Board of Directors

Board of Directors

John Martin

Dr. Samuel Hollingshead

Susan Price

Janis Kyser

Beaver Grant

John Martin retired in 2015 following a 30-year career of teaching history and geography in the Knox County, Tennessee, school system. During this time, on behalf of the Tennessee Department of Education, he authored a unit for elementary, intermediate and middle schools on the life of Sequoyah.

John was called upon in 1992 to help develop policy statements and architectural designs as the Smithsonian Institution worked toward the establishment of the National Museum of the American Indian, which opened on the National Mall in Washington, DC, in 2004.

For more than a decade, John was a member of the Tennessee Commission of Indian Affairs, having been appointed to three terms by Governor Ned McWherter and to one term by Governor Don Sundquist. John chaired the commission from 1989 to 1996. During the McWherter administration, John was selected to officially welcome the Chickasaw Nation back to their ancient homelands of West Tennessee.

Among his other Native activities, John was twice a delegate to the National Congress of American Indians and a delegate to the Governors’ Interstate Indian Council.

The American Indian Scouting Association has also been a big part of John’s life. He has been a member since 1987 and currently serves on the organization’s board of directors and has completed a term as the National Chair. John received the Grey Wolf Award, AISA’s highest adult honor, and is a member of the AISA’s Council of Elders. He is currently serving his third consecutive term as the Chief of the Council of Elders.

John is a former member of the Frank H. McClung Museum Board of Advisors and is a current member of the Tennessee Board Friends of Sequoyah which oversees the operation of the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum in Vonore, Tennessee. The museum is owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

In 2019, John's autobiography, Perseverance: Growing Up Cherokee" was published.

Dr. Samuel Hollingshead, Jr., received his Bachelors Degree in Liberal Studies in Education and his Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Carson-Newman University. His Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership was conferred by East Tennessee State University. He is currently the Principal at Mt. Horeb Elementary School, Jefferson City, TN. He is also an adjunct professor for Carson-Newman University. Previously Dr. Hollingshead has served as an assistant principal, and as a middle school social studies teacher.

Dr. Hollingshead's professional memberships include the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the Tennessee Council for the Social Studies, and the National Council for the Social Studies.

His community activities include a position as the chair of the White Pine Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals.

Susan Price is the Director of Field Experiences and Assistant Professor at Carson-Newman University. She recently retired from Jefferson County Schools, where she was an Instructional Coach and former 5th grade teacher at Dandridge Elementary School. She is Past Chair of the Literacy Association of Tennessee and the current Co-Chair of its annual literacy conference. Susan is very active in the Mossy Creek Literacy Association.

She is the 2019 receipient of the Hoyte Snow Literacy Leadership Award and has worked with a variety of literacy organizations, including the Tenneess Education Department, to provide training for teachers across Tennessee.

Susan serves as the powwow volunteer coordinator.

Janis Adams Kyser serves as the director for the Tennessee Center for Civic Learning and Engagement providing professional development opportunities and resources for educators. Janis has a long career in education having taught for 35 years bringing service learning and civic education opportunities to students from K-16.

Janis serves as the Tennessee liaison for the Campaign for Civic Mission of Schools and works closely with the Tennessee and National Councils for Social Studies. She was instrumental through her work with the Tennessee Department of Education and the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy in the establishment of the Tennessee Commission on Civic Education that researched extensively the status of civics learning throughout the state. Janis works closely with legislators to keep civics in the limelight, recently passing legislation requiring students, once in grades 4-8 and once in high school, to take a project based civic learning assessment.

Janis serves as the state coordinator and trainer for the Center for Civic Education’s We the People: The Citizen & the Constitution and We the People: Project Citizen, and the School Violence Prevention and Demonstration program. Janis has directed five Teaching American History grants that provided 120 educators with a Master’s degree. She has written grants and received funding for over 20 million dollars in funding. She actively pursues programs and funding to advance Civic Learning that will empower youth to demonstrate their learning, express their voices, and to become actively engaged as responsible citizens.

Ernest Grant, from Cherokee, NC, the son of renowned dancer and artist General Grant, was born into the deer clan on his father’s side. His maternal clan is Bitter Water from his late mother Virginia Grant of the Dineh nation from New Mexico. Ernest is following his parents’ steps in being an artist. He grew up in the dance arena of powwows as he traveled with his family. Ernest was an original member of the American Indian Dance Theater, where he learned the professional discipline of stage performance as the troupe traveled throughout the world. His experience with the Theater led him to other music and dance companies. Today, he shares in his work the culture and knowledge shared with him by many others throughout his life.

Advisory Board

Dr. Jefferson Chapman	Randy Solomon	Dr. John Finger
Syd Golston	Eddie Swimmer	Rachel Talbert
Carol Warren	Debbie Woodiel	Bill Carey

Jefferson Chapman, PhD, RPA, is Director Emeritus of the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, and an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University in 1965 and a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Brown University in 1968. He taught history and anthropology at the Webb School of Knoxville for six years before returning again to graduate school. After receiving an MA and PhD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee. Dr. Chapman has had over 40 years of experience in conducting archaeology in Tennessee. Appointed Director of the McClung Museum in 1990, Chapman's focus shifted from archaeology to making the Museum a prominent University and community asset. Dr. Chapman previously served as Chairman of the Tennessee Archaeological Advisory Council; he also serves on the board of The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee and the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum He is a member of the Rotary Club of Knoxville and Leadership Knoxville, Class of 1992.	Randy Solomon, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, resides in Memphis, TN. He is a Native artist, beadworker, singer and dancer. Solomon has performed in many multicultural programs and powwows across the United States and Europe. He has worked in logistics for Fedex the past 26 years in Memphis. He is a very active advocate in the powwow circuit in helping Native youth who aspire to dance. In addition, he is a voice for Native and water rights across Indian country.	Dr. John R. Finger is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where he taught for 32 years. From 1997 to 2000 he was Head of the History Department. As an undergraduate, he attended the universities of Missouri and Kansas before earning his Ph.D. at the University of Washington. In 1969, after teaching two years at Rochester Institute of Technology, he began his long stay at UTK. He veered from his original focus on the American Frontier and Westward Movement and fixated on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, who remained his major scholarly interest for the rest of his career. Besides many published articles and reviews he has authored three books: The Eastern Band of Cherokees, 1819-1900; Cherokee Americans: The Eastern Band of Cherokees in the Twentieth Century; and Tennessee Frontiers: Three Regions in Transition. His Native American orientation helped him receive a Fulbright Award in 1990 to teach at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. His travels and lecturing in NZ and Australia helped familiarize him with Maori and Aboriginal cultures. He is still engaged in research and writing, though it's in behalf of his current passion--fiction.
Syd Golston, a past President of the National Council for the Social Studies, is an educational administrator, curriculum writer, historian, and community volunteer. She taught at all grade levels from 7th to college, specializing in constructivist learning experiences in local and women's history and in citizenship education. She received many teaching awards and grants when she was a classroom teacher. Syd wrote the books Changing Woman of the Apache, Revisiting America, The Death Penalty, and Studies in Arizona History, and many journal articles. The organizations for which she has written curriculum include the PBS Online NewsHour, Kids Voting USA, UNICEF, and the Commission on the Presidential Debates. She has recently retired from the Phoenix Union High School District, Phoenix, Arizona, having served as an administrator since 2000, most recently as the director of a Teaching American History grant from the US Department of Education.	Eddie Swimmer is an internationally known hoop dancer from Cherokee, NC. He is a former World Grand Champion who has travelled across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. He performed at the 1994 World Cup Soccer Tournament and at the 1996 and 2002 Olympics. His image appears on a United States postage stamp as a part of the Native Dance series.	Dr. Rachel Talbert is a postdoctoral fellow with the Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education and the Department of Curriculum and Teaching, she earned her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development in 2021. Her research with urban Indigenous youth in public schools focuses on social studies education and outside of school spaces and how they support civic identity negotiation and its relationship to tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
Carol Carney Warren is retired from the position as K-12 Social Studies Specialist with the Arizona Department of Education. She has master’s degrees in Elementary Education and in History from Arizona State University and taught for 25 years at Sacaton Public School on the Gila River Indian Community. In addition, she has taught Social Studies Education and History courses at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. Carol has received several awards for teaching and lesson writing, including a Lifetime Achievement in Social Studies Education in Arizona award from the Arizona Council for the Social Studies. Most recently she was awarded a Teaching Western History Award from the Western History Association for a lesson she wrote on the Akimel O’odham and water loss on the Gila River Indian Community. Through her association with the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) and as a Teacher Consultant for the Arizona Geographic Alliance (AzGA) she has written many elementary lessons and activities on Indigenous topics, presented at national and international educational conferences, and written articles and lessons for publication. In retirement, Carol continues to support Indigenous education efforts by volunteering with the Indigenous Education Community of the NCSS. She also creates and presents lessons, has developed and presented webinars, and advises on local and national projects concerning history and Indigenous topics.	Debbie Woodiel is retired from the McClung Museum of Natual History & Culture, University of Tennessee, where she was Assistant Director and Museum Educator. She enjoyed many facets of her job, including designing and implementing programs for various audiences and special events, working on the the exhibits team, managing the education collection, supervising outreach programs to schools, overseeing summer camps, working with UT students and faculty, and conducting inservice workshops for precollege teachers about the permanent and temporary exhibitions. So many exhibitions, so many programs! Twenty-six years went by quickly. Woodiel came to East Tennessee from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, having worked there as Chief of Interpretive Services and Archaeologist for the Louisana Office of State Parks. In that job, she conducted surveys and supervised excavations at historic and prehistoric parks as well as outdoor recreation parks, oversaw collections at these sites, and reviewed interpretive program designs, museum and exhibit designs, written materials and audiovisual programs, and historic restoration plans. Her division also funded special annual public programs at parks around the state. Even longer ago (way back in 1975), she began her career as Staff Archaeologist at the Louisiana Division of Archaeology when it was a new state agency, doing fieldwork and reviewing cultural resources reports. Woodiel received B.A. and M.A. degrees in Anthropology from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.	Bill Carey is the founder and executive director of Tennessee History for Kids, an organization whose website, booklets, and posters are used in more than 6,000 classrooms across the Volunteer State. Bill is also a former journalist, the author of six books on the history of Nashville and a columnist for Tennessee Magazine and several newspapers throughout the state. He once served in the United States Navy, where he flew the P-3 Orion.

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