to develop the first-ever Geo-Tourism Map of Appalachia in partnership with the National Geographic Society. Chris holds an MBA in Business Management from Morehead State University. His background includes Internet Marketing, Sales and Retail Management experience.
Chris resides in Lexington with his wife Misty, daughter, Olivia and son, Jasper. His personal interests include photography, reading, film (especially Horror) and outdoor activities.
Dr. Ann Kingsolver
Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Appalachian Studies Program, University of Kentucky
Dr. Ann Kingsolver’s career came full circle when she moved back to Kentucky to direct the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program at the University of Kentucky from 2011-2015.
She grew up in Nicholas County, Kentucky. In the 1980s, she returned there to do ethnographic research for her dissertation in the Ph.D. program in anthropology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where she was inspired by colleagues in a participatory research collective and by collective conversations at the intersections of political ecology, cultural geography, anthropology, and political economy.
Kingsolver continues to learn from residents in her home community along with residents of a number of other rural regions in the world. In the early 1990s, she participated in starting the Culture & Power Ph.D. program in anthropology as a faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and then in the late 1990s she helped start the Ph.D. program focused on comparative diasporas and social justice in anthropology at the University of South, before coming to the University of Kentucky.
In the fall of 2021, Kingsolver began a four-year term as director of UK's Appalachian Studies Program.
Dr. Monica Udvardy
Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky
Dr. Monica Udvardy is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky.
Her research interests include social anthropology; gender; cultural property & heritage ethics; global traffic in non-Western cultural property; cultural identity politics & anthropological ethics; expressions of gender in culture and society; ideology; symbolism; kinship and social organization; and indigenous women’s organizations.
Udvardy earned a B.S. from UC Davis, an M.A. from UC Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. from Uppsala University in Sweden.
Kevin Slovinsky
Graduate Student at the University of Kentucky
Kevin Slovinsky is a graduate student in the History Department at the University of Kentucky. His current research focuses on the transformation of public institutions such as poor homes, state hospitals, and prisons in the Appalachian coal fields.
Andrew Reed
Professor of Film & Media Arts at the University of Pikeville
Hailing from the small town of Phil Campbell, Alabama, Andrew Reed has been involved in video production since 2005. He has directed 8 films which have had more than 70 screenings at festivals and conferences around the world including the award-winning feature-length documentaries "I’m with Phil" and "The Breaks: Centuries of Struggle" which both aired on several public television stations around the country.
Andrew currently serves as Professor of Film & Media Arts at The University of Pikeville in eastern Kentucky where he has been the coordinator of the film program since the Fall of 2014. Along with the help of two students, Andrew also founded the University of Pikeville’s first annual film festival which takes place every Spring on the UPIKE campus and features films and filmmakers from around the world.
Andrew holds an MFA in Drama (Concentration in Film & Video Production) from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, an MBA from the University of Pikeville, an MA in Telecommunications from the University of Alabama, a BS in Communications from the University of North Alabama, and an AA from Northwest Shoals Community College.
Dr. Jonathan Cullick
Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University
Jonathan S. Cullick is a specialist in English secondary education, preparing the next generation of high school English teachers. The Kentucky Council of Teachers of English named Dr. Cullick the 2019 College Teacher of the Year. In 2022, he was the recipient of NKU’s Frank Sinton Milburn Outstanding Professor Award.
He is co-editor with Cheli Reutter of Mockingbird Grows Up: Re-Reading Harper Lee Since Watchman (University of Tennessee Press, 2020). He is the author of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion (University Press of Kentucky, 2018). This was the official companion book for the 2018 Kentucky Reads program, sponsored by Kentucky Humanities.
Dr. Cullick serves on the Board of Trustees of Campbell County Public Library and on the Executive Board of the Kentucky Council of Teachers of English.
Janet Scott
Writer & Performer
Janet Scott is a writer and performer. She serves as Director of the University of Kentucky Opera Workshop, and as a longtime Kentucky Chautauquan, having written and performed the lives of notable Kentuckians Mary Settles and Mary Carson Breckinridge for several years. She holds a BA in Theatre from Barnard College, and trained with some of the most significant acting teachers of the 20th Century, including Uta Hagen, Sanford Meisner, and Stella Adler. Ms. Scott has worked professionally as an actor, instructor, director, and writer for over 40 years and throughout the United States.
Kyland Carreon
2021 Graduate of Morehead State University
Kyland Carreon is a 2021 graduate of Morehead State University. He earned a bachelor of arts, majoring in philosophy and legal studies. Carreon is interested in pursuing a career in the legal field and has his eyes on attending law school.
Tammy Horn Potter
Kentucky State Apiarist
Tammy Horn Potter grew up on a farm, but was determined never to do science, agriculture or math when she went to college. An English professor by training, Potter decided to help her grandfather with his bees in 1997 and immediately became smitten with them. Balancing her career as an English professor and hobbyist, Potter wrote Bees in America: How the Honey Bee Shaped a Nation. She followed Bees in America with a second book, Beeconomy: What Women and Bees Teach Us About Local Trade and Global Markets. In order to write it, she went to Hawai’i during off-seasons from 2006-2010 to work in the queen bee production industry.
As the 2006 National Endowment of Humanities Chair of Appalachian Studies at Berea College, Potter focused on large scale surface mining reclamation and specifically how it affected pollinators. From 2007-2014, with a generous grant from Ed and Elaine Holcombe, she started Coal Country Beeworks (based at Eastern Kentucky University), which worked with community partners to offer workshops, education, and practical beekeeping skills in Eastern Kentucky.
In addition to working with coal companies to get more pollinator habitat included in reclamation, the Kentucky State legislature approved legislation that would let coal companies modify their reclamation with pollinator habitat. Another law was also passed that allowed Department of Transportation to include more habitat on highway rights-of-way.
In 2014, Potter became the Kentucky State Apiarist. Her primary goals as apiarist are to document hive health, promote economic development, and provide education and outreach.
Horn has served as president for Kentucky State Beekeepers Association, president of Eastern Apiculture Society, a director on Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, and been awarded the 2010 North American Pollinator Protection Advocate Award as well as the Kentucky State Beekeeping Association Lifetime Achievement Award and KSBA Beekeeper of the Year.
Dr. James M. Gifford
CEO and Senior Editor of the Jesse Stuart Foundation
Dr. James M. Gifford is the CEO and Senior Editor of the Jesse Stuart Foundation, a nonprofit organization established in 1979 to manage Stuart’s literary estate and to promote educational and cultural programs relevant to the late author’s life and works. Dr. Gifford received a B.A. degree from Maryville College, a M.A. degree from Middle Tennessee State University, and his Ph.D. in history from the University of Georgia. He has won professional awards as a teacher, author, editor, and publisher.
Dr. Gifford and his small staff have published more than 150 books, including Appalachian classics from Allan W. Eckert, Billy C. Clark, Harry M. Caudill, and, of course, Jesse Stuart.
Dr. Gifford has made more than 500 public presentations and published more than 50 magazine and journal articles, along with hundreds of newspaper articles. All of his efforts are to help Appalachian educators meet the challenges facing today’s educational system.
Dr. Gifford’s 2010 biography, Jesse Stuart: An Extraordinary Life, was nominated for the Weatherford Award for best book in Appalachian nonfiction. His Jesse Stuart: Immortal Kentuckian, a five-year effort which analyzes Stuart’s enduring influences, was published in 2015. That same year, he published Hidden Heroes of the Big Sandy Valley, a collection of 22 biographical essays about eastern Kentuckians whose great contributions to society have gone unrecognized.
In the late 1970s, Dr. Gifford declined an editorial appointment at Yale University because of his commitment to the people and institutions of Appalachia. In a recent article, he reflected on his life’s work: “The Jesse Stuart Foundation has become a sensitive interpreter of the hopes, dreams, and accomplishments of a great regional people. We have become your voice, too, speaking your unspoken thoughts, dreaming with you about things you had never hoped to realize, and stirring ambitions within you that had long been dormant in your soul. That’s what books do.”
Governor Andy Beshear
63rd Governor of Kentucky
Governor Andy Besher grew up in Fayette, Franklin, and Clark counties and graduated from Henry Clay High School.
He graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's degree in anthropology and earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Beshear served as the 50th Attorney General of Kentucky from 2016-2019 before assuming the Governor’s Office on December 10, 2019.
Dr. Linda LaPinta
Author and Spalding University Leadership Program Director
Dr. Linda Elisabeth LaPinta is a Louisville-based writer who, under her maiden name, Beattie, published four books with the University Press of Kentucky and has a fifth book, Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce, in press with the same publisher. LaPinta’s feature articles and book reviews have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and journals nationwide.
Dr. John Ernst
Professor of History at Morehead State University
Dr. John Ernst is a Professor of History at Morehead State University. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Ernst earned a B.A. and M.A. in history from Eastern Kentucky University, and a Ph.D. in history from the University of Kentucky. Since 2003, Ernst has held many roles at Morehead including Director of the Appalachian Studies Program, Chair of the History Department, Execu-tive Assistant to the President, and Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Student Success. He is the author of Forging a Fateful Alliance: Michigan State University and the Vietnam War and co-editor of The War that Never Ends: New Perspectives on the Vietnam War. Dr. Ernst has served on the boards of many Kentucky organizations including Kentucky Humanities, the University Press of Kentucky, the Kentucky Historical Society, and Hindman Settlement School.
Sister Eleanor Craig
Loretto Community Historian
Eleanor Craig, SL, has been a Sister of Loretto since 1963 and an educator since birth. She graduated from Webster University in 1967, earned an MAT from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and an EdD from Boston University. She taught mathematics to high school girls at Loretto in Kansas City, where her personal passion for adventure history inspired her to develop and lead treks along the historic Oregon Trail. From 1998 to 2010 she created an award-winning program of outdoor adventure along the Western trails for teens who are visually impaired. Eleanor claims to have conducted more wagon trains to the West than the Mountain Men! From 2012 to 2021, Eleanor led a talented staff of archivists and preservationists at the Loretto Heritage Center on the grounds of the Motherhouse in Marion County, Kentucky. She recently retired, but still serves in the Heritage Center as Loretto Community Historian.
Tommy Hines
Executive Director of the South Union Shaker Village
Tommy Hines is the Executive Director of the South Union Shaker Village. A native of Butler County, Kentucky, Hines is a graduate of Western Kentucky University with a degree in Music Theory and Folk Studies, and a Master of Arts degree in Historic Preservation. Hines began his career at the South Union Shaker Village in 1986 as Executive Director and Curator. He has served on the boards of a variety of organizations and has acted as consultant for restoration and interpretive projects at numerous historic sites and museums.
Heather Whitman
Curator/Registrar at the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center
Heather Whitman is an Ashland, Kentucky, native who graduated from Morehead State University with a B.A. in history in 2007. She began volunteering at the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center in Ashland the same year. In 2010, Heather was hired as their Curator/Registrar and has been in that role ever since. Heather takes great pleasure in sharing the history of the Ashland area with visitors. It is the museum’s desire to be a center for the humanities with an emphasis on local history, music, and art.
Michael Jones
Historic Preservation Program Administrator
Michael Jones is from Paris, Kentucky. He holds a B.A. from Morehouse College and an M.A. from the University of California, Riverside. Jones spent several years working as a museum curator for the Kentucky Historical Society and currently works for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet as a Historic Preservation Program Administrator. Michael Jones portrays Colonel Charles Young for Kentucky Chautauqua.
Dr. A. Gwynn Henderson
Education Director at the Kentucky Archaeological Society
A. Gwynn Henderson received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1998. She is the Education Director at the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, a program of Western Kentucky University's Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology. Her archaeological research and publications focus on the ancient Native farming cultures of the middle Ohio Valley. As a public archaeologist, Henderson works with others to develop lessons, booklets, video programs, and workshops. An award-winning writer of children’s nonfiction, her articles have been published in several children’s magazines, and her book for adult literacy students in the Kentucky Humanities’ New Books for New Readers Series, Kentuckians Before Boone, is used in classrooms
Jerry Deaton
Retired Lobbyist, Author, Playwright, and Filmmaker
Jerry Deaton is a retired lobbyist originally from Breathitt County and currently living in Frankfort. He has written two books, Appalachian Ghost Stories, and Kentucky Boy. In addition, Jerry has written three plays, Tales From Bloody Breathitt; Long Ago and Far Away; and The Feuds of Bloody Breathitt. He also has written and produced two documentary films, The Feuds of Bloody Breathitt; and Harry Caudill: Man of Courage.
Bobbie Ann Wrinkle
Adult Programming Coordinator at the McCracken County Public Library
Bobbie Ann Wrinkle is the Adult Programming Coordinator at the McCracken County Public Library. She joined the library staff in 1991. She initiated and directed the library’s adult programs in 1994, creating the nationally recognized Evenings Upstairs series. Other programming that Ms. Wrinkle developed include the library’s popular 101 series and Front & Center events.
Wrinkle is a 26-year member of the American Library Association, working with the Public Program Division. She also serves as a resource for librarians throughout the Commonwealth and the nation who are launching adult programming at their library.
Wrinkle is a graduate of Murray State University, 1999 cum laude, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in library science and English literature.
She holds a professional certification from Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives.
She is a graduate of Leadership Paducah Class 9.
She is actively involved in the community having served on the Market House Theatre & Yeiser Art Center Board of Directors and is currently serving on the William Clark Market House Museum board of directors
Gracie Davis
2022 Morehead State University Graduate
Gracie Davis is a 2022 graduate of Morehead State University with majors in history and legal studies. She served as the President of the Women in Law and as the Treasurer of Alpha Lambda Pi, Morehead’s Legal Studies Club. She plans to attend the University of Louisville’s Brandeis School of Law.
Nathan Mick
Director of Advocacy for Federal and State Affairs at the American Association of Orthodontists
Nathan Mick serves as the Director of Advocacy for Federal and State Affairs at the American Association of Orthodontists.
Prior to AAO, Nathan managed state and local government affairs in the Southeast region of the U.S. serving as Vice President of Advocacy for the American Heart Association. His previous work includes nearly a decade focused on economic and community development, working for site selection data firm in New York and he served as the first economic development director for Garrard County, Kentucky.
Nathan served as deputy chief of staff for former U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel during Hagel’s years in the United States Senate, and deputy campaign manager and political director for Chicago Cub’s co-owner and Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts’ campaign for United States Senate.
Nathan earned his master’s degree in national security and strategic studies from the United States Naval War College and bachelor’s degree from Centre College. He is also a graduate of the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute. Nathan volunteers with numerous organizations, including the American Council of Young Political Leaders, Kentucky Arts Council, Lexington Chamber Chorale, the Lexington/Fayette County Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, and the Roma Advisory Group at the United Nations. He and his wife, Maggie, have a daughter and son and reside in Lexington, Kentucky.
Dr. Chelsea Brislin
Associate Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky
Since 2018, Chelsea Brislin has been the Associate Director for the Gaines Center for the Humanities at the University of Kentucky. Prior to working with the Gaines Center, Brislin was the Honors Pathway Program Director and served as the Director of Recruitment for UK’s Lewis Honors College. She serves as affiliate faculty for the Appalachian Center and has also taught dozens of courses at UK including English, Appalachian Studies, Communications, and Leadership.
Brislin holds bachelor of arts degrees in French and art history from the University of Kentucky, a master of arts from New York University’s John W. Draper Program in Interdisciplinary Humanities and Social Thought, and a doctorate of philosophy in Literature from the University of Kentucky.
Kevin Hardesty
Kentucky Chautauqua Actor
Kevin Hardesty received his B.F.A in acting/theatre from the University of Kentucky in 1986, and has since performed professionally in theatre, film, and television, including prominent leading roles in Biloxi Blues, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. Kevin is a member of Kentucky Humanities' Kentucky Chautauqua cast, portraying Daniel Boone and Henry Clay.
Dr. Richard Taylor
Kenan Visiting Writer at Transylvania University
Dr. Richard Taylor, a former Kentucky Poet Laureate teaches English and Creative Writing at Transylvania University.
Penny Peavler
Cultural Tourism and Associates
Penny Peavler is the principle of Cultural Tourism and Consultants. She spent more than 30 years working in museums and leading cultural attractions in Kentucky and is currently a member of Kentucky Humanities' Board of Directors.
Dr. Andrew Rosa
Associate Professor at Western Kentucky University
Dr. Andrew Rosa is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Advisor at Western Kentucky University. His teaching and research interests in African American intellectual and social movement history is grounded in the interdisciplinary fields African American Studies, Diaspora Studies, and American Studies. His related interests include racial foundations of academic thought, Black radicalism, comparative slavery, Black Atlantic history, and Pan Africanism. In addition, he thoroughly enjoys leading the Study Abroad opportunity to Trinidad and Tobago and being a part of a growing interdisciplinary and globally conscious department and program at WKU.
Dr. Rosa is a graduate of the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of African American Studies at the University of Masschusetts, Amherst, and is the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards for his research. In 2015, he was awarded the University College Faculty Award for Research and Creativity at Western Kentucky University.
Ashley Runyon
University Press of Kentucky Director
Ashley Runyon got her start in publishing as a work-study student at the University Press of Kentucky. She earned her bachelor's degree in integrated strategic communication and master's degree in communication from the University of Kentucky. After working in various positions in design, marketing, and production at the Lexington Herald-Leader and Blood Horse Publications, Runyon returned to UPK as a marketing manager and then senior acquisitions editor while also coordinating fundraising and development. She then moved on to work for Indiana University Press and Red Lightening Books. Runyon returned to Lexington in 2020 when she was named the director of the University Press of Kentucky.
Yolantha Harrison-Pace
Performing Arts Specialist
Yolantha Harrison-Pace is a performing arts specialist. For 30 years she has designed and facilitated academic programs in dance and the performing arts. She also conducts storytelling and poetry writing workshops, is the founder and facilitator of V.O.I.C.E. (Voices of Influence Creating Encouragement) and S.P.E.A.K.!!! (Stop, Please End Abuse to Kids!!!), and is the author of a book of poetry, Wing-Plucked Butterfly. Harrison-Pace has received a number of awards and honors, including the 2004 YOUnity Guild Humanitarian of the Year Award and the 2004 Urban Spectrum Poetry Book of the Year Award. Yolantha has been a long-time storyteller for Prime Time Family Reading.
Ashleigh Adkins
University of Kentucky Student
Ashleigh Adkins is a student at the University of Kentucky majoring in both Linguistics and Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Culture: Japan Studies. Currently they are attending Waseda University through the Education Abroad department offered by the University of Kentucky and hopes to pursue Japanese Linguistics in their post graduate degrees with a focus in Dialectology.
Eddie Price
Author & Educator
A lifelong Kentuckian, Eddie Price is the award-winning author of the historical fiction novels Widder's Landing and One Drop—A Slave!, and the illustrated children's books, Little Miss Grubby Toes Steps on a Bee! and Little Miss Grubby Toes Plays with Fire! He has also written a historical book titled The Unlikely Trio—The Winners of the 1913 Kentucky Derby.
A graduate of Kentucky Wesleyan College and Western Kentucky University, Price taught history for 36 years. He also taught part-time classes for 21 years at Owensboro Community & Technical College. In that time he received Ashland Oil’s Golden Apple Teaching Award, was included in Who’s Who Among America’s High School Teachers, and won the Outstanding American History Teacher Award from Kentucky Association for the Teachers of History and Kentucky Council for the Social Studies. Murray State University named him Outstanding Kentucky High School Teacher in 2000. He also received the Excellence in Teaching Award from Campbellsville University in 2012. His students voted him “Teacher of the Year” numerous times.
Price is a Kentucky Chautauqua® performer and a Speaker for the Kentucky Humanities. He is active in the Hancock County Historical Society and helped organize the Young Historians Club.
Dr. Cynthia Williams Resor
EKU Foundation Professor, College of Education Public Relations Director
Cynthia Williams Resor taught high school social studies and sixth grade before deciding to pursue her dream of obtaining a Ph.D. in history. She is currently a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Eastern Kentucky University and has taught undergraduate and graduate teacher education courses, social studies for teachers, medieval history, U.S. history survey courses, humanities, and led study abroad classes. She has also conducted a wide variety of professional development sessions, published several articles in various journals related to history and social studies education, and served as a consultant for a Teaching American History grant.
Dr. Resor was selected as a 2019-2021 EKU Foundation Professor. Eastern Kentucky University established the Foundation Professor program in 1987 to recognize "creative self-motivated exemplars of the ideal college professor." The selection criteria for this prestigious award are based on EKU's standard for promotion, tenure, and merit in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and services.
Dean Scott Davison
Interim Dean of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead State University
Scott A. Davison is a Professor of Philosophy and Interim Dean of the Caudill College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Morehead State University. He is the author of God and Prayer (Cambridge, forthcoming 2022), Petitionary Prayer: A Philosophical Investigation (Oxford, 2017), and On the Intrinsic Value of Everything (Continuum Press, 2011) and serves as the Associate Editor for Faith and Philosophy.
Before arriving at Morehead State, Prodessor Davison earned BA and MA degrees in philosophy before completing MA and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Notre Dame.
Elaine A. Wilson
Somerset Community College
Elaine A. Wilson is the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Somerset Community College; a proud member of the Kentucky Humanities Board of Directors from 2013-2018; the 2014-2015 President of the University of Kentucky National Alumni Association Board; and is currently a member of the Friends of Kentucky Libraries Board, the Kentucky School Boards Association Board, the Somerset Independent Schools Board of Education, and the Women United with the United Way of South-Central Kentucky.
Blair Thomas Hess
Author
Blair Thomas Hess is the co-author of four Kentucky travel guides including My Old Kentucky Road Trip and The State of Bourbon and a forthcoming fifth book about the history and culture of the Bluegrass State. A born and bred Kentuckian, Blair is a communications professional and travels the state as an ambassador of its tourism and traditions.
She lives in Frankfort with her husband and daughter.
Dr. Aris Cedeño
Governor's Scholars Program Executive Director
Aristófanes Cedeño, born and raised in Panama, earned the degree of Attorney at Law at the University of Panama and obtained his Ph.D. in Spanish literature from Michigan State University. For 15 years, he worked as a Professor at the University of Louisville. His research interests include natural law, the nineteenth century, and the Romantic Movement. He has published and edited two books and several papers in these areas.
Dr. Cedeño joined Kentucky’s Governor’s Scholars Program as faculty in 1992 and has served the program as Campus Director (NKU 1995-2001), Academic Dean (1998-present), and Executive Director (2006-present).
Dr. Cedeño serves on the Board of the National Conference of Governors' Schools. He served on the Kentucky Humanities Board of Directors from 2007-2020. He has also completed appointments as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow (2006-07, University of Pittsburgh) and a Bingham Fellow (Louisville, 2012).
Jayne Moore Waldrop
Author
Jayne Moore Waldrop is a Kentucky writer and attorney. She knows her home state from end to end, having grown up in far western Kentucky in a family of displaced Appalachians who returned home often to visit eastern Kentucky. She’s also lived and practiced law in Louisville, and she’s been an enthusiastic member of Lexington’s writing community since moving to central Kentucky.
She is the author of Retracing My Steps, a finalist in the New Women’s Voices Chapbook Series, and Pandemic Lent: A Season in Poems, both published by Finishing Line Press. Her linked story collection, Drowned Town, was published in 2021 by University Press of Kentucky through its Fireside Industries imprint, a partnership with Hindman Settlement School.
Amanda Driscoll
Children's Book Author
Amanda Driscoll was born, raised, and still resides in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the author and illustrator of four picture books: Little Grump Truck (2021), Klondike Do Not Eat Those Cupcakes! (2018), Wally Does Not Want a Haircut (2016), and Duncan the Story Dragon (2015), all published by Knopf.
For more information about Amanda and her books, visit her website at amandadriscoll.com.
President William T. Luckey Jr.
President of Lindsey Wilson College
Dr. William T. Luckey Jr. became the eighth president of Lindsey Wilson College on July 1, 1998. Luckey began working in the admissions office at Lindsey Wilson in 1983 and worked his way up to Director of Admissions, Vice President for Enrollment Management, Vice President for Development, and then Vice President for Administration and Finance.
President Luckey holds a bachelor's degree in biology from Wabash (Ind.) College; a master's degree in business administration from Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management; and a doctorate in higher education administration from Vanderbilt's prestigious Peabody College. He has been published and lectured widely on the subject of the "scholar-ship of teaching."
Luckey is married to the former Elise Hendrickson of Oldham County, Ky. Elise was a member of the Kentucky Humanities Board of Directors from 2013-2018.
Dr. Ann C. Hall
Professor of Comparative Humanities, University of Louisville
Dr. Ann C. Hall is a Professor of Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville. She currently teaches drama, film, and comparative humanities.
Her publications include "A Kind of Alaska: Women in the Plays of O’Neill, Pinter, and Shepard" and "Phantom Variations: The Adaptations of Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera."
Linda Gorton
Mayor of Lexington
Linda Gorton, the longest continuously serving member of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council, is serving her first term as Lexington Mayor. Mayor Gorton was elected on November 6, 2018.
A native of Ohio, Mayor Gorton has lived in Lexington most of her adult life. In addition to her 16 years on the Council, including four years as Vice Mayor, Mayor Gorton has been a dedicated volunteer in our community.
Charles W. Boteler
Retired Judge
Charles W. Boteler was a Kentucky trial judge for nearly 30 years in Hopkins County.
He has served on the Board of Directors for Kentucky Humanities since 2017 and is currently Board Chair.
He and his wife, Jonelle, now live in Middletown.
Cammie Jo Bolin
Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Albany
Cammie Jo Bolin is a Ph.D. candidate in American government at Georgetown University and recently joined the University of Albany faculty as an assistant professor of political science.
Her research explores questions of identity, representation, and participation in political and religious contexts in the United States. With Dr. Benjamin Knoll, she’s coauthored "She Preached the Word: Women’s Ordination in Modern America."
Before graduate school, she worked at Kentucky Humanities. This opportunity demonstrated the value of public scholarship, something she works to incorporate into her own research.
Mike Berry
Secretary of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet
Michael E. Berry was appointed by Governor Andy Beshear to serve as Secretary of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts, and Heritage Cabinet on December 10, 2019. Prior to his appointment, Berry served as the longest serving President and CEO in the history of the Kentucky Derby Festival.
Berry holds a BA in American Studies and Political Science from Georgetown College and is a graduate of Waggener High School in Louisville.
President Tori McClure
President of Spalding University
Tori Murden McClure was named Spalding University's President in 2010, having served previously as a vice president and trustee. Taking lessons learned as an adventurer and explorer in Antarctica, Kenya and the Atlantic, as well as working for the Mayor of Louisville and Muhammad Ali, President McClure leads through collaborative leadership that brings diverse voices and experiences together.
She holds a bachelor’s from Smith College, a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, a law degree from the University of Louisville and a Master of Fine Arts in writing degree from Spalding. She is author of the memoir, A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean, which details her journey to become the first American to row across the Atlantic Ocean.
President McClure is sought after as a speaker and presenter on a variety of topics, including religion and theology, leadership, higher education, adventure, and athleticism.
Dr. Aaron Thompson
President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Dr. Aaron Thompson is the President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. Prior to taking the helm at CPE, Thompson served as Interim President of Kentucky State University; CPE Executive Vice President and Provost; and faculty member and administrator at Eastern Kentucky University. He has extensive leadership experience within the private and non-profit sectors and is a highly sought-after national speaker. Dr. Thompson has authored or co-authored numerous books and peer-reviewed publications on diversity, cultural competence, first-year experience programs, retention, and student success, among other topics. In 2019, he was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame.
Thompson received his doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Kentucky, with an emphasis on organizational leadership. He earned a master’s degree in industrial sociology from the University of Kentucky, and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Eastern Kentucky University.