Board of Directors
President
Secretary
Treasurer
Communications Officer
Membership Officer
Board Members
Board Biographies
Abrahamsen ([field_ncis_board])
I completed masters and doctoral studies in New Testament and Early Christian Origins at Harvard Divinity School and have remained active in my fields for nearly four decades. I worked as an academic administrator, mainly as a registrar, at a number of colleges in Massachusetts and Vermont. I reluctantly retired in late 2017 after my job was eliminated suddenly in 2013 and I was unsuccessful landing a new position. For three years, I conducted research on the survival of the soul after death and self-published my book, Paranormal, in 2015. In October 2015, I launched a website, WisdomWordsPPF, and have been posting evidence-based blogs twice a month in three areas: my scholarly research on women in antiquity, New Testament, and early church history; social justice issues from a progressive, feminist perspective; and insights from Paranormal. I am now giving lectures and leading discussions, retreats and workshops at retirement communities, churches, colleges, libraries, conference centers and other venues, and I volunteer for Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro, Vermont; the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Mass.; and Senior Solutions, Springfield, Vermont. I sing in the Brattleboro Concert Choir and the choir of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, Brattleboro.Read more
Baines ([field_ncis_board])
I'm an independent post-doctoral researcher, and a visiting researcher at Southampton Business School (SBS) at the University of Southampton, UK. I completed my PhD at SBS in 2016. In a previous life, I worked as a senior manager in different roles in the public sector, most recently in the research councils (which fund postgraduate research in the UK and run science and technology facilities).Read more
Burrows ([field_ncis_board])
Kate is a sociologist by training and is interested in medical and mental health sociology. She has published in a wide variety of sub-disciplines in sociology, including papers about dating and social meme theory, gender and cancer, mental health, culturally relevant teaching, and the history of medical technology. Her most recent publication appears in the journal "Cureus." She owns a small consulting business that focuses on helping early-career scholars who are either finishing their dissertations and their first publishing experience, or working with newly appointed assistant professors who are engaging in their first projects after their dissertation. She is the editor of a volume about medical technology and society. She also was a contributor to an open-access textbook series for undergraduates, and teaches sociology classes for undergraduates and graduate students ranging from Intro, to advanced courses in mental health sociology, gender, disability, and classical and mid-century sociological theory. She attended a small liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon for her undergraduate degree, and did all her requirements for her PhD at Rutgers University in New Jersey, and finished her dissertation at Portland State University in Portland.
Her current research interests take two forms. The first is an interest in medical technology and medical surveillance and the "correction" of deviant bodies. Secondly, she is interested in diagnostic creep and nosology, especially as it relates to Pediatric Bipolar Disorder. She also coauthors publications with her clients, so has had an opportunity to explore many fields far-flung from her own interests.Read more
Bylander ([field_ncis_board])
Dr. Cindy Bylander is an American musicologist. A recipient of the Polish Composers’ Union’s Honorary Award and Poland’s Gloria Artis Bronze medal, her research focuses on twentieth-century Polish musical life. Her most recent book project, Engaging Cultural Ideologies: Classical Composers and Musical Life in Poland 1918–1956 was published by Academic Studies Press in 2022. Her previous publications include Krzysztof Penderecki: A Bio-Bibliography and articles in Polski Rocznik Muzykologiczny, Czarny pokój i inne pokoje: Zbiór tekstów o SEPR, Polish Review, Musical Quarterly, Musicology Today, and Polish Music Since 1945. She also served as the translation editor for the 2021 book From Poland with Music: 100 Years of Composers Abroad (1918-2018). She is currently the Membership Officer for NCIS..Read more
Ham ([field_ncis_board])
I am a contemplative with a day job, called to do high-level integrative work across science and religion that addresses the world's biggest problems. I have degrees in mechanical engineering, nutritional science, and divinity---a combination that provides a good foundation for a generalist who synthesizes, critiques, and designs societies using gems from dozens of disciplines. My career path began with over 10 years in manufacturing making a variety of products ranging from diapers to typewriter ribbons to Space Shuttles and rockets. I also worked for nearly 10 years in public health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There I did my own scientific research, project management, and strategic planning. I was involved with the origins of the movement that spanned public health, transportation, education, and parks and recreation to promote physical activity across multiple sectors of society including shifting focus from the gym to the built environment. More recently I added religion, theology, and philosophy to my already interdisciplinary science and engineering background. I use my skills in statistics and experience in medical and public health research to support my independent scholarly work. Currently, I am a Biostatistical Consultant at Sandra Ham Consulting in Buffalo, New York, with clients at the University of Chicago. For NCIS, I am an Editor of H-Scholar.Read more
Haste ([field_ncis_board])
Amanda Haste is a Franco-British researcher and academic translator and was President of NCIS from 2015 to 2022. She spent 20 years as a professional musician and music educator, and holds an MA in Musicology (with Distinction) and a PhD in Musicology; from 2015 to 2023 she was contingent faculty at Aix-Marseille University, where she taught courses including Practical Translation, Literary Translation, English as a Musicological Language, and Research Skills in English at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Her research is multidisciplinary, and encompasses music, language, and identity; and the intersections between music and spirituality in contemporary society. Dr Haste is active as a peer reviewer and editor, and currently serves as Humanities Editor of The Independent Scholar. She has presented her work at conferences in England, Scotland, France, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Poland, Slovenia and the USA, and has been an invited lecturer in France and Scotland. As well as journal articles and book chapters published by Routledge, Palgrave MacMillan etc. she has several substantial entries in the two-volume Women in World Religions: Faith & Culture Across History, ed. Susan de Gaia (ABC-CLIO, 2018). In 2015 Dr Haste co-edited (with Professor James Block of DePaul University, USA) a book on Constructing Identity in an Age of Globalization (Ex Modio) in which she was delighted to be able to include several independent scholars among the authors, and she co-edited Global Cuisines by Independent Scholars: A Learned Cookbook (2022). Her first monograph, Music and Identity in Twenty-First-Century Monasticism, is scheduled for publication by Routledge in 2023, and she is currently co-editing (with Linda Baines and Helen Ross) the NCIS Guide for Independent Scholars (scheduled publication 2023). Aided by an NCIS Research Grant, she is also researching her next monograph on the British Colony in Marseille 1850-1914.
As a freelance translator (French-English) and proofreader (French-English and English-English) Dr Haste specialises...Read more
Lavender ([field_ncis_board])
I was excited to join the NCIS as a young Ph.D. after having served as a visiting assistant professor at Colby College and transitioning to working as a private high school teacher. It has been a source of scholarly camaraderie and encouragement as I continue to work on research projects, papers, and a book project. I was able to present at the recent NCIS conference in Amherst, MA, on a recent paper that I had completed and found the NCIS community a wonderful group of individuals. I was able to make friends and meet many people who I had "met" online.Read more
Montebruno Saller ([field_ncis_board])
Dr. Gloria R. Montebruno Saller is Research Scholar in Japan Studies. Born in Italy, Dr. Montebruno Saller moved to the United States to pursue her doctoral degree in East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Southern California from where she received her doctoral degree. She taught Japanese Language and Culture courses, Women’s Studies and Global Studies courses at the University of Southern California; California State University, Long Beach; California State University, Fullerton; University of California, Riverside; and at the University of La Verne. She presented her research at conferences worldwide and published her works in several academic journals. Dr. Montebruno Saller's current research focuses on the history of Japanese and Japanese American Atomic Bomb survivors residing in the United States and their social activism through CABSUS (Committee of Atomic Bomb Survivors, United States) and ASA (American Society of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors). Currently, she serves as the Honorary Director and Historian of the American Society of Hiroshima-Nagasaki A-Bomb Survivors in Los Angeles, California.Read more
Rehill ([field_ncis_board])
A U.S.-based independent scholar and writer (Ph.D. Modern French Studies, MS Library Science, MFA Creative Nonfiction), for income I have worked as an editor and taught as an adjunct. For inspiration, I have drawn from both research and personal experience. On the academic front, my most recent publication (Comparative Literature Studies 59, no. 2 [2022]) examines differences in U.S. and Canadian literature surrounding the notion of “frontier,” as exemplified in works by James Fenimore Cooper and Joseph-Charles Taché. On the creative and general-audience front, recent publications are "My Inner Ms. Natural Fought with the Mirror; The Mirror Won (Next Avenue, https://www.nextavenue.org/my-inner-natural-mirror-won/); and "Telling an Emotional Truth" (The Writer's Center Magazine, winter-spring 2024, pp. 37-38, https://writer.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/TWC-Magazine_WISP2024_fina...). Earlier publications include The Apocalpyse Is Everywhere: A Popular History of America’s Favorite Nightmare (Praeger/ABC-CLIO, 2009) and “Assisting Science” (Potomac Review, no. 37 (2004).Read more
Reid ([field_ncis_board])
My interests generally converge around the sea, though recently they have expanded to include the history of technology (especially technology and culture) more generally. All my graduate work has been in maritime history and archaeology, though I am also qualified in Atlantic World history. Side interests have been a lifelong exploration of all aspects of the Second World War, and the Nixon presidency. Outside of academic work, I have professional training and experience in recreational scuba diving, sailing, piloting and navigation.Read more
Ross ([field_ncis_board])
Dr Helen Ross is a fully qualified special needs teacher and former SENCO, currently working in a mainstream school in Wiltshire. She also provides expert advice and research consultancy, as well as specialist tuition and CPD, through her own enterprise ‘Helen’s Place’, is an advisor to the British Dyslexia Association and is Chair of the Wiltshire Dyslexia Association. She has consulted for the British Dyslexia Association, The Committee for Science and Technology, and Wiltshire Local Authority.
Helen’s is also an independent researcher. Her research explores stakeholder experiences of SEND provision within the mainstream education sector, focusing on the empowerment of young people to take ownership of their own learning journeys. She is a qualitative researcher, using methods grounded within Bourdieu’s sociological project to explore barriers to participation in learning and engagement with institutions.
Helen tweets as @drhelenross and regularly speaks on dyslexia and special educational needs.Read more
Shapiro ([field_ncis_board])
San Francisco-born, I grew up on Guam. After earning my BA in Anthropology, I worked for 19 years in a law office writing trial memoranda and appeal briefs, doing land title examinations, pursuing photography part-time, while hosting a Jazz & Blues program on various AM and FM stations for 9 years.
Self-taught in Yiddish, I went back to school when I came to the Washington metro area, earning an MA and PhD in American Studies studying the Yiddish press and acculturation of women immigrants. I am presently toiling to revise the manuscript based on the dissertation in hopes of publication. I am the Associate Editor for Connecticut Public Records, Vols XXI-XXII; and a Yiddish-to-English translator.
I served as editor for the newsletter and later the small magazine of Yiddish of Greater Washington for more than a decade, continue to serve on its Board, as well as that of Operation Understanding-DC.Read more
Stover ([field_ncis_board])
Phil Stover is a historian of religion and conflict, focusing on Mennonite, Mormon, and Mexican studies.
An independent scholar, Phil’s forty year career included service as a senior administrator in higher education, K-12 public and private education, and a Fortune 500 company providing services to education. He retired from serving San Diego Unified School District as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Business Services and Sweetwater Union High School District as Interim Superintendent of Schools. He also served as an Associate Professor of Psychology, teaching courses in the integration of psychology and theology. Phil has served his denomination as a licensed and ordained minister and as headmaster of a Mennonite K-12 school. Phil was appointed a member of the Sarasota County Historical Commission. Retired, Phil now lives in Mata Ortiz Chihuahua where he researches, writes, and oversees the production of peach, apple, and pecan trees. He has served his Mata Ortiz community by serving as President of the local Rural Committee for Potable Water. His Buyer’s Guide for Mata Ortiz Pottery is consistently in Amazon’s top 100 best sellers in books about ceramics.Read more
Waitkuweit ([field_ncis_board])
Kevin Hans Waitkuweit received a MA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame, where he was a Deans' Fellow in the Department of Sociology from 2017 to 2020. He also received a BA in History with minors in Chicana/o Studies, Disability Studies, and Public Affairs from UCLA (2015) and holds two AAs from LAVC (2012).
His research interests entail the theoretical paradoxes of identity within sociology and how the meanings of identities are formed and change over time. Using medical diagnoses as a case studies, he has explored the way in which disabilities become identities for diagnosed individuals. His masters thesis is a study of the contemporary etymology of the American Medical patient.Read more