Class of 2012 - Gubernatorial Appointees

Sidney Armstrong, consultant, was executive director of the Montana Community Foundation from 1990 to December, 2001, joining the foundation at its inception in 1988. During its first 13 years the foundation grew to $36 million, gaining national recognition for its work in rural economic and community development. Armstrong participated in the development of the national community foundation field as a member of the national Committee on Community Foundations for the Council on Foundations. She served for eight years on the staff of Montana Governor Thomas L. Judge, and later was aide to the president and assistant secretary of the Montana Senate during two legislative sessions. She is also part of the administration of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, serving first as a member of his Transition Team, in 2004, then temporarily as part of his immediate staff and now as a volunteer advisor. She is a graduate of the International School of Geneva, Switzerland and holds a B.A. from The University of Montana.

James E. Shanley is president of Fort Peck Community College. His doctorate is from the University of North Dakota; he holds an M.A. from Arizona State University and a B.A. from Eastern Montana College, and he is a fellow of the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management. He is a member of the National Indian Education Association and numerous other organizations and was formerly a member of the North Dakota Humanities Council. James is a member of the Assiniboine Tribe of Fork Peck Assiniboine Sioux.

Ruth Towe is former executive director of Billings' Moss Mansion Historic House Museum. She has served also on the boards of the Montana Association of Symphony Orchestras, the Museums Association of Montana, Yellowstone Historical Society, and numerous other cultural organizations. She holds a B.A. and M.A. from The University of Montana.

Bruce Whittenberg is former publisher of the Billings Gazette and Helena Independent Record and is executive director of the Montana Historical Society. He was educated at Southern Illinois University. He has served on a variety of boards statewide and in Billings, including the Alberta Bair Theatre for Performing Arts, the Billings Library Foundation, and the MSU Billings Foundation.

Class of 2012 - Elected

Antoine Brockman is a native to the Flathead Valley, graduating from The University of Montana, Missoula with degrees in history and political science. In addition to his fund development and strategic planning knowledge, Antoine has broad experience with national health advocacy, nonprofit organizations, and public benefit corporations. He has also worked at the state level to provide a stronger education system and more opportunities for his generation, and for future generations of Montanans. Antoine is the youngest person ever elected to serve on the Humanities Montana Board of Directors.

Brian Cockhill is the former director of the Montana Historical Society, where he worked for over 25 years. He also served for many years on the Montana Heritage Commission and as a consultant for the Claiborne-Ortenberg Foundation to promote community-based history education. Although born in North Dakota, he spent his formative years in Butte, and received graduate and undergraduate degrees in American history from The University of Montana, Missoula. He lives in Helena.

Julie Dial is executive director of the Western Heritage Center, a regional history museum and cultural center serving Billings and the Yellowstone River Valley. Joining the Western Heritage Center in 2003, she directed the museum's merger with the James Kenneth Ralston Museum, developed and administered a major history project, and guided museum efforts to re-establish American Association of Museum accreditation. Prior to joining the WHC, she spent 18 years in the publishing industry, where she started a new magazine, Fresh Cut, and developed a literacy campaign called "Read with Me," encouraging parents to read to their kids for 20 minutes per day. She has served with many nonprofit boards, including the Billings Preservation Society, Community Daycare, Cultural Partners, Midland Empire Reading Council, and the Billings Depot; she is also a member of Rotary, Zonta and Leadership Montana.

Paul Filicetti is an historic architect and associate with A&E Architects, P.C. of Missoula. He received his B.A. in architecture from MSU Bozeman and his M.A. in historic preservation from Goucher College, in Baltimore, Maryland. He serves on a variety of state boards, including the Montana State Historic Preservation Review Board and Montana State Building Codes Council, Little Big Horn Tribal Historic Preservation Office Advisory Board and has served on the Missoula AIDS Council Board and Blue Mountain Clinic Board of Missoula. He is an artist with work displayed in The Bra Show and The Light Show in Missoula and active participant with the Garden City Ballet of Missoula.

Tom Kotynski is a Great Falls writer and educator who is supervisor of Career and Technical Education for the Great Falls Public Schools. He retired from a 36-year newspaper career as associate editor of the Great Falls Tribune, with stints at USA Today and The Times, a Chicago area daily. An avid mountain climber and backcountry skier, he is the author of Discover the Rocky Mountain Front, and leads trips for the Glacier Mountaineering Society and Montana Wilderness Association. He is a graduate of St. Joseph College in the Chicago area with a graduate degree from University of Great Falls. He also spent a year at the University of Michigan as a National Endowment for the Humanities Journalism Fellow. He worked in the steel industry and as a hospital orderly.

Zena Beth McGlashan, a freelance writer and editor, grew up in Butte, earned a B.A. in journalism at The University of Montana, an M.A. at California State University, Northridge, and a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, both in mass communication. She has been a newspaper journalist and taught journalism at universities in California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, North Dakota and Texas. McGlashan is the author of Buried in Butte, published in 2010.

Susan R. Near is currently special projects manager with the Montana Historical Society. Near was the director of Museum Services from 1989-2007, and also held positions as curator of Collections and registrar at the Society. She has served on many nonprofit boards, including those of the Museums Association of Montana, the Montana American Association of University Women, chair of Helena's Public Art Committee, and the Last Chance Chapter of the Audubon Society. Near has given presentations as a member of the Humanities Montana Speakers Bureau, is an accreditation peer reviewer for the American Association of Museums, and is a grant reviewer for the Institute of Museum and Library Services as well as the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Kathleen Ralph moved to Columbus, Montana in 1995, following her husband, David Grimland's retirement. Prior to moving to Montana, Kathleen worked with UNICEF in Bangladesh and India, and before that served in the Planning Department for the city of Chicago. Since relocating to Montana, Kathleen has been extremely active in her community, serving on the Library Board, serving as an officer in the Friends of the Stillwater County Library, promoting early reading programs, and bringing Humanities Montana programs to Columbus and Stillwater County.

Will Rawn is a professor of English at Montana State University-Northern, where he has also served as library director, chair and dean of Arts and Sciences, and interim dean of Education, Arts and Sciences, and Nursing. He holds a B.A. in psychology from Oberlin College, and M.F.A. and Ph.D. degrees in English from the University of Iowa.

William Yellowtail was appointed as the second Endowed Chair, Native American Studies, Montana State University-Bozeman in 2006. Prior to this appointment, he served as the senior project specialist for the Cook Center for Sustainable Agriculture in the American West, as the Region VII director for the Environmental Protection Agency, and, for eight years, in the Montana State Senate. He currently serves on the boards of the National Audubon Society and the Burton K. Wheeler Center for Public Policy, and is a member of the Crow Tribe.

Class of 2013 - Elected

Bill Jones was born and raised in Montana and is president of Twodot Land & Livestock Co. of Harlowton, a six-generation family ranch founded in 1908. He graduated from Montana State University, Bozeman. He has served on local school, hospital and museum boards and is currently director of the Charles M. Bair Family Trust, Montana Farm Bureau Federation, and Mountain West Farm Bureau Insurance Co. Jones is a graduate of Leadership Montana Class of 2009 and a member of Kiwanis. He spends his spare time doing genealogical family research.

Linda Karell, associate professor and chair of English, Montana State University, Bozeman, is a Livingston, Montana native. Karell received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester, then returned to her alma mater to teach American and Western American literature. She is the author of Writing Together/Writing Apart: Collaboration in Western American Literature (U Nebraska P, 2002).

William Marcus, director of the Broadcast Media Center at The University of Montana-Missoula, and the host of the television show "Backroads of Montana" since its premiere in 1991, has been a distinctive voice of public radio and television in Montana for many years. Throughout his many productions, Montana history, culture, and humanities have always been central. He received his B.A. in Radio-Television/Journalism from The University of Montana in 1974 and has worked in public broadcasting ever since. He began as a production assistant at KUFM-FM at UM in 1975, and after serving in a number of positions with the station, was promoted to director of the Broadcast Media Center and station manager of KUFM-TV and KUFM Radio in 1996. His radio work has been heard on several NPR programs, including Performance Today, All Things Considered, Morning Edition and Weekend Edition Sunday.

Alice Meister recently retired as the Bozeman Public Library director, a position she held for thirteen years. She also was director of the Summit County (Colorado) Library and the Sheridan County (Wyoming) Library System and taught high school English in Illinois and Wisconsin. In 1995-96 she was a high school librarian in a former South African homeland. She holds an M.A. in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an M.A. in public administration from the University of Wyoming, plus an advanced degree in library science from the University of Denver. She received the Outstanding Librarian Award in both Wyoming and Montana; in 2004 she went to the White House to receive an Institute of Museum and Library Services Award for Bozeman Public Library's outstanding community collaboration. She also served on the Wyoming Council for the Humanities Board.

Lawrence K. Pettit was born in Lewistown, graduated from The University of Montana, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. respectively from Washington University (St. Louis) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He taught political science at Penn State and Montana State University, Bozeman, and was Montana's first Commissioner of Higher Education, later serving as president or chancellor of universities in Texas, Illinois and Pennsylvania. He also has served on the staffs of James E. Murray, Lee Metcalf and Thomas Judge, and chaired several national organizations. He has co-edited three books in political science, and recently published a memoir on politics and the university, If You Live by the Sword.