Five New Members Join the National Council on the Humanities

Jim Leach, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), today swore in five new members of the Endowment’s advisory board at NEH headquarters. The board, called the National Council on the Humanities, consists of 26 distinguished citizens. The five new Council members, Albert J. Beveridge III, Constance M. Carroll, Cathy N. Davidson, Paula Barker Duffy, and Martha Wagner Weinberg were nominated by President Barack Obama in September and December of 2010 and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on May 26, 2011. The new members begin their terms today at the Council’s summer 2011 meeting on July 14-15.

“We are delighted to welcome such distinguished leaders in the humanities to the National Council,” said NEH Chairman Jim Leach. “They bring a breadth of experience ranging from legal and historical expertise to college governance; leadership in the digital humanities to deep knowledge of the work of university presses; and background in political philosophy, management and leadership studies.”

The National Council on the Humanities meets three times a year to review grant applications and to advise the NEH chairman. National Council members serve staggered six-year terms.

The following five new council members begin terms that will expire on June 2, 2017:

Albert J. Beveridge is a founding member and Senior Council of the law firm of Beveridge & Diamond, P.C. and has served as General Counsel of the American Historical Association for more than 15 years. He was a founding member of the National Trust for the Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. In addition, Mr. Beveridge serves as a lecturer in history at Johns Hopkins University and as Distinguished Historian in Residence at the American University in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins, and his J.D. from Harvard University.

Constance M. Carroll has served as Chancellor of the San Diego Community College District since 2004. Prior to becoming Chancellor, Dr. Carroll served as president of three community colleges in California and also worked with two universities. Ms. Carroll’s board service has included the American Council on Education, American Association of Community Colleges, League for Innovation, California Council for the Humanities, Maine Humanities Council, NEH Panel on Museums and Historical Societies, and the Community College Humanities Association. She received her B.A. in Humanities from Duquesne University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Pittsburgh.

Cathy N. Davidson is the Ruth F. DeVarney Professor of English and John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University. She was Duke’s first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies, serving in that position until 2006. She is co-founder of HASTAC, the Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory, a network of educators dedicated to new models of learning for the digital age. In addition, Professor Davidson is past President of the American Studies Association, former editor of the journal American Literature, and co-directs the annual HASTAC/ MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions. She received her B.A. in English and Philosophy from Elmhurst College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the State University of New York at Binghamton.

Paula Barker Duffy is the former Director of the University of Chicago Press, the nation’s largest university press. She previously served as publisher of the Free Press, best known for its books in the social sciences and public affairs, and as vice president of its parent company, Simon and Schuster, New York. Ms. Duffy currently serves on the boards of the Great Books Foundation and Valid Sources, Inc., and advises the Cultural Policy Center at the University of Chicago. She holds a B.A. in French Literature from Smith College and an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Martha Wagner Weinberg is a consultant who has worked extensively with non-profit entities on issues of policy, strategy, leadership and program design. She previously served as Chief of Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital and was Vice President for Project Management and Chief of Staff at Partners Healthcare System at its founding in 1995. Ms. Weinberg advised the Rappaport Charitable Foundation when it established Harvard’s Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston and Suffolk University’s Rappaport Honors Program in Law and Public Policy. Formerly a professor of political science at MIT, she is the author of Managing the State, co-editor with Walter Dean Burnham of American Politics and Public Policy, and the author of articles on leadership in the private and public sectors. Ms. Wagner received her Ph.D. from Harvard, her M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and her B.A. from Smith.