Project Directors
Brian Murphy, President of De Anza College, and founder of TDC
Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President of AAC&U
National Advisory Board
Rick Battistoni, Professor of Political Science and Public and
Community Service Studies at Providence College, contributes deep and meaningful experience with service learning and civic engagement in practice on college campuses. His scholarly expertise centers on the role of education in maintaining a democratic society.
William Chafe, Alice Mary Baldwin Professor of History at Duke University and a leading historian of 20th century America, contributes expertise in the realm of civility, democracy, and both the historical and contemporary implications of national pluralism.
Shelley Crisp, Executive Director of the North Carolina Council for the Humanities, brings leadership in promoting the public role of the humanities and has experience in influencing and nurturing democratic discourse illuminated by the humanities. Crisp’s role will be to advise institutions on how to develop partnerships with state humanities councils to realize project goals.
Gwendolyn Dungy, Executive Director of NASPA - Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, has 30 years of experience in higher education, much in leadership positions at community colleges. Dungy will consult with campuses on building empathic understanding in students, curricular/co-curricular partnerships, and transfer issues.
Walter Fluker, Martin Luther King, Jr. Professor of Ethical Leadership at Boston University School of Theology, has an expansive history of scholarship and instruction in philosophy and religion, particularly African American political, spiritual, and moral traditions, and has national and international experience in developing programming to foster civic and ethical leadership.
Robert Franco, Professor of Pacific Anthropology and Director of the Office of Institutional Effectiveness at Kapi’olani Community College, has expertise in creating reciprocal campus-community partnerships and in understanding and preserving the unique cultural histories of the communities that two-year institutions serve.
Ramón Gutiérrez, Preston and Sterling Morton Distinguished Professor in United States History at University of Chicago, has special expertise on the history of immigration and American ethnic groups, and has served as a member of the National Council for the Humanities.
Elizabeth Minnich, Senior Fellow at AAC&U, is an expert of democratic education and on public and engaged philosophy. She will lead an opening colloquium on the humanities and democratic thinking and workshops and webinars on creating democratic classrooms and assessing democratic thinking.
Azar Nafisi, Executive Director of Cultural Conversations and Foreign Policy Institute Visiting Fellow at Johns Hopkins University’s Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, has expertise in aesthetics, culture, and literature, and the relationship between culture and politics.
Bernie Ronan, Associate Vice Chancellor of Public Affairs at the Maricopa Colleges District, will consult with institutions on navigating curricular
change and democratic education. Ronan is the co-director of TDC and his background is in public administration.
Regina Stanback Stroud is president of Skyline College and signatory to
TDC, and her scholarly expertise lies in human relations and diversity, educational theory, critical race theory and narrative.
Rowena Tomaneng, Associate Vice President of Instruction at De Anza College, has teaching and administrative leadership on critical pedagogy, multicultural education, and community and civic engagement.
Project Staff
Kevin Hovland, Assistant Director, Bridging Cultures and Senior Director for Global Learning and Curricular Change, AAC&U
Eleanor Hall, Project Coordinator, Bridging Cultures and Program Associate, Office of Diversity, Equity and Global Initiatives, AAC&U