Nancy Gutierrez, dean of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte, has been elected chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council Board of Trustees for 2019-20. Her first board meeting as chair was Nov. 1 in Charlotte. She has served on the Board of Trustees since 2017.
“The North Carolina Humanities Council is essential to people’s understanding of the power of the humanities,” Gutierrez said. “A heightened awareness of the impact of the humanities on engaged citizenship can transform how people see themselves and their communities. People can use this deeper understanding to improve their lives and the lives of others.”
Prior to coming to UNC Charlotte, Gutierrez served as vice provost for Academic Affairs at Arizona State University, where she was a professor of English. Her areas of emphasis have focused on the role of the scholarship of engagement in promotion and tenure decisions, advocacy for interdisciplinary research and programming, globalization in curriculum and in faculty professionalization and advocacy for the liberal arts. A scholar of early modern English literature, Gutierrez has published on Shakespearean drama and early modern women.
The Humanities Council’s Board of Trustees also elected Lorna Ricotta of Fayetteville as vice chair and Edward Sheary of Weaverville as chair-elect. The Humanities Council named 10 new trustees to its board, bringing the total to 24 volunteer board members from across the state.
By congressional mandate, the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency in the executive branch, provides general operating support grants to the North Carolina Humanities Council and the other 55 state and jurisdictional humanities councils. Additional funding is provided through private philanthropy.
Gutierrez also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Charlotte Museum of History. The UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees named her to its search committee for the University’s next chancellor, following Philip L. Dubois' announcement of plans to retire effective June 30, 2020.