staff

Ken Egan  •  Executive Director

Ken joined Humanities Montana in 2009 after a seven-year hiatus in the Missouri Ozarks. Born in Polson, graduating high school in Great Falls, receiving his B.A. in English from the University of Montana-Missoula, Ken has deep roots in the state. He proudly proclaims himself a third-generation Montanan as the grandson of a homesteader. After receiving his Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he taught literature and writing at Rocky Mountain College, the University of Athens (Greece), Comenius University (Slovakia), and Drury University. He has also published a study of the state's writing, Hope and Dread in Montana Literature. He occasionally tries his hand at historical fiction, an activity that assures humility and perspective in his life. He and his wife, Terry, have two sons, Devin and Brian, both currently living in Las Vegas.  •  Email Ken

Kim Anderson  •  Associate Director for Programs

Kim returned to her hometown of Missoula in 1989 and spent the next eleven years caring for her two children and working out of a home office as both a free-lance writer and editor and the executive director of several nonprofit arts organizations. Before returning to Missoula, she worked in New York City as the editor for an international business newspaper, The Journal of Commerce, an associate editor for a national magazine, Quest, an associate editor at Arbor House Publishing, a division of the Hearst Corporation, and as subsidiary rights agent for the literary agency Lescher & Lescher, Ltd. As a free-lance writer articles, essays, fiction and poetry have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Journal of Commerce, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Horizon, The Financial Times, Quest, and others.  •  Email Kim

Samantha Dwyer  •  Office Manager and Program Assistant

Sam moved from her home ground in Flathead Valley to Missoula to attend the University of Montana in 2000. After dabbling in the sciences and a brief stint in theater back at Flathead Valley Community College, Sam returned to Missoula to earn her B.A. and M.A. in English literature. Her master's thesis uses evolutionary biology to look at literature as a human adaptation and as a critical lens to explore human behaviors through literature. Sam joined Humanities Montana in April 2011. When she is not reading, Sam loves to swim in Montana's lakes and rivers, hike and mountain bike the trails, and attend concerts and art shows with her husband, Dylan.  •  Email Sam

Jason Neal  •  e-Communications Director

Originally from Bellingham, Washington, Jason moved to Montana in 2007. Although educated in the humanities (B.A. in English literature from the University of Washington, M.F.A. in creative writing from Mills College), he has spent most of his professional career working in software development—primarily as a project and program manager, but involved as much as possible in the more creative aspects of usability, graphics and user-interface design—for companies in Oakland, Seattle and Washington, DC. Jason has been working on Humanities Montana's websites and various e-communications initiatives since 2009. He lives with his wife, Lisa Simon, near Missoula.  •  Email Jason

Re. the Humanities Roundtable...

"I found articulate, good people and a fine poem. I became uplifted because I could connect with thinking people in the state.... Thank you."

— discussion participant