Board of Directors

President

Richard H. Moeller is a partner at Moore Heffernan Moeller Johnson & Meis, LLP. His general practice includes, but is not limited to, Litigation, Employment Law, Commercial Law, Banking Law, Bankruptcy, Education Law, Real Estate, and Vaccine Injury Law.

Vice-President

Linda Shenk joined the Board of Directors for Humanities Iowa because she is interested in Iowa’s stories – from those of decades of diverse immigration to those of our prairies and rivers.

Treasurer

This is Steve’s second term on the Humanities Iowa board. He has degrees from Grinnell College, University of Kansas, and University of California at Berkeley. He also worked as a social worker and as a union representative.

Secretary

Karen Mitchell is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa where she teaches courses in Performance Studies and Critical Communication Pedagogy.

Director

Dr. Radhi H. Al-Mabuk is professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Northern Iowa, a position he has held since 1990. Dr. Al-Mabuk served as the Department Head for four years, and directed the Master Program in Professional Development for teachers for more than a decade. Currently, Dr. Al-Mabuk serves as the Director of the Ad Astra Institute in Chicago, formerly known as the Future Institute Research Center.

Director

Gretta served as Professor of Theatre for Youth and Communities at the University of Northern Iowa for more than 35 years. She is thrilled to bring her love of the arts to the Iowa Humanities Board.

Director

Dr. Harry Dunstan, tenor, musicologist, accompanist, translator, stage director, lecturer, independent scholar, and raconteur, is the Founding Artistic Director of The American Center for Puccini Studies. From his earliest years, he always marveled at the transformative power of music.

Iowa Student Poet Ambassador

Johnnie Each is a senior at Prairie High School in Cedar Rapids, IA. In addition to her passion for writing poetry, Johnnie enjoys reading old books, watching movies, having political and philosophical discussions, and hanging out with friends. She describes herself as someone who likes listening to Christmas music in September and who laughs unabashedly at her own jokes. She loves music with poetic lyrics, Indian food, her church, and her family. She is planning on studying English and Creative Writing after graduation.

Director

David Eckert has been working in the field of librarianship for more than twenty-five years. After completing the Library Science master’s program at Kent State University, he worked for three years as a music reference librarian at Samford University in Birmingham, AL before moving abroad to serve as a school librarian for a pre-k through 12th grade bilingual school in the Dominican Republic.

Director

Trevor Harvey is an associate professor of instruction in ethnomusicology at The University of Iowa, where he teaches a range of courses focused on global music traditions, social justice in Latin American music, local music cultures, and ethnographic research methodologies.

Director

Elizabeth Hoover de Galvez is an adult services librarian at the Des Moines Public Library where she is responsible for programming and outreach for the Central Library. She records a monthly program called Spark Stories.

Kay Krekow

Director

Kay Krekow, soprano, accompanist, independent scholar, and narrator has been singing, researching, and teaching the music of women composers for over 25 years (long before it was “popular”). She is an acclaimed interpreter of the heroines of Puccini and the Managing Director of the American Center for Puccini Studies.

Director

Debra Marquart is the author of seven books and the Senior Editor of Flyway: Journal of Writing & Environment. The Poet Laureate of Iowa and a Distinguished Professor at Iowa State University, Marquart teaches in ISU’s MFA in Creative Writing and Environment and in the Stonecoast Low-Residency MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Director

Ms. Treyla M. Lee is a native of Sioux City, IA. Treyla has a Masters Degree in Education from Wayne State College in Wayne, NE and currently employed as a Recruiter for Wendy’s Wonderful Kids/Dave Thomas Foundation/Four Oaks Family & Children’s Services. 

Director

Rosemarie Ward of Okoboji was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa. She attended public schools in Fort Dodge and in Des Moines, graduated from St. Joseph’s Academy high school in Des Moines and received a BS in education from Drake in 1968.