James McKusick is Professor of English and Dean of the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana-Missoula. He completed his B.A. in English and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in English at Yale University. Dr. McKusick was a member of the English Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from 1984 to 2005; during that time he served as Chair of English (1998-2002) and Director of the Honors College (2002-2005).
His research and teaching interests include British Romanticism, literary theory, environmental studies, and the history of science. His books include Faustus: From the German of Goethe, Translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, co-edited with Frederick Burwick (Oxford University Press, 2007); Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology (Palgrave, 2000), Literature and Nature: Four Centuries of Nature Writing, co-edited with Bridget Keegan (Prentice-Hall, 2001), and Coleridge's Philosophy of Language (Yale University Press, 1986). He has also published more than twenty articles and over two dozen reviews in such journals as Eighteenth-Century Studies, English Literary History, European Romantic Review, Keats-Shelley Journal, Modern Philology, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Romantic Circles, Romantic Pedagogy Commons, Studies in Romanticism, University of Toronto Quarterly, and The Wordsworth Circle.
Dr. McKusick has been the recipient of grants and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fletcher Jones Foundation, and the Maryland Humanities Council. He currently serves as President of the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association and Executive Director of the John Clare Society of North America.
laure.pengellydrake@umontana.edu
Laure Pengelly Drake was born in Missoula, Montana, and attended Hellgate High School. She completed a B.A. in history from Carleton College and an M.A. in history from The University of Montana; she is A.B.D. on a Ph.D. in history from the University of Rochester. Her dissertation research concerns the relationship between religion and politics in the early New Left.
Laure served as a VISTA volunteer in the early 1980s in southern Idaho. She has taught in Idaho, the Czech Republic, the DHC, and the Liberal Studies Program's "Introduction to Humanities" series at UM. She served as executive director of the Poverello Center and as associate director of Montana Campus Compact. She worked as a grants specialist at UM's Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. Currently Laure is the Director of External Scholarships and Advising at the Davidson Honors College. She volunteers with Habitat for Humanity, the Campaign for Human Development, and other organizations.
Andrea Vernon joined the Davidson Honors College in 1997 as the director of Volunteer Action Services and since 2001 has served as director of the Office for Civic Engagement director. Andrea feels very fortunate to work with UM students who have a high level of commitment and motivation to get involved and make a positive difference in their community through volunteerism, service learning, national service, and nonprofit leadership. The students’ energy and enthusiasm is contagious!
Andrea has worked in the service learning and volunteerism field for the past eighteen years. She received her undergraduate degree in sociology from California State University Long Beach, her master’s degree in sociology and a doctorate degree in Educational Leadership (both from UM). Her doctoral studies focused on student affairs and higher education administration.
Erin is a Lecturer in English and serves as faculty member and academic advisor in the Davidson Honors College. She completed a B.A. in English from Carleton College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow in fiction. Erin’s work has been selected for The Best New American Voices 2009, and she has received the RRofihe Trophy in Fiction. In 2010, she was awarded PEN/Northwest’s Margery Davis Boyden Wilderness Residency, and spent half a year living along the Rogue River in the Klamath mountains of Oregon. Her short stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in Fivechapters, Open City, The New York Times, The Northwest Review, and others. Her debut novel for young adults, The Girls of No Return, was published in 2012 by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic Books. In addition to writing for both adults and young adults, Erin is also interested in Service Learning. A former Peace Corps and current hospice volunteer, she feels passionately about engaging with the wider world, and seeks to share that enthusiasm with her students.
Karen Kaley came to Missoula to attend The University of Montana in 1974. She graduated with a B.A.degree in 1979 and has been learning and working at UM for over thirty years now. As a student, she worked for the Montana Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. She eventually accepted a full-time staff position in the Wildlife Biology Program and then worked in the School of Journalism for about 13 years. In 1995, Karen joined the staff in the Davidson Honors College. She is Assistant to the Dean, Program Coordinator, and a general advisor to honors students who have not yet declared a major. She continues to enjoy the opportunity to work with students, faculty, and staff from every unit around campus.
Lauren is from Pullman, Washington. She is a graduate of Washington State University (WSU) and the WSU Honors College, with degrees in Public Relations and Spanish. Lauren’s interest in development began in college where she served for three years as a student intern for the Washington State University Foundation. Lauren joined the University of Montana Foundation in 2007 as Assistant Director of Development for the School of Business Administration. More recently, she served as Director of Annual Giving –External Campaigns. In her current role, Lauren builds and stewards relationships with alumni and friends that have a desire to connect with and support UM and the Davidson Honors College. She and her husband, Kyle, are delighted to be part of the University of Montana and Missoula communities.
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The Davidson Honors College
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
Phone: 406-243-2541
Fax: 406-243-6446
E-mail: dhc@umontana.edu
