Missouri Humanities Council Welcomes Five New Members to Board of Directors

Approximately one-half of the directors are individuals from the humanities community such as faculty in one of the disciplines of the humanities, administrators of institutions of higher education, and professional writers and editors in one of the disciplines of the humanities. The other one-half of the directors are individuals from constituencies such as business, labor, agriculture, the professions, minority groups and civic organizations.On February 2, Governor Matt Blunt appointed three citizens to fill six vacant positions on the Council's Board. The new appointees are: Martha Greer, Administrator of the Chillicothe Area Arts Council and designer of an exemplary community humanities project on agricultural heritage in 2006. Martha's education at Missouri State University is centered in art, with an interest in Children's Literature in her portfolio. She is very experienced in developing community festivals.

Kathleen Fukasawa Morrissey, Coordinator of Theatre & Events for Missouri State University-West Plains. Kathleen has had a long relationship with MHC as a project director through the West Plains Council on the Arts and ethnographic projects at Missouri State-West Plains. She recently received the Excellence in Community Service Award from Missouri State University and was "Citizen of the Year" in 2005. For 15 years she has been the volunteer administrator of a public access studio, production facility and cable casting channel in the West Plains Civic Center. In the 1980s she was Public Relations and Communications Coordinator for the Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena and was Director of Promotion for the National Asian American Telecommunications Association in San Francisco. She is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley.

Wicky Sleight, Director of the Kirkwood Public Library and President of the Missouri Library Association, has had a long relationship with MHC, first as the librarian in Marshall, Missouri, and since 1994 in Kirkwood. A graduate of Mizzou, Wicky has been honored in countless ways during her long and productive career. She headed a campaign to win a tax levy increase in 1994 which tripled the library's annual budget. She formed a Foundation for the library to create an Endowment. Formed a non-profit resource center, the second of only two in St. Louis. Board members have twice been selected as the Missouri Library Association's Trustee of the Year. Three-time winner of the Missouri Library Association's Public Relations Award. Host of two MHC Chautauqua festivals.

Recently elected to the Board of Directors are: Michele Newton Hansford, Director/Curator of the Powers Museum, a position held since late 1983. She earned a B.A. in American Studies at Anderson University and was a fellow in its Center for Public Service, serving with the George C. Marshall Foundation of Lexington, Virginia and Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. She is a humanities partner in two Teaching American History grant projects, a National History Day student advisor and judge (Region 6 and State), and Project Director for a current Missouri State Library LSTA digitization grant entitled "Riches from the Earth: A Geological and Industrial History of Jasper County, Missouri, 1865-1985."

Gerald Lee, M.D., had had a long and distinguished career as physician and cardiovascular surgeon, Cardiology department Chief, researcher, and pedagogue. He currently serves as President of Bridge Builders Senior Services in Kansas City. For seven years he was Chair of the Education Committee of Missouri's Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Commission. He was president of Kansas City's President Club in 2002, a member and chairman of the Jackson County Mental Health Fund Board, and continues to serve on the Board of the Conservation Federation of Missouri.

MHC is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Federal agency.