From left to right: Dennis Denenberg, Allida Black, JoAnn Fox, Nancy Taylor, and Jodi Vandenberg-Daves

Allida Black, leading historian for the June colloquium, is Research Professor of History and International Affairs at the George Washington University and Project Director and Editor of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, a project designed to teach and apply Eleanor Roosevelt’s writings and discussions of human rights and democratic politics. Dr. Black is the author of several books, two of which were made available to participating teachers and faculty in preparation for this summer’s colloquium.   Her published works include Casting Her Own Shadow: Eleanor Roosevelt and the Shaping of Postwar Liberalism (Columbia University Press, 1995), “What I Want to Leave Behind:”  Democracy and the Selected Articles of Eleanor Roosevelt (Carlson Publishing, April 1995); Courage In a Dangerous World:  The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt (Columbia University Press, 1999), and, with Jewel Fenzi, Democratic Women:  An Oral History of the Women’s National Democratic Club (WNDC Educational Foundation, 2000), as well as numerous articles.  Her current book project, First Women:  Power, Image and Politics from Betty Ford through Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be published by Columbia University Press in 2005.  She is also working on a book project of collected writings on human rights.  She has written teachers’ guides for documentaries on the lives of Marian Anderson and Frederick Douglass, and has served as and advisor to the PBS “American Experience”documentary on Eleanor Roosevelt.  Allida Black is also active as an exhibit curator, a curriculum developer, and a public servant on the Human Rights Commission.   

 Dennis Denenberg, curriculum specialist for the summer colloquium, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree of College of William and Mary and a Masters in Education and a Doctorate in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University.  Dennis has been a high school social studies teacher, an elementary principal, and an assistant superintendent.  Between 1987 and 2002 he served as professor of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at Millersville University, where he is now Professor Emeritus.  In 1997 Dennis was named Distinguished Educator for Higher Education by Phi Delta Kappa.  Dennis is the author of many books and articles for teachers, including 50 Heroes Every Kid Should Meet, co-authored with Lorraine Roscoe.

Joann Fox, master teacher for the colloquium, is a fourth grade teacher in the public schools of Indianapolis, Indiana.  Joann has thirty-five years of teaching experience and has participated in two previous history education projects sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and by NCHE. She was named Teacher of the Year in 2000 by the Hamilton Southeastern School Corporation, and also in 2000 was selected by the Indiana Council for History Education, Indiana Association of Historians, and the Indiana Historical society to receive the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Teaching of History.   

  Nancy Taylor, colloquium facilitator, taught grades four-six in Worthington, Ohio between 1985 and 2001, served as a mentor teacher, and has designed and presented programs in history education in conjunction with NCHE in four other colloquium projects.  She is a trustee of the NCHE, a creator and presenter of historical re-enactments for children, a consultant to the Ohio Historical Society and an author of curriculum materials.  

  Dale Van Eck is currently the "Manager of Educational Partnerships" for Education Outreach initiatives with The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation after a 30-year public education career in Michigan as a teacher and media specialist/technologist. He is working with educators across the country in technology integration, video streaming and other customer development initiatives. He provides on-site staff development for educators in the use of Electronic Field Trips and the integration of technology into the curriculum. Dale represents Colonial Williamsburg at National Council for History Education Colloquiums nationally assisting educators in using technologies in history education.

                Donald Worster currently holds the Hall Distinguished Professorship Chair in American History at the University of Kansas .  He is married to Beverley Marshall Worster, and is the father of two children, William and Catherine.  Although born in California in 1941, he grew up in Hutchinson, Kansas, and graduated from the University in 1963 (B.A.) and 1964 (M. A.).  Subsequently, he did graduate work in American history and literature at Yale University and earned his Ph.D. there in 1971.  He taught at the University of Hawaii and at Brandeis University before returning to Kansas in 1989.  His principal areas of research and teaching include North American and world environmental history and the history of the American West.   Professor Worster's publications include A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell and eight other books, including:  Rivers of Empire (1985), which deals with the development of water resources in the West and which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize; Dust Bowl (1979), a study of the Southern Plains in the "dirty thirties" which won the Bancroft Prize; and Nature's Economy (1994, second edition), which traces the evolution of ecology from the eighteenth century to the present.  The last of these books has been translated into French, Chinese, Swedish, and Japanese.  In addition to these works, Professor Worster has published shorter pieces in the Journal of American History, Agricultural History, the Western Historical Quarterly, the Pacific Historical Review, the Ecologist, Environmental History, Foreign Affairs, and others.  As one of the pioneers of environmental history, Professor Worster has been particularly active in building and promoting this field.  He has served as president of the American Society for Environmental History, sits on a number of editorial boards, and is general editor of the Cambridge University monograph series, Studies in Environment and History.  He has lectured throughout the United States and in Africa, Asia, Europe, Canada, Central America, and Australia.