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Speakers are alphabetized by last name. Town of residence and contact information is provided for each. For a detailed program description click on the program title. Mike Adams Singer-Songwriter Kearney, Nebraska 308-865-8294 (Work) Kathryn Benzel
Jonis
Agee
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Diane
R. Bartels
Cherrie Beam-Clarke
Cherrie Beam-Clarke
doesn't lack for stories as she has spent nearly 2
Born and raised in Superior, Beverly Beavers was fascinated by the tale of the Superior girl who became the world’s highest paid female executive of her era.
Bill Behmer
402-420-5442 (Day or Evening)
Bill Behmer is a founder
of LAFTA, the Lincoln Association
for Traditional Arts. He served as the organization’s artistic director for
more than 10 years and received the 1998 Mayor’s Arts Award from the Lincoln
Arts Council for his volunteer work promoting old-time folk music. In
addition to fiddle and h
Kathryn N. Benzel Professor of English University of Nebraska-Kearney Kearney, Nebraska 308-865-8294 (Work)
Roger Bergman
Creighton University
Roger Bergman is the founding director of the Justice and Peace Studies Program at Creighton University. He teaches courses in Catholic social ethics and Christian ethics of war and peace. For many years he has organized the annual Morality of War Seminar for seniors in Creighton’s Army ROTC program. An activist and educator for more than two decades, Bergman has made hundreds of presentations to church groups, schools, clubs and academic conferences.
Susanne George Bloomfield
University of Nebraska at Kearney
Family
History (Residency program)
Susanne George
Bloomfield is a full professor an
Pat Boilesen
Pat is a
native Nebraskan, a writer, and a musician with an interest in her
historical heritage. She found that the old traditional songs that tell
stories (ballads) often tell
John Calvert
Creighton University
Jack Campbell
Jack Campbell has served two terms on the Nebraska Humanities Council and, thereafter, the Nebraska Foundation for the Humanities, and was president of the foundation from 1993 to 1995. He is on the board of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, raising support for the Nebraska Humanities Council and the Nebraska Arts Council. Jack is a retired insurance executive, is active in civic organizations and is a board member of the Cooper Foundation. He received the Sower Award from the NHC in 2001 for his long-time activities and commitment to the cultural programs of the state.
Paul V. Campbell
Paul
Campbell has a bachelor's degree in engineering from the
Deb Carpenter-Nolting
308-673-5057 (Home)
Deb Carpenter-Nolting has been sharing her original work throughout the West for several years. Deb, in partnership with poet Lyn Messersmith, performs an educational program about women who traveled and settled the Plains, and the two have developed another program about leaders and legends who helped shape the American West. Both programs are available through the Nebraska and South Dakota Humanities Councils.
Nebraska State Historical Society
James P. Cavanaugh
Dale Clark
Dale Clark has a B.A. and M.A. in education
from the University
Anita Sue Clement
A graduate of Kearney State College, now the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Anita Sue Clement has a lifelong interest in history, particularly of the western states and their people. She has been a public school teacher and an instructor and interpreter at the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer. Her programs focus on the everyday lives of women and children, the economic and personal events that shape those lives, and the effects on their contemporaries and descendants. The programs can be adapted to audiences from grade four through adults, and include stories, hands-on artifacts and slide photographs.
William A. Clemente
Peru State College
Creative
Writing (Residency program) www.hpcnet.org/peru/schoolartsandsciences/language/clemente
http://www.flickr.com/photos/clemente/sets/72157594459243119/
Bill Clemente earned a PhD in comparative literature from
Janice Collins-Brooks
Metropolitan Community College
Dawn R. Connelly
Adjunct Professor, College of Saint Mary, Lincoln Dawn
Connelly has been teaching art education to all grade levels
Tom & Patricia Cook
Tom
Cook, a native of Des Moines, taught at Wayne
Peru State College
Meenakshi (Meena) Nath Dalal
Wayne State College
Spencer Davis
Peru State College
Spencer Davis has a bachelor’s degree from Brown University, a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a doctorate from the University of Toronto. He has published articles on Olaudah Equiano and Ma Rainey and is a contributor to Encyclopedia USA. His area of specialization is African-American history. He is co-founder and coordinator of the Black History Workshop of Zion Baptist Church in Omaha.
Vivian Davis
Winfield Delle
Winfield Delle was born in Pennsylvania, served in the Navy during the Korean War, and received his master's degree in history and geography from Chadron State College. Delle taught at the high school and college levels for 38 years, and has traveled to 19 countries.
Learthen Dorsey
Darrel W. Draper
Lorraine J. Duggin
Phyllis Dunne
Phyllis Dunne sings songs that reveal our heritage. The
Robert Dunne
Robert Dunne plays the didgeridoo (an Australian
Charlotte
M. Endorf Charlotte Endorf has her own Internet-based business in which she links individuals with Fortune 500 companies, teaching them how to profit from the Internet. Endorf has been a member of Toastmasters International for more than 10 years and has been named a Distinguished Toastmaster. She has given dozens of speeches within the club, to civic organizations and during speech competitions. She and her family are lifelong Nebraskans.
Bette Novit Evans
Creighton University
Bette Novit Evans’ academic specializations include constitutional jurisprudence and political philosophy. Her research has focused on constitutional rights and liberties. Evans has published articles on the concept of equality, equal employment opportunity law and policy, and the concept of race in law, and the book “Interpreting the Free Exercise of Religion.”
Donald B. Fiedler
Donald Fiedler has practiced law in Omaha since 1970. He also bears a great resemblance to William Jennings Bryan. Fiedler has acted for more than 30 years and has won numerous awards, including the prestigious Fonda McGuire Award for best actor at the Omaha Community Playhouse. His favorite genre is a one-person show. Fiedler is acclaimed for his portrayal of Clarence Darrow. He has performed this one-person play in more than 25 states.
Ron & Leigh Anne Frame & Sarah
Kovar
Singing the songs of the
West, with Old West history, cowbo
Dr. Richard Fruehling
Dr. Richard Fruehling set up and served as director of Grand Island’s family practice residency program, which was the first residency in the Rural Health Education Network. Fruehling’s program has graduated highly qualified physicians into rural practice, the vast majority of whom are now practicing in Nebraska.
Bill Ganzel
Linda M. Garcia-Perez
Ricardo L. Garcia
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Bruce Garver
Nancy S. Gillis
Nancy S. Gillis joined the Neihardt foundation
as assistant
Deborah Greenblatt
Deborah
Greenblatt has been teaching, performing, composing, record
Leonard J. Greenspoon
Creighton University
Evelyn Harris Haller
Doane College-Crete
Hildreth
Meiere: The Woman Artist Who Had Eight
.....Commissions for the Nebraska State Capitol
Robert Haller University of
Nebraska-Lincoln Bob Haller has retired from UNL, where he was a fellow of the Center for Great Plains Studies and director of medieval and Renaissance studies. He maintains a program of writing and research, and is currently working to explain and elaborate the contributions of Hartley Burr Alexander to the culture of the Great Plains, beyond serving as “thematic consultant” for the Nebraska State Capitol.
Twyla Hansen
Lincoln, Nebraska
All
Across the Plains: Creative Writing Creative Writing (Residency program)
402-466-5839 (Home)
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/thansen.htm
Twyla
Hansen was raised in northeast Nebraska on land her
Donald Hickey
Wayne State College
Don Hickey holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. A specialist in early American history and American military history, he is best known for two books, "The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict" and "Nebraska Moments." He developed a living-history program on Alexander Hamilton while on the Great Plains Chautauqua circuit in the late 1980s and has been portraying Hamilton ever since. He also offers a program on Nebraska's rich heritage that stresses the unique people, places and events that have shaped the state's history.
Dan Holtz
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Mike
Adams's Americana style combines folk and country with jazz and blues in
a dynamic acoustic sound. Adams's song-stories describe the fragile
beauty of the disappearing Plains, the integrity of hard work and the
pleasure of working together. Adams played traditional American music
in a collaborative performance, "Prayers for the People: Carl Sandburg's
Poetry and Songs," with Kathryn Benzel and Charles Peek at the Red Cloud
Opera House, the Theatre of the American West in Republican City and the
Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney.
Jonis
Agee is the author of the novels "Sweet Eyes," "Strange Angels," "South of
Resurrection," and "The Weight of Dreams," and collections of short fiction
that include "Pretend We've Never Met," "Bend This Heart," "A .38 Special
and a Broken Heart," "Taking the Wall," and "Acts of Love on Indigo Road,"
which won the Gold Award from ForeWord magazine in 2004. She has also
published two books of poetry, "Houses" and "Mercury." Born in Omaha, she
was educated at the University of Iowa (BA) and the State University of New
York at Binghamton (MA, PhD). Among her many awards are an NEA grant in
fiction, a Loft-McNight Award, and a Loft-McNight Award of Distinction.
Three of her books were named notable books of the year by The New York
Times, and "The Weight of Dreams" won the 2000 Nebraska Book Award.
Diane Bartels is a lifelong Nebraskan who grew
up wanting to fly airplanes. She earned her pilot certificate in 1966 and
with that evolved a commitment to aerospace education and the preservation
of Nebraska's rich aviation heritage. In 1991, Diane was recognized as
Nebraska's Teacher-Scholar by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The award made it possible for her to write and publish "Sharpie: The Life
Story of Evelyn Sharp, Nebraska's Aviatrix." Diane belongs to several aviation
organizations, has been published in journals and periodicals and has presented
at national conferences. She served as principal consultant for the NETV
documentary film "Sharpie: Born To Fly."
Beverly Beavers
Kathryn Benzel teaches literary criticism, 20th
century literature, American and British fiction, interdisciplinary
studies and women's studies. Benzel received her B.A. and M.A. from the
University of Toledo in Ohio and her Ph.D. from the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She participated in two Nebraska
Humanities Council Summer Seminars and presented "Prayers for the
People: Carl Sandburg's Poetry and Songs" with Mike Adams and Charles
Peek at the Red Cloud Opera House, the Theatre of the American West in
Republican City and the Merryman Performing Arts Center in Kearney.
402-423-2282 (Home) or 402-423-1800 (Work)
U.S. Military Academy, West
Point, N.Y., a master's degree in sociology and a doctorate in sociology and social
psychology from Utah State University. Paul has done research on emotionally
disturbed teenagers, death row inmate families, gender socialization of
careers among preschool, second-grade and fourth-grade students,
cross-gender violence among pre-teens, rural crime reporting, campus
violence, crime victimization of tourists and dating violence. For more than
20 years, he has been a
volunteer for Haven House, a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter
agency. On the Wayne
State College faculty since 1980, Paul teaches about family violence, the
war on drugs, rural sociology, juvenile delinquency and technology. He
is a six-time nominee for the State Colleges Teaching Excellence Award,
and students twice have selected him the Outstanding Faculty Member of
the Year.
John E. Carter
the
University of Oregon and is a professor of English at Peru State College,
where he has taught since 1993. Bill teaches a wide variety of classes,
including creative writing and children’s literature. He also enjoys
Caribbean literature and science fiction, on which he continues to publish
articles. His hobbies are photography and bird watching—and toying with
blogs and podcasts. You can see some of his bird pictures at the website
listed above. In addition to working with college students, Bill has for the
past 20 years given creative-writing sessions at elementary schools.
“Feathers and Verses” combines creative writing with his hobbies. Bill also
enjoys sharing his bird pictures and talking with adult groups.
since 1982 in
several public schools in Nebraska. She also was an art professor at Andrew
College in Cuthbert, Ga., and taught for Southeast Community College in
Lincoln. Her teaching experience extends to Stuttgart, Germany, where
she taught on a military post. Dawn teaches middle school art for
Lincoln Public Schools. She is an adjunct professor for Nebraska Wesleyan
University and The College
of Saint Mary. The program "The Burckhardts" developed from a project
in which 4th and 5th grade art students painted banners honoring notable
Nebraskans from different ethnic backgrounds. Dawn and her family had spent
Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Great Plains Museum in Omaha in 1999,
researching an African American to honor on a banner when she came upon a
photo of a beautiful black woman with a warm smile. Her name was Anna Burckhardt and she was a teacher and oil painter. When Dawn realized Anna's
husband, Rev. Oliver Burckhardt, was also a notable Nebraskan through his
work with race relations, his connections with five governors and his
religious contributions, she was convinced this couple needed to be honored.
State College from
1990-2007. He served as Wayne State’s first women’s golf coach, concluding
his career in 1991-93 with three straight undefeated seasons. Tom won his
academic division’s teaching award and was nominated for a statewide
teaching award. Pat Cook, a native of Milwaukee, is a former music teacher
and frequent volunteer musician. She has taught music in public schools and
community colleges as well as privately, and served numerous church choirs
as a soloist and/or director. The Cooks traveled in 1998-99 to Hangzhou,
where they both taught English at Zhejiang University, the largest
university in China. While there, Pat learned some Chinese music and taught
Western music to Chinese musicians. More recently Tom and Pat also taught
three semesters at Hunan University in Changsha, where Tom won the 2002
Lotus Award as an outstanding foreign teacher in Hunan Province.
Sara Brandes Crook
Vivian Davis is a graduate of the Duchesne Academy
of the Sacred Heart, where her major was speech and dramatics. She has
been an officer of the Omaha Chapter National Council of Negro Women and
is a member and officer of the Omaha Chapter of the Links, Inc. She is
featured in the book "Visions of Freedom on the Great Plains," an illustrated
history of African Americans in Nebraska. Vivian has been a volunteer and
performer with the Omaha Community Playhouse and was co-hostess of
the “Black on Black” television variety program.
Darrel W. Draper, a fifth generation Nebraskan,
retired Navy officer and University of Nebraska at Omaha graduate uses
his talents as storyteller and actor to educate and entertain. He has performed
for national and state government agencies, museums, schools, youth groups,
festivals and is a popular banquet and luncheon speaker. He specializes
in costumed portrayals of historical figures that played major roles in
the events that shaped our state and nation. He is considered an expert on the history of the Lewis
and Clark expedition and has personally retraced thousands of miles of
their trail by canoe and on foot.
Lorraine Duggin is a poet and writer who teaches
writing mainly to immigrants and international students in English-as-second-language
programs at Metro Community College and the Latina Resource Center in Omaha.
She has been publishing her own poetry, fiction and essays for many years
and has taught at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Creighton University.
She is a master artist with the Nebraska Arts Council’s Artists in Schools/Communities
program and also in the Iowa Arts Council’s AIS/C program. Duggin also
dances with the Omaha International Folk Dancers and three other folk dance
groups in Omaha that perform in Nebraska and the region.
Appalachian mountain dulcimer is her accompaniment. Phyllis has played all
over Europe on three different tours and has several recordings and a book.
Her CD "Joyously Dunne" was named recording of the year by the Omaha World-Herald. Dunne is a Woody Guthrie folk-singing champion, national traditional
performer of the year for lap dulcimer, two-time Midwest dulcimer champion,
and an artist with the Nebraska Arts Council. She was a vocal music teacher
in the schools and a piano teacher at the University of Nebraska at Omaha
and the College of St. Mary. She studied music at UNO and the Julliard
School of Music. Now she teaches piano, dulcimer and voice lessons at home.
Aboriginal wind instrument), bullroar and clapsticks. He talks about
Aboriginal traditions and explains how to play the didgeridoo. In 1995,
Dunne became an old-time country music and pioneer exposition miscellaneous
instrument champion. Dunne has performed with many international performers
and was featured on the "best local recording of 1995" (Omaha World-Herald). Dunne carves his own instruments from wood, but he demonstrates
how to make them easily from inexpensive materials such as PVC pipe, which
can be decorated in Aboriginal style. 
402-551-9940 (Home) or 402-280-2570 (Work)
Omaha, Nebraska
Dave Fowler & Carolyn Johnsen
y
poetry, and western-style yodeling, Cowboy Rhythm entertains audiences of all
ages about our western heritage. From nostalgic cowboy ballads to songs from the
singing cowboy era, this trio draws its music from such pioneer greats as Gene
Autry, Sons of the Pioneers, Roy Rogers, and Patsy Montana, to name a few.
Combine the spirit of the cowgirl singer with old-time banjo and acoustic
guitar, and Cowboy Rhythm brings to life images of the real and imagined west.
Cowboy Rhythm has performed at numerous events and celebrations across the
country. They are also members of the Nebraska Arts Council. 
Grand Island, Nebraska
Bill Ganzel is the author of the book "Dust Bowl
Descent." In the book, he tracked down some of the same people and places
that were first photographed during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Through his contemporary photographs and oral history interviews, an audience
can get a sense of what it was like to live through one of the most desperate
times in our nation's history. Ganzel is the owner of The Ganzel Group
Communications of Lincoln.
Ricardo L. Garcia, a native of New Mexico, taught
in high schools, colleges and universities for 39 years. At the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, he devotes his scholarship to the art and practice
of storytelling. He's the author of two professional education texts and
four works of fiction:
director in May 1997 with a background in both education and
corporate administration. She leads workshops on teaching about Native Americans and speaks to schools and civic groups on Neihardt’s
work and a variety of related topics. She is also on the faculty at Wayne
State College, the Nebraska Indian Community College and Northeast Community
College teaching U.S. history, and Native American history
and culture. Of Cherokee and Creek heritage, Gillis moved to Nebraska in
1987 to work with the Winnebago people for the Reformed Church in America
and serves as their delegate to both that denomination’s Native American
Council and the Commission for Race and Ethnicity and is a mentor for religious
studies curriculum writers.
Leonard Greenspoon holds the Klutznick Chair in
Jewish Civilization at Creighton University. He lectures on a variety of
topics related to the Bible and to Bible translation, including Jewish
translations, from the earliest to the most recent. In addition, Greenspoon
is an authority on religion and popular culture, with an emphasis on the
Bible in comic strips and elsewhere in newspapers and on the ancient world
in modern media (including films, art, television and literature).
Professor of English,
Chair, Fine Arts/Humanities Division 
grandparents farmed in
the late 1800s as immigrants from Denmark. Her latest book, "Prairie Suite:
A Celebration" is a poem-drawing collaboration with ornithologist Paul Johnsgard. Her book "Potato Soup" won the 2004 Nebraska Book Awards
competition for poetry. Her writing has appeared in a wide variety of
publications, including Prairie Schooner, Crab Orchard Review, Ascent,
Organization & Environment, Encyclopedia of the Great Plains, Crazy Woman
Creek: Women Rewrite the American West, and A Contemporary Reader for
Creative Writing. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. Her
previous poetry books are "Sanctuary Near Salt Creek," "In Our Very Bones,"
and "How to Live in the Heartland." Twyla earned her B.S.
and M.Ag. degrees
from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She lives and works in Lincoln, where her
wooded acre is maintained as an urban wildlife habitat and in 1994 was
recognized by the Mayor’s Landscape Conservation Award.
Vicki Troxel Harris
402-375-4030 (Home) or 402-375-7298 (Work)
Gail
Geo. Holmes
Dan Holtz is a professor
of English at Peru State College, where he has taught since 1987.
He is the recipient of the
2000 Nebraska State College System Teaching Excellence Award and the co-director
of Peru State's Trails and Tales Tour and Teacher Institute, a
cross-disciplinary program in Nebraska history and literature offered in the
summers of 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. He has performed and presented
programs for civic organizations and elementary and secondary schools across
Nebraska as well as at the Nebraska State Capitol, the Nebraska State Historical
Society, the Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer, Scottsbluff National Monument and the John Neihardt
Center. He also appeared at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in July 1999
and at the Bob Devaney Center for the state quarter dedication ceremony in 2006. 
Renae Hunt is a native Nebraska farm girl. She graduated from Stromsburg
High School and received a bachelor's degree in education from Utah State
University. She attended Gallaudet University for the Deaf in Washington,
D.C., and is a qualified American Sign Language interpreter. She has been
an active historical re-enactor and worked as a museum educator for several
years. She traveled on the Mormon Trail in 1997, and followed the Lewis
and Clark Trail as a graduate student in summer 2003. In 2002, she co-founded
Traveling Historical Programs Inc., which presented hands-on living history
programs and has done educational programs in a tri-state area. She has
also been a visiting professor at several colleges and universities.
402-475-7300 (Home) or 402-432-6981 (Cell)
Jeff Kappeler, a native Nebraskan, became interested in the state’s history
before the age of 10 and this topic has been a life long pursuit. Jeff
graduated from Midland Lutheran College with a bachelor's degree in elementary
education and taught for several years. He has served as curator of exhibits
at John Brown’s Cave Museum in Nebraska City, does exhibit and consultation
work for small museums, teaches elder hostel sessions through Midland
College, and has independent research projects on a continuing basis to gain
a better understanding of 19th century life in Nebraska.
Georgetown University and his master's degree and bachelor's
degree from Indiana University. He was an attorney in the Indiana Department
of Environmental Management (1994-95), and director of legal research,
writing and advocacy at Michigan State University College of Law
(1996-2001). He is co-author of the book "Equal Justice in the Balance:
Assessing America's Legal Responses to the Emerging Terrorist Threat" (University
of Michigan Press 2004). He has published articles on a variety of issues,
including United Nations Security Council reform, federal law governing
disposal of ancient human remains, political downsizing, genocide and the
erosion of sovereign immunity. His Op-Ed columns have appeared in the Los
Angeles Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Diego Union Tribune, Detroit
News, Chicago Sun-Times and Houston Chronicle. Kelly teaches international
law, international environmental law, international criminal law, European
Union law, Native American law, and national security and foreign relations
law.
Jerome Kills Small is an Oglala Lakota from Porcupine,
S.D.,
on the Pine Ridge Reservation. A 1997 graduate of the University
of South Dakota with a master's degree in selected studies, he stayed to teach at USD, where he teaches Lakota language, American Indian thought, Siouan
tribal culture, Lakota history and a seminar on Black Elk. He also teaches
the Dakota language and American Indian cultures at the Nebraska Indian
Community College at Santee, Neb., and South Sioux City, Iowa. Jerome is
featured in the book "Wounded Warriors: A Time for Healing," and has a
story in the Silver Anniversary Anthology published by the South Dakota
Humanities Council. Kills Small has parts in the videos "Sucker Punched,"
"Nagi Kicopi (Calling Back the Spirit)," "Lost Landscapes" and "Bones of
Contention: Repatriation and Reburial." He sings with the Oyate Singers
of Vermillion, S.D. In the Great Plains Chautauqua, he portrayed Dr. Charles
A. Eastman, the first medical doctor of the Santee people of the Dakota
Tribe; and Tecumseh, a Shawnee chief and British general.
Doane College
William Kloefkorn
lives and writes in Lincoln, where he is emeritus professor of English at
Nebraska Wesleyan University. He has written many collections of poetry
including "Covenants" (with Utah poet laureate David Lee). He has two
collections of short stories, "A Time to Sink Her Pretty Little Ship" and
"Shadow-Boxing," and three memoirs. His second memoir, "Restoring the Burnt
Child," was selected for
Brian Kokensparger
State Sen. Lowen Kruse grew up and farmed in Howard
County. He graduated from Boelus High School, Nebraska Wesleyan University
and Garrett Seminary on the Northwestern campus in Evanston, Ill. He has
served as United Methodist pastor in Buffalo, Custer and Douglas counties,
as a church consultant for Nebraska, and as a district superintendent in
northeast Nebraska and Omaha. Kruse is the author of three Nebraska
histories. He was elected to the legislature in 2000. 
Omaha, Nebraska
Omaha South High School
Lincoln, Nebraska
Helen M. Lewis teaches English and humanities
at Western Iowa Tech Community College in Sioux City, Iowa. She received
her degrees from the University of Maryland at College Park. While teaching
at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, she received a 1990 NEH Summer
Fellowship to study women Romantic poets at the University of Pennsylvania
in Philadelphia. An active public speaker in humanities, Lewis’s topics
cover such areas as square dancing and women’s studies through art, Westerns
and British Romanticism. Since 1999, Lewis has portrayed
Jane Addams for Chautauqua and humanities audiences from Oklahoma to North
Dakota. She also has developed a portrayal of Nebraska native Grace Abbott.
308-236-7091
(Home)
402-465-2407 (Work)
Stuart C. Lynn