Faculty

 Co-academic Director 

Tiffany Espinosa, MBA, MA

Ms. Espinosa is a faculty member in the Cultural Sustainability Program at Goucher College as well as the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver's Managing for Sustainability Program and the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship. She currently teaches classes in social entrepreneurship, innovation, business planning, strategy, management, and action research. Her research and teaching interests are in community wealth development, capacity building, and public-private partnership. She has created community organizations and developed new programming for organizations in Colorado, Michigan, and Illinois. She has served as a judge for a number of business plan competitions, including those hosted by the William James Foundation, the Bard Center for Entrepreneurship, The Future Farmers of America, and the Young Americans Center for Financial Education. She consultants and does public speaking on socially responsible business, entrepreneurship, non-profit business models, and leadership. Ms. Espinosa is working on a PhD in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Environmental Politics, Decision Making and Environmental Justice from from Colorado State University. She received her MBA and a MA in Education from the University of Colorado Denver and an undergraduate degree in Social Sciences from the University of Michigan.

Co-academic Director

 Amy Skillman, M.A.

As a folklorist, Skillman works at the intersection of culture and tension, where paying attention to culture can serve to mediate social change. She advise artists and community-based organizations on the implementation of programs that honor and conserve cultural traditions, guides them to potential resources, and develops programs to help build their capacity to sustain these initiatives. Drawing on extensive research and documentation, Skillman has developed a variety of public programs that bring awareness to issues of importance in these communities. Her work has included an oral history/leadership empowerment initiative with immigrant and refugee women in Central Pennsylvania, a Grammy-nominated recording of old time fiddlers in Missouri, and a yearlong arts residency with alternative education high school students rooted in the ethnography of their lives. Skillman recently curated a major traveling exhibition that examines the role of folk arts as a catalyst for activism in communities throughout Pennsylvania. She received her Masters degree in Folklore and Folklife from the University of California, Los Angeles and her Bachelor of Arts from St. Lawrence University in a self-designed major in Cultural Minorities and the Immigrant Experience.

Harold A. Anderson, Ph.D.

Dr. Anderson is a professor of cultural anthropology at Bowie State University in Maryland and a researcher/curator for a number of museums and organizations, including the Maryland Historical Trust/Maryland State Arts Council, Prince George’s County African-American History Museum, and Foundation for the Humanities, among others. He was a Mozart Fellow at Otago University in New Zealand—a prestigious residency for composers—and earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at University of Maryland College Park. He has published extensively on the traditions of African-American watermen and maritime communities in the Chesapeake region, and speaks both Maori and French. He has written numerous reports on endangered folkways for prestigious national institutions like the Smithsonian, and has done extensive fieldwork both in the U.S. and in New Zealand. Harold is also an accomplished composer and award-winning jazz bassist.

Deborah Cebula
Deborah is the director of the professional graduate programs in Goucher’s Welch Center for Graduate and Professional Programs.  As director she develops new programs, directs continuing programs, and heads the professional management core curriculum.  Ms. Cebula served as former Assistant Dean, Advanced Academic Programs, Johns Hopkins University; Senior Executive, The Guilford Group; Vice President, Administration and Finance, PMT & Associates; and Lecturer, Towson University, Foursite Program. Ms. Cebula began her career as a research writer and editor with the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University and worked with the U.S. Agency if International Development, the American Public Health Association, and the United Nations Children’s’ Fund around issues of international health and community development. Ms. Cebula holds a B.A. from Johns Hopkins University; has completed extensive post graduate work at the Bloomberg School of Hygiene and Public Health and the School of Business and Education at Johns Hopkins University. Her special interests are in the management of organizations, behavioral change models, and program development.

Jon Lohman, Ph.D.

Dr. Lohman is the director of the Virginia Folklife Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, where he serves as a resource to all Virginians on inquiries regarding folkways, community events, cultural centers, and other activities...  He is the author of numerous public publications, including the critically acclaimed Music of Coal (Wise County) and Making Decoys the Age Old Way (Eastern Shore). He created the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which has paired over 50 traditional folk “master artists” with apprentices to help ensure that these treasured Virginia Folkways continue into the future, and he continues to conduct ethnographic fieldwork into traditional cultural communities in Virginia. He is actively engaged in the fields of ethnomusicology—particularly vernacular music of the South and Appalachia—and folk and public art, and produces a number of traditional music festivals and recordings (including the Independent Music Award’s “Gospel Album of the Year”).  He has taught at Mary Washington College and University of Pennsylvania, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Michael Atwood Mason, Ph.D.

Dr. Mason is an anthropologist and the Director of Exhibitions at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. He served as one of the co-curators of African Voices and Ritmos de Identidad exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution. He is currently leading the development of the Recovering Voices Exhibition, designed to put a human face on the global crisis of language and knowledge loss. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, he has been studying the cultures of the African Diaspora since 1987. His book, Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion, was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in 2002. Mason received his Ph.D. from the Folklore Institute at Indiana University.

Melissa McLoud, Ph.D.

Dr. McLoud is a public historian and interpretive consultant who has worked for thirty years in museum interpretive planning, exhibition, and program development in Washington D.C and on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Most recently she developed and directed the Center for Chesapeake Studies and specializes in the relationship between nature and culture on the Chesapeake Bay. Her areas of expertise include interpretive planning, public history, American landscape, and architectural history, and exhibit development. She has worked in numerous museum settings as well as at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and the National Building Museum, and is extensively experienced in outreach, education, exhibits, and program creation. Previously she taught at Catholic University and George Washington University, and has published extensively in her field. She received her Ph.D. from George Washington University and currently lives in Easton, Maryland.

Patricia Ourednik

Ms. Ourednik is an independant consultant and works with Principal, RC&D Management, Bel Air, MD, consulting experts in finance and general management.  Cofounder and Senior Vice President, BDMetrics, Inc., Baltimore, MD; Director of Business Operations, Director of Strategic Planning, Fair Issac & Co., San Rafael, CA; Chief Financial Officer, Credit Risk & Management Associates, Baltimore, MD;  Ms. Ourednik obtained a M.S. in Management Information Systems, Florida Institute of Technology; and a B.S. in Accounting, University of Baltimore.  Special interest in human capital management, technology and business planning, forecasting and strategic planning, pricing strategies, business process definition and implementation, and contract management and negotiation.

Betsy Peterson, Ph.D.

Dr. Peterson is an independent consultant, with over two decades of experience specializing in program planning and design, cultural research, non-profit fundraising/grantmaking and organizational development.   Prior to establishing an independent consulting practice, Betsy served as Executive Director and Program Director for the Fund for Folk Culture from 1998-2009. Among other previously-held positions, Betsy was a co-founder and Program Coordinator for Texas Folklife Resources and Director of the Traditional Arts Program at the New England Foundation for the Arts.  In 1990, she was a visiting professor at the Folklore and Mythology Program at UCLA.  As a consultant, her past clients have included The Wallace Foundation, the Southern Arts Federation, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Carnegie Hall, The Ford Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, for whom she wrote, edited and compiled The Changing Faces of Tradition: A Report on the Folk and Traditional Arts in the United States, published in 1996. Betsy has consulted with numerous public and private philanthropic organizations on the development of grantmaking programs for the folk and traditional arts and developed a wide range of programs and services, including festivals, exhibitions, conferences, workshops, radio programs and recordings, with an emphasis on traditional performing arts and artists. Dr. Peterson holds a BA in English from the University of Redlands and a Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University.

Ross Peterson-Veatch, Ph.D.

Dr. Peterson-Veatch is the associate academic dean and director of curriculum, teaching and faculty development at the Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning, Goshen College in Indiana and holds his Ph.D. from Indiana University. He specializes in the intersection of ethnography with political discourse, Latin American history and literature, the folklore and folklife of the Western U.S., speaks fluent Spanish, and is intensively engaged with improving education from K-12 to the university level. Recent publications include  “Creating and Supporting Mixed-Level Inquiry Communities” in MountainRise, entries on Oklahoma History for The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, and “Sitting Together at the Piano Bench” in Educational Horizons. He is a member of the American Folklore Society, Network in Higher Education, and National School Reform Faculty (NSRF), among others.

Rebecca Saltman

Ms. Saltman is the Founder and President of A Foot in the Door Productions - an independent, collaboration-building firm designed to bridge the varying needs of business, government, non-profits, and academia. A "serial social entrepreneur", her three businesses (A Foot in Door Productions, Mission First Solutions, and repFIVE) are disruptive innovations providing social value and systemic change in how people do work, develop efficiencies and create sustainability.

With 20 years experience in public relations, fundraising, and collaboration-building, Rebecca first rallied her talents in Colorado on behalf of the Huntington's Disease Society of America, developing many grassroots campaigns (including annual Hoop-a-thons) to fund Centers of Excellence nationwide. These campaigns continue to raise awareness and funds today.

Guha Shankar, Ph.D.

Dr. Shankar is the Folklife Specialist in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Austin in 2003, from the Department of Anthropology, with a concentration in Folklore and Public Culture. He received his M.A., from the University of Texas, Austin in 1996, in Folklore and Public Culture,in the Department of Anthropology. He obtained his B.A.,from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1982, with concentrations in Radio Television and Motion Pictures and Political Science.Dr. Shankar has experience and training in media production, digital assets management, intellectual property and cultural heritage management for traditional communities, public programs and educational outreach (festivals, concerts, symposia and seminars), and teaching documentary field methods for community cultural heritage initiatives. his research interests include diasporic community formations in the Caribbean, ethnographic media, visual representation, and performance studies.

Rory Turner, Ph.D.

Dr. Turner teaches cultural anthropology and is a member of the International Scholars Program faculty at Goucher College. Formerly Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts and Program Initiative Specialist at the Maryland State Arts Council, he co-founded and directed the Maryland Traditions program from 2000 to 2007. Maryland Traditions developed a robust infrastructure for the study and support of traditional arts and culture in Maryland, including grant programs, research, and partnerships resulting in the creation of cultural sustainability-focused programs at universities, arts councils, and museums throughout the state, and award-winning products such as the "Bridge to Boardwalk" audio journey of Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Turner is former president of the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association, advisor to the American Folklore Society's website, and has participated in national conversations on the future of applied and public folklore under the auspices of the Fund for Folk Culture. Publications include articles, reviews and creative writing in such journals as Folklore Forum, Anthropology and Humanism, and TDR (The Drama Review).  He has served on grant review panels for the City of Baltimore, the Pennsylvania Commission for the Arts, the New Jersey State Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Youngest son of renowned anthropologist, Victor Turner, he is also a musician and founder of the Baltimore International Rhythm and Drumming Society.