SC Humanities is pleased to announce the FY2025 Board Members who will begin their terms on November 1, 2024: Gina G. Bennett of Hartsville and Melissa Walker of Spartanburg.
Gina G. Bennett is the Assistant Professor of Global Studies and Coordinator of Humanities at Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina. She earned a doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2020 and specializes in Atlantic History, empire, gender, migration, labor, and economies in the Transatlantic World. Her research, teaching, and publications address the role of women investors, manufacturers, and migrators who made their way to Panama for The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies in the 1690s when Scottish merchants led an attempt to establish a colony for trade in the Atlantic. Some of these connections were particularly impactful to Charleston. She presents her research at conferences across the United States, the UK, and the Netherlands. Gina was recently interviewed for an episode on her research with BBC Radio Scotland. She serves as book review editor of World History Connected, a peer reviewed history journal. Future publications that are forthcoming include “Emerging from Failure: Revealing Early Modern Women’s Relationships to Empire through the Darien Documents” in the edited collection, European Colonial Failures, c. 1560-1800: Early Modern Polities, Overseas Interests, and Empire Building to be published by Amsterdam University Press.
Melissa Walker is the Emerita George Dean Johnson, Jr. Professor of History at Converse University where she taught for 21 years. A native of Tennessee, she is a graduate of Maryville College and earned her Ph.D. in U.S. and women’s history at Clark University. An award-winning teacher, she is also the author, editor, or co-editor of twelve books. In 2007, she was honored by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching with the South Carolina Professor of the Year Award. She retired from teaching in 2017 to found Heyday Coaching, LLC which specializes in life and career coaching for people working in higher education and other mid-career professionals. The business takes its name from women’s suffrage activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s assertion that “fifty, not fifteen is the heyday of life.”
Board Members continuing to serve are: Jennifer Thomas (Chair) of Greenville; Brenton Brown (Vice Chair) of Columbia; Alli Crandell (Secretary/Treasurer) of Conway; J. W. Nelson Chandler of Mount Pleasant; Bill Comer of Lexington; Eric Crawford of Orangeburg; Tom Crosby of Columbia; Jay Dowd of Bradley; Jennifer Gunter of Columbia; Bonnie Hargrove of Beaufort; David Hodges (Past Chair) of Columbia; George D. Jebaily of Florence; Charles McDonald of Hanahan; Isaiah McGee of Orangeburg; S.C. (Cal) McMeekin, Jr. of Columbia; Lucas McMillan of Greenwood; Dollie Newhouse of Irmo; Floyd Nicholson of Greenwood; Otis Pickett of Clemson; David Stone Jr. of Florence; and Ashlye V. Wilkerson of Columbia.
SC Humanities bids a sad farewell to an outstanding Board Members who retired from the Board in 2024: Leslie Walker Bickford of Rock Hill. She served South Carolina Humanities with great diligence and passion, including as Chair of the Grants and Program Committee, and will be sincerely missed.
The Board of Directors of SC Humanities consists of volunteer academic and public members. Board members initiate and develop projects, seek to make the humanities accessible statewide, and take active roles in fundraising. Open nominations for Board Members occur annually. For more information about serving on the Board of SC Humanities, contact Executive Director Randy Akers at 803-771-2477.
