Director of Honors Search

Two finalists to complete on-campus interviews.

Two finalists for the position of Director of Honors will complete on-campus visits on October 31 and November 1 following an internal search. 

The Director of Honors provides vision and leadership, and advocates for excellence in education for all Honors students at UND. The Director coordinates the program; collaborates with academic units in the development and ongoing creation of Honors courses and Honors sections of courses; works closely with faculty, staff, and advisors to inspire innovative thesis projects and campus-wide understanding of the program; and communicates the value of the Honors Program to prospective students. Working collaboratively, the Director will develop strategic initiatives and promote innovation within Honors Program admissions and curriculum while ensuring its academic quality and integrity. 

CAMPUS INTERVIEWS AND OPEN FORUM TIMES

Finalists

Merie Kirby

Tuesday, October 31

Merie Kirby is a Teaching Associate Professor with the Honors Program at the University of North Dakota, and affiliated faculty with the Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Since joining the Honors Program faculty in 2012, she has developed and taught a wide range of multidisciplinary classes, advised students, supervised Senior Honors Projects, and led student editors in creating an Honors undergraduate journal. Kirby grew up in California and attended the University of California, Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies for her B.A. in Literature. She earned her terminal degree, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Poetry), from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is the author of The Dog Runs On (2014) and The Thumbelina Poems (2015). She has twice received the North Dakota Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant. Her poems have been published in several literary journals and she has collaborated with composers on both operas and art songs. Kirby also taught at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) and worked in the private sector as both a Technical Writer/Editor and Marketing Communications Manager for the North American subsidiary of a German photoelectric sensor engineering company. She is a past president of the North Star Quilters Guild and current president of the Greater Grand Forks PFLAG chapter.

Kirby's CV

David Cason

Wednesday, November 1

Dr. David Cason has served as an educator for over thirty years. Growing up in Georgia, he found an early interest in the history of the state and its entanglement with issues of race. He spent 19 years as a high school history, gifted, and Advanced Placement teacher. After earning his Ph.D. from Georgia State University, he transitioned to school leadership as department chair of the Social Studies Department. In this role, he supervised a team of 12 faculty, and developed both curriculum and school improvement strategic plans. He then moved on to LaGrange College, where he taught courses in teacher education, teacher leadership, and general studies. In that position he served as the inaugural director of the teacher leadership graduate program, where he developed the curriculum and lead recruitment efforts.

Later, as faculty at Georgia Gwinnett College, he taught courses in education and history. He served as director of the history/social studies teacher education program. For the last five years he has been a faculty member in the UND Honors program holding the rank of Associate Teaching Professor.

Using his strong interdisciplinary background, he developed Honors courses that delt with important topics such as leadership, Civil Rights, Social Justice, and understanding conspiracy theories. His approach is to challenge students to dig deep into the history and the literature of each of these topics. Dr. Cason recently published his first book, The Life and Music of Graham Jackson, through the University Press of Florida. This is a biography of an African American musician in the midst of the Jim Crow south struggling to succeed as a second-class citizen. His second book, a biography of Georgia Governor Lester Maddox, is currently under peer-review with the University of Georgia Press.

Dr. Cason earned a BA in history from LaGrange College. He then earned both an MS. Ed. And Ed.S. in History Education from Troy University. He looks forward to taking the UND Honors program to the next level.

Cason's CV

Position Description & Expectations 

The Honors Program serves motivated, accomplished students by nurturing creativity, critical thinking, and scholarship beyond the usual academic frameworks. Through classes, co-curricular activities, service projects and advisement, the Honors Program creates a learning community that emphasizes intellectual exploration.

• The mission of the Honors Program is to gather engaged faculty and students from across campus, creating a holistic, multidisciplinary, student-centered educational experience that prepares the next generation of citizen-scholars from today's exceptional students.
• The Honors Program will cultivate the next generation of justice-oriented, critical, curious, and creative thinkers and leaders with the knowledge, skills, abilities, and commitment to have a positive impact on the world around them.
• The UND Honors Program intentionally infuses the values of diversity, inclusion, and social equity into its curriculum, programming, and faculty/staff training. Faculty and staff in the Honors Program promote mutual respect and attentiveness to our common human dignity while also highlighting the educative importance of recognizing differences in identities, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, and ways of learning and knowing.
• The Director of Honors provides vision and leadership, and advocates for excellence in education for all Honors students at UND.
• The Director coordinates the program; collaborates with academic units in the development and ongoing creation of Honors courses and Honors sections of courses; works closely with faculty, staff, and advisors to inspire innovative thesis projects and campus-wide understanding of the program; and communicates the value of the Honors Program to prospective students. Working collaboratively, the Director will develop strategic initiatives and promote innovation within Honors Program admissions and curriculum while ensuring its academic quality and integrity.