National Humanities Center Names 2026–27 Teacher Advisory Council
20 Educators Selected from 14 States to Advise on NHC Education Programs
The National Humanities Center (NHC) has announced the selection of twenty talented educators from across the country for its 2026–27 Teacher Advisory Council. These teachers, from schools in fourteen states, will work with the NHC’s staff in piloting, evaluating, and promoting classroom resources and professional development programs for collegiate and pre-collegiate educators.
The Teacher Advisory Council was formed by the National Humanities Center to aid its ongoing effort to encourage excellence in humanities teaching at all levels. “The Center’s live webinars, robust primary source collections, and other offerings support teachers from across the country,” said NHC Vice President for Education Programs Mike Williams. “Our teacher advisors help ensure that our classroom tools and professional development experiences are pedagogically sound and relevant across a wide variety of classroom settings.”
“Our advisory council members come from a wide array of learning environments with students at the middle school, high school, and collegiate levels,” said Williams. The newly named council members include:
Michael Aday, Gulf High School (New Port Richey, FL)
Ariel Simone Alford, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School (Washington, DC)
Ethan George Birney, University of West Alabama (Livingston, AL)
Denise DiMarzo, Bristol Community College (Fall River, MA)
Melanie Diorio, Green Hope High School (Cary, NC)
Robert Dean Dittmer, Thomas Jefferson High School (Council Bluffs, IA)
Ugochi Emenaha, Yes Prep Southwest (Houston, TX)
Jennifer Gruca, John F. Kennedy Middle School (Plainfield, IL)
Wendy Harlow, Norfolk County Agricultural High School (Walpole, MA)
Nicole Yolanda Jefferson, West Harrison High School (Gulfport, MS)
Terza Silva Lima-Neves, PhD, Johnson C. Smith University (Charlotte, NC)
Tatiana Danielle McInnis, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics (Durham, NC)
Alyssa M. Navapanich, Lemon Grove School District (Lemon Grove, CA)
Heather Smith, Golda Och Academy (West Orange, NJ)
Tricia Solberg, Wake Preparatory Academy (Wake Forest, NC)
Randi Sparks, Rogers Academy of Leadership & Innovation (Rogers, AR)
Amanda K. Styles, Ballantyne Ridge IB High School (Charlotte, NC)
Angelique Thomas, Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School (Raleigh, NC)
Kimberly Walwyn, Williamsville North High School (Williamsville, NY)
Craig Michael Workman, University of Saint Mary (Leavenworth, KS)
Members of the Teacher Advisory Council will gather in the fall at the NHC’s offices in Durham, NC, for an intensive orientation to the Center’s education programs and to organize efforts for the coming year.
About the National Humanities Center’s Education Programs
The National Humanities Center is an independent institute for advanced study dedicated to furthering significant humanistic study and reflection, and to making those insights available both inside and outside the academic world. For nearly fifty years, the NHC has supported humanities educators at the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels by providing access to cutting-edge scholarship and content-based professional development. In 2025–26, NHC webinars attracted over 20,000 teacher participants while hundreds of thousands more made use of its freely available digital lessons, primary source materials, and teacher-focused essays.
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