Bruce Marr , Director
Harvey Stone
Allison Anthony
Jeannine Chewning
Melissa Hyde
Katie Leahey
Jennifer Jones
Colleen Savino

Our faculty are selected to teach in the Center for the Humanities due to their experience and in recognition of their excellence in the classroom. Each faculty member has a deep committment to the the high academic standards of the program, to student support and achievement, and to the student-centered educational philosophy of the center.

Our faculty have earned many honors and hold positions of leadership within the school district. Amongst our teachers are department chairs, administrators, National Board Certification earners, teacher of the year winners, prestigious grant and fellowship winners, and advanced degrees holders in the humanities and beyond.

Faculty News

Clare Sisisky Awarded Fellowship by U.S. State Department

Humanities Center director Clare Sisisky has been named a 2008-2009 fellow in the U.S. Sate Department's Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program (TEA). She is one of 15 American educators who will be working with international educators to improve the quality of education in Eurasia and South Asia. She will work with the educators in the States and will travel to Bangladesh for two weeks in the spring of 2009.

Bruce Marr Travels on R.E.B. Award to Africa
Level II teacher Bruce Marr traveled to Botswana, Zambia, and South Africa this summer.  The trip included a nine day photographic safari viewing game in the Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, Linyanti marshes and Chobe National Park. Mr. Marr visited a local school near Victoria Falls, visiting with teachers and students.  Then, he ventured north to the traditional village of Kawaza, outside of South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, to spend two days and nights living and working with the Kunda people.  Again he met students, teachers and local people to talk and learn from the local community. He also helped catch fish for the village’s dinner.  The trip concluded with a two-day walking safari in South Luangwa National Park.

Summer Travel 2008

Katie Leahey won a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to participate in the seminar “Mozart’s Worlds.” She spent four weeks in Vienna, Austria exploring the city and the surrounding regions. She studied several of Mozart’s operas, the architecture of Vienna and its social and political history during the Austrian Enlightenment, all material she will share with her students in the Level II humanities course Development of World Cultures

Allison Anthony, Level II history and humanities teacher, spent part of the summer travelling around England with the Virginia Geographic Alliance and Virginia Tech's Department of Geography. Ms. Anthony was awarded a place in the summer institute "Landscapes of Food, Culture, and Environment in England."  The program focused on the significance of food, culture, and the environment as reflected in English landscapes throughout history and in the contemporary era. Ms. Anthony travelled to many different parts of England including London and the Lake District. 

Harvey Stone and Clare Sisisky travelled with 30 Humanities Center students on trip through Europe organized by Mr. Stone to highlight the historical and artistic sites relevant to the humanities curriculum. Ms. Sisisky also spent two weeks this summer in Ethiopia and visited with teachers and students at both rural and urban schools.

Bruce Marr Wins School's Top Faculty Honor

Level II history teacher, Bruce Marr, was selected as Hermitage High School Teacher of the Year.

Clare Sisisky Travels to China on Fulbright Fellowship in 2007

In the summer of 2007, director of the Center for the Humanities Clare Sisisky, travelled throughout China for seven weeks as part of the Fulbright-Hays Summer Seminar sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Committee on U.S. China Relations and the Chinese Ministry of Education. This fellowship was awarded to fifteen educators from around the country. The group travelled to Beijing, Xian, Shanghai and the rural areas of Guizhou province together learning from scholars, meeting with Chinese educators and students, and visting historical and cultural sites. The focus of the fellowship was on the history and culture of China and was designed to strengthen educational ties between the two nations. As part of the fellowship, educators deisgn, implement and submit for online publication a curriculum project. Ms. Sisisky's curriculum project is entitled "Chinese Contemporary Art as Social and Political Commentary" and is now part of the Level IV humanities course Modernity and Global Cultures. The project exmines various artist and their work reflecting contemporary social and poltical issues in Chinese society. The project also asks students to explore the role of the contemporary artist as social commentator, especially in a highly censored society like China.