Please help choose citizen members for the Humanities Council Program Committee. The Program Committee oversees all direct programs and grants of the Humanities Council. This includes reviewing grant applications and making funding recommendations to the Humanities Council Board of Directors. Your vote gives the public a voice in our grants and program decisions. Review the candidates below, then visit the online ballot to make your choices. Vote for no more than three of these candidates:
Tamara Denmark Bailey (Upshur County) is an associate professor at West Virginia Wesleyan College, teaching primarily U.S. history survey courses, African American history, African history, and world history. As coordinator of Wesleyan Abroad, she oversees student experiences around the world and allocates scholarships. Her recent presentations include "Ancella Bickley: The Life of West Virginia's First Black Woman Historian,” “Implementing Brown: Memphis Tennessee Garrison's Grassroots Approach to Integrating West Virginia” for the West Virginia Humanities Council, and "The Exception to the Rule: How Black Female Suffrage in West Virginia Defied the Jim Crow South."
Mark Swiger (Ohio County) is a career educator and founder of Pangaea Strategies LLC, a consultancy focused on regenerative community development, sustainability, and public-interest education in West Virginia and Appalachia. He spent 33 years in Marshall County Schools as social studies department chair at John Marshall High School, teaching U.S., world, and West Virginia history, civics, and geography. He has taught Appalachian history and physical and cultural geography as an adjunct at West Liberty University and Bethany College and worked with West Virginia University Extension in sustainability and literacy initiatives.
H.G. Young III (Wood County) is a professor of music at West Virginia University Parkersburg, where he teaches courses in music history, theory, and appreciation and is active as a choral conductor. He has served as director for many arts and humanities projects, including four National Endowment for the Arts initiatives, and has authored 12 articles for the West Virginia Encyclopedia/e-WV.
