Dr. Alicestyne Turley, Director of the newly established Carter G. Woodson Center and Assistant Professor of African and African American Studies, holds degrees in Anthropology/ Sociology, Public Policy Administration, and History. The question of how these seemingly disparate degrees work together is one Turley admits to receiving often. For her, the answer is a long one, and it began very early in life.

“When I was a kid, a little kid, my aunts and uncles would tell us the story of Moses, my great-grandfather who escaped on the Underground Railroad.” Turley was told that her great-grandfather also became a conductor on the Underground Railroad, assisting other escaped slaves on their journey to freedom. It was frequently told story on her family’s farm in Powell County in Eastern Kentucky. In middle school, however, Turley encountered a teacher that challenged the story, telling her that the Underground Railroad was a myth. “I really kind of shut down after that. I didn’t know whether to believe my family or not, so I decided not to deal with it at all.”

With the story of her family’s history tucked away but not forgotten, Turley graduated from high school and enrolled at the University of Toledo. After two years of study as a communication major, however, she abandoned her studies in Communication realizing the difficulties a woman of color would encounter in the field.

Deciding to stay in Toledo, Turley entered the workforce as assistant to the Director of the city’s Economic Opportunity Association. As her talents and dedication were recognized, a string of increasingly impressive jobs followed. Turley became the first African American secretary to Toledo City Council, and the first African American to serve as secretary to the mayor. A position with the Lexington Human Rights Commission brought her back to Kentucky, where a board member took a special interest in her. “He said, ‘You’re too smart to be working here. You need to go back to school.’ He went over to Georgetown College, paid my admission fee, and I was off to college.”

At Georgetown, Turley earned the first of her four degrees, double majoring in Anthropology and Sociology. She also met a professor, Dr. Robert Bryant, who encouraged her to revisit the story of her great-grandfather Moses. Turley told Bryant about the story, and he challenged her to prove it. That effort became the topic of Turley’s Bachelor Honors Thesis and the foundation for much of her career. “It helped me understand how to conduct oral history interviews, and determine what information was important and needed to be captured.”

Before graduation, Turley met the President of Mississippi State University, a Georgetown College grad, who, like her benefactor from the Human Rights Commission said, “You need to complete your terminal degrees,” and offered Turley a full scholarship to the school’s John C. Stennis Institute of Government. There she earned her second degree, in Public Policy Administration. In the process, she worked with the director of the Institute and Mississippi State officials, including serving as an intern for the Mississippi Municipal Association on public policy implementation. It was an opportunity for Turley to affect the policies she had so long observed. “I worked with the political figures making decisions in Mississippi. That just launched me into the realization of the importance of legislative policies—how policy is made and how it affects people’s lives.”

Returning home to care for ailing parents, Turley obtained a second Masters degree and completed a Ph.D. in history at the University of Kentucky. Returning to her family history, she found connections to the world of politics. Although she had verified one Underground Railroad story, Turley found dozens more wanting confirmation. She began working with the State Historic Preservation Office to develop the Underground Railroad Research Model for the State of Kentucky requested by the National Park Service. She reached out to the National Park Service and aided in developing standards for preservation at the national level. “There weren’t that many people involved with that aspect of African American history then. After that, whenever Kentucky began talking about various aspects of preservation associated with African American history in Kentucky, they called me.”

The work led her to develop locally and nationally implemented policies. Her recognition in the field of historic preservation resulted in a special invitation from First Lady Hillary Clinton to celebrate restoration of Ellis Island in New York Harbor and from government officials in Mystic Seaport, Connecticut, the site of the recreated slave ship, Amistad. While serving as director of the Underground Railroad Research Institute, the institute she established at Georgetown College, her work with the Park Service culminated in formation of a network of national and international Underground Railroad sites, the Network to Freedom Association. The association brought together for the first time, known members of protected national and international Underground Railroad sites for the purpose of furthering preservation and research efforts.

“That’s how you marry history with policy.” For Turley, it is the intersection that matters, between people, the stories of their past, and the direction of their future. “That’s policy. When you study history, you’re really studying policies that have made an impact.” Those are the kind of policies Turley has worked to implement throughout her career.

When she received the offer from Berea to direct the newly formed Carter G.Woodson Center for Interracial Education, she saw it as a way to continue making history and new policy. “Woodson himself said Berea was the place where his ideas were shaped. His whole educational model both as principal of public schools in the Philippines and in Washington, D.C. was developed here.” As she looks to the future, Turley is excited to tell Woodson’s story, to make the world aware of Berea’s role in influencing education that created change in public education throughout the region, and to continue furthering the cause of interracial education Berea has championed for so long.

Art greets visitors to the Carter G. Woodson Center for Interracial Education

Dr. Rick Meadows

Meadows’ love of French developed early in his life as an outgrowth of his interest in American history. Raised in northern Virginia, he learned of French participation in the design of Washington DC and in the foundation of the United States. “I was interested in Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, their being ambassadors to France, and convincing the French to come into the Revolutionary War on our side.” He began taking courses in French at the age of twelve and continued through high school.

At The New College of Florida, in Sarasota, Meadows found new ways to learn and experience French, both in and out of the classroom. “There were a lot of French kids who would come over for the summer.” Meadows became close friends with many of them, playing volleyball and soccer on the beach, and practicing his French. Recently Meadows has reunited with some of those old French friends in Paris while visiting his six year-old daughter who lives there.

Rick Meadows earned a bachelor’s degree in French at New College and followed it with a master’s from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. from Yale, both in French. After teaching at three other colleges, he came to Berea in 2002.

A naturally shy person, Rick Meadows started playing games in class as something of a coping technique. “If I get them up playing games and doing active things, then they’re the ones performing, they’re the ones on stage and not me.” His frequent visual metaphors originally served the same purpose. Over the years, however, Meadows began to see real value in these techniques for his students, and began to tailor them for the specific needs of language classes.

Games, according to Meadows, serve the need for repetition in learning language without feeling tedious. They also help with some of the frustration that students often feel. Learning a new language infantilizes students in a way. They have adult ideas to express, but only a few words to express them. “If you have to put up with those frustrations and be able only to express yourself like a child, at the very least, you should also have the advantages of being a child and be able to play games and do fun things.”

The world of Rick Meadows is not entirely Francocentric though. He is also involved in politics. Having never been active before, Meadows started donating his time to campaigns in 2003. The next year he was serving as a presidential campaign chairperson in Scott County. He was also very active during the 2008 presidential campaign season, which afforded the opportunity for Meadows and over fifty Berea students to attend rallies and even meet candidates personally. In 2010, Governor Beshear appointed him to the position of Fayette County Commissioner, and he won election to the position shortly afterward.

As with his other influences, Meadows does not view his political and policy experience as distinct from the rest of his life. Instead he has bent the experience to serve his students with General Studies courses on topics like poverty and development in sub-Saharan Africa and comparative study of U.S. and European public policy. Meadows, who once planned to major in economics, said, “you never know when something that seems completely unrelated from what you end up majoring in is going to help you tremendously in your career.”

For Rick Meadows this diversity of experience has proved invaluable. As with the Mississippi River he likes to describe, Meadows has benefited from many streams of experience. It is a process that Meadows recognizes as ongoing even now at Berea, thanks in large part to the College’s goal of transformative learning, which Meadows thinks applies as much to professors as to students.

“When we arrive here, we have not achieved everything. We have not become everything that we could become.” Speaking of the Great Commitments and the extraordinary history of Berea, he said, “There is a sense of wanting to live up to that and be worthy of it.” To Rick Meadows, like many members of the Berea College community, education is a way of life. It is about the community of diverse individuals and opinions afforded by Berea, and wanting to make the most of that community every day.

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Janice Blythe, Ph.D., Chair, Academic Division III

Blythe earned her bachelor’s degree in dietetics from Eastern Kentucky University, her master’s degree in clinical nutrition at the University of Kentucky — she is a registered dietitian in Kentucky (R.D.) — and her Ph.D. in animal science with an emphasis in animal and human nutrition from the College of Agriculture at the University of Kentucky. Although Blythe is a phenomenal educator, she was not intending to be a professor at the beginning of her career.

Blythe came to Berea College in 1986. She has taught courses in nutrition, dietetics, food studies and courses in general studies.  As Chair of Division III, she works with program coordinators, faculty and staff in Child and Family Studies, Physical Education and Health, Psychology, and Sociology. Her work as Division Chair involves serving on the Divisional Council, course scheduling, faculty evaluation, and facilitating professional development opportunities. She says the divisional work is all geared to “create more effective teaching and learning.”

The courses Blythe teaches focus on individuals and families and the decisions they have to make. Food security, hunger, health, preventive health through diet, lifestyle and exercise and healthful living are areas about which she is highly passionate.  People within communities combining the dynamics of physical, spiritual, social, mental and psychological health is a concept she strives to promote in her teaching. Blythe initially saw herself as a patient educator; someone who explains self-care, and living a healthy lifestyle. But after her first year of teaching in a classroom, she realized this formal method of educating was more empowering than the patient education approach. She saw the classroom bring about greater awareness and ultimately better decision making by students who would go on to influence countless others.

In 2009, Blythe was awarded the Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest award given to a Berea College faculty member.

Dr. Janice Blythe, Dr. Libby Jones, Dr. Katrina Rivers Thompson; 2009 Commencement

In Blythe’s 36 years in higher education, she has had the opportunity to publish a variety of work including:

• A Study Guide to Accompany Nutrition and Health, a student learning book about nutrition

• two papers regarding an examination of the influence of alcohol and vitamin A in rats

• co-author of a chapter in the text Fostering Student Success in the Campus Community

• a contributor to a publication about Garrard and Madison Counties researched by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey in 2011
• Blythe has also published work with service learning, emphasizing food security

At this writing, Blythe is doing research on African American Families and their Heritage in Garrard County — the Kentucky county in which she grew up.

When asked what her favorite aspect about teaching at Berea College is, she said she learns “with, from and about students all the time.” She explained that Berea offers a unique opportunity to interact with students formally in a classroom, informally outside the classroom, and through advising. “Advising is more than academic at Berea. Advising also occurs through the labor program and through activities that involve faculty, staff and students as a community.”

Blythe says that being able to share with students as much as she can about how she came to appreciate higher education — as well as helping students appreciate becoming professionals — motivates her to be a better person, not just a better teacher. She concluded, “Being able to see students enter Berea as freshmen, move through all the different learning experiences within the community, and then walk across the stage as graduates are among the most gratifying moments in my life.”

Related Links

• Dr. Janice Blythe contact information
• Child and Family Studies

Jan Pearce, Professor of Computer Science and Mathematics, is a woman of many talents and passions. When asked about her interests, she responds with a deluge of answers that sound more like driving directions explaining her present position by telling where she has been.

Jan Pearce, Ph.D., Chair, Academic Division II

One of Pearce’s greatest passions is for the Liberal Arts. It grew during her undergraduate years at Augustana College in Illinois and followed her all the way to the University of Rochester, where Pearce received her Ph. D. in Mathematics. She smiles when she remembers the final days of her doctoral studies, when she announced her career plans to her dissertation advisor. “I told him that what I really wanted was to teach at a small Liberal Arts school like the one I went to, and his eyes just went wide,” she says. Teaching at a school like Berea wasn’t part of the usual plan, but it was what Pearce wanted. In 1992 she fulfilled that goal by joining the Berea College Faculty.

Since her arrival Pearce has spent much of her time pursuing her ever-changing professional passions, which have included Mathematics, Computer Sciences, Robotics, and Educational research. “They’re always shifting,” she says, “but it’s that intellectual curiosity that keeps us young.”

An outsider might argue that Jan Pearce’s intellectual curiosity has not only kept her young, but also made her an invaluable problem solver for Berea College. When she first arrived, Pearce was greeted with a Computer Science curriculum in need of some work. It was a linear program, and the only available introductory course had recently been cancelled. “The only students who could actually take computer science had to have had some in high school,” she says. Since then Pearce has crafted a new minor and major curriculum with three different exploratory courses and a fourth on the way. She has also authored literature so that other institutions may follow her example.

Most recently Pearce applied her mathematical skill and creative ingenuity to Berea’s Academic restructuring. When others saw an arduous challenge in trying to rework the school’s departmental model, Pearce saw an opportunity. In a series of two campus wide surveys, she gathered data from faculty members regarding which departments they were most likely to work with. With that data, she constructed a ground breaking mathematical model called a cluster analysis based upon a pseudo-metric to predict the most beneficial arrangements. The structure her research generated is the very framework for the College’s current six-division model.

These achievements have certainly not gone unnoticed. Following the restructuring, Pearce assumed the chair of Academic Division II: Resources, Technology, and Commerce. She is also currently the sole Faculty Representative to Berea’s Board of Trustees, and has received numerous awards during her tenure. Among them, she is most proud of her recent Brushy Fork Bob Menefee Service Award. She received the award for her work with a digital storytelling class. “Brushy Fork had identified community leaders in Appalachia, people who have really made a difference, and asked them to tell their stories,” she says. The students worked with those recorded interviews, edited them into videos, and constructed an interactive website to show them off. “I’m really proud of it,” Pearce says. “Now those stories are accessible to anyone in Appalachia. Before, you couldn’t access those stories unless you knew those people. “

As if Jan Pearce’s passions for science and education were not enough, she is also an accomplished dancer. She regularly performs with the Lexington Vintage Dancers and has performed several times with the Kentucky Ballet Theater. She even hosts a monthly dance in Lexington called “Mostly Waltz”. Her favorite, however, is the Argentine Tango. It is a passion that has led Pearce all the way to Argentina with Berea College students to study with the masters of the Tango.

With so many diverse passions and accomplishments already acquired, Jan Pearce is hesitant to predict her future. “I have no idea what’s going to come next,” she says, “but I’m sure it will be fun.”

• Jan Pearce Faculty web page
• Lexington Vintage Dance

On trips to Lexington he stopped in Berea and began to learn about the College and its mission. Through his work, Rosen met Berea faculty members like Ralph Thompson who told him more. He found the College’s mission and dedication to service well aligned with his own. “When a position came open,” he says, “I jumped at the chance. I was very anxious to become a part of this thing we call Berea.”

That was 1989.  Although the College’s mission originally attracted him, Rosen readily admits that he has found many more reasons to stay at Berea over the years. “I don’t think anyone really understands what it is like to teach here until they have done it.” The difference, in his opinion, is the student body. “Our students don’t start at the top. They are not the children of doctors and lawyers,” he says.“They’re good kids though, and they have tremendous work ethic.” For this professor, the joy and the pleasure are in helping those students reach the top.

Rosen, an educated man with a Ph.D. in Parasitology from The University of Manitoba, is not one to tout his achievements. When he talks about the successes of his students, he prefers to credit his fellow faculty and staff, as well as the drive that the students themselves bring to their work. Mr. Rosen’s own work, whether he likes to admit it or not, is remarkable in both its breadth and depth.

One of Rosen’s greatest focuses during his tenure has been the encouragement of undergraduate research. “It is probably the highest form of teaching one can engage in,” he says. Sometimes his involvement is hands on, performing animal necropsies with his students or counseling them regarding independent projects. Sometimes it is sending them off to research partnerships like the one Berea has established with Vanderbilt University. In every case Rosen says “Research is not something extra. It’s not something we do in addition to school.” For Rosen, this kind of study is central to the process. Students are co-authors on 11 different peer-reviewed publications with Dr. Rosen, and have received 11 first, second or third place awards for their research presentations at the Annual Meeting of the Kentucky Academy of Science since 1998.

He also prefers not to dwell on his numerous honors, which include the Seabury Award for Excellence in Teaching, received in 2008, and the office of President of the Kentucky Academy of Science, which he held from 2001 to 2002. Instead, Rosen is looking toward the future of his ever-changing institution. “Students are a moving target,” he says, adding that the duty of the college is to keep up with them while maintain the highest of standards. With characteristic modesty and affection, he explains that it is all about the students. “Seeing them complete their degrees and find success means more than any recognition.” For him, everything else is just a nice pat on the back.

Fittingly, the nicest pat on Ron Rosen’s back comes from those students. Years after the classes in Biology and Parasitology, after the necropsies and research projects, he tends to get a phone call. The student on the other end of the line says, “I saw road kill today and thought of you.” Rosen laughs to himself and thinks, “How gratifying. What better way could I be remembered?”

From left to right: Julianna Dolan ’12, Ericka Berg ’14, Michon Martin ’13, Franceska Mehmeti ’14, Dr. Ron Rosen, Bailey King ’13 at North Elkhorn Creek in Scott County, Ky

Related Link

• Ron Rosen’s faculty profile
• Rosen Reveals Parasite Research

Robert Hoag, Ph.D.,
Chair, Academic Division V

Hoag earned his bachelor’s degree from Davidson College and went on to earn his graduate degrees from the University of Virginia. Although he went to a prestigious institution, his background is quite similar to that of a Berea College student. Hoag is a first generation college student raised by a single mother in Daytona Beach, Florida, but with her indelible support and his undeniable dedication, he set out to achieve his dreams despite their economic difficulties. Hoag affirmed,

“The Great Commitments attracted me to Berea because they were doing the right thing: creating access for people who otherwise probably would not have the opportunity to attend college. And that’s really important.”

Hoag came to Berea College in 1983. He has taught courses on human rights and international law, domestic policy questions, civil disobedience, and economic justice. Hoag teaches a two-course sequence in the history of political philosophy that includes the teachings of philosophers such as Plato, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx. Hoag also teaches a senior seminar every third year, which is a required senior research class called GSTR 410.

“Truth is very difficult to get to, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there.”

The students are Hoag’s favorite aspect of working at Berea. He especially likes teaching first-year students because “you see a lot of growth. Berea students, unlike students in many places I have been, are very bright and capable but do not realize it.” Many Berea College students do not grasp their own potential, especially first-year students. However, in many instances those same students become some of the most successful people in their communities with the help of Berea’s extraordinary faculty and staff. When given the opportunity, Berea students achieve impressive goals, and by the time they graduate, have striking résumés to prove so. Hoag claims,

“Students discover they are brighter intellectually than they might have known before. I love seeing that happen, and the possible explanation is that they haven’t been challenged in a certain way.”

Some philosophy majors at Berea have gone to prestigious institutions such as Columbia Law School and Vanderbilt University. One student in particular came from a very poor county in West Virginia. When he arrived as a first-year student, he struggled with his reading and writing skills. However, he worked diligently, went to law school, and found professional success upon his return to West Virginia. “We train them to think and write very well. Then they go off and do really well for themselves.”

Hoag himself is an example of the personal and academic growth he encourages in students. Throughout his high school years, Hoag thought he wanted to work in the medical field, but toward his senior year, he began to question the social issues sweeping the nation in the 1960’s: the Vietnam War, the role of religion in society, Civil Rights, and Jim Crow laws. He decided to take a variety of different aptitude tests and found that his interests pointed toward a future in law. Following some deep introspection, he took a humanities course called History of Ideas during his first year at Davidson College. Hoag absolutely loved the class, due mostly to his inspirational professors and interesting discussions about topics he was passionate about. He came to the conclusion that he no longer wanted to pursue a scientific career, but rather engage in theoretical discussions.

Outside of the classroom, Hoag enjoys discussing new ideas and good books with good people, and he is committed to producing such good ideas in his writing. He has written articles for professional journals in philosophy that deal with human rights and the Just War Theory. He has also written book reviews for a number of book releases in his discipline. Ideally, Hoag would like to produce a 100-page book on humanitarian wars he has been polishing since his last sabbatical.

Although Hoag has accomplished a great deal in his tenure, much is still left in his vision for the division. Hoag would like to observe a much more integrated use of what philosophy has to offer within the curricula of a variety of disciplines, such as psychology, chemistry, and the pre-professional programs. Hoag also thinks it would be beneficial to include some classes in feminist philosophy and philosophy of the environment. By incorporating new classes and integrating the existing ones into other disciplines, he feels like the philosophy program could spread what they have to offer to more students, enriching their personal and educational experiences, both during their time at Berea and throughout the rest of their lives.

Related Link

• Dr. Robert Hoag – Home Page

“The students are the best thing about teaching at Berea College,” says Linda Strong-Leek, Ph.D., Berea College professor and administrator. “I love seeing those changes, those light bulb moments when a student gets it.”

Linda Strong-Leek, Ph.D.,
Chair, Academic Division VI

Strong-Leek is the program coordinator of African and African American studies at Berea College, a professor of Women’s Studies, English, and General Studies, and the chairman of “Division VI” in Berea Colleges’ new academic organization. She has been teaching at Berea College for nine years and has grown to admire Berea’s unique personality. Berea College stands apart from most colleges in the state of Kentucky and around the world for its many distinctive policies, such as its practice of charging no tuition, its mandatory labor program, and its historical dedication to both racial equality and Appalachian prosperity. “I see myself in Berea College students,” Strong-Leek explains. “I am a first generation college student who grew up in poverty. I enjoy teaching at Berea because the students here do not have a strong sense of privilege.”

Strong-Leek’s journey to Berea was rather unorthodox. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at North Carolina Central University and earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State University. She first heard about Berea while studying in Zimbabwe as a Fulbright Scholar. There she met Berea College professor and current Director of Women’s and Gender Studies, Dr. Peggy Rivage-Seul. Strong-Leek and Rivage-Seul were both Fulbright scholars and had children around the same age. They became close friends and stayed in touch over the years. Rivage-Seul had advised Strong-Leek to apply as a faculty member at Berea College and a few years later Strong-Leek did. After her interview on campus, she returned home where a message was waiting offering her a faculty position at Berea College.

Strong-Leek has an indelible passion for teaching subjects that greatly inspire her, such as studies in “Women of Diaspora,” “African and African American,” and “Caribbean Women.” She is currently writing a book on Caribbean women writers and their respective representations of an ancient African river spirit found in cultures throughout the Caribbean.

Professor Strong-Leek relates to women who have experienced adversity in their lives and are able to overcome incessant struggles to prove their strength and determination. “I grew up in a family of really strong women. My aunt, who raised me, was really adamant about me being self-sufficient and being able to take care of myself. She made me think about what it meant to be a woman.”

When asked where she finds her inspiration to teach she said, “My senior high school teacher, Mrs. Hunley, was amazing. She made us learn. I can still remember lines from the great books.” Then, smiling, Strong-Leek recited lines from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. “During the conversations, Mrs. Hunley made the characters come alive and the topics current, and that is what I try to do when I teach literature—not just thinking about it as it happened years ago but what it means in our current context. A really great teacher can inspire you.”

Related Links

• Dr. Linda Strong-Leek faculty profile
• Amazon.com Linda Strong-Leek author page