I joined the university community in the summer of 1976 as a staff linguist in the North Dakota Indian Languages Program and became a full-time faculty member in the Humanities Division three years later. My areas of reading interest include evolutionary biology, religious studies, and cognitive science. My professional areas of interest lie at the intersection of cognitive linguistics and literature.

Community and Professional Interests

• Lay Eucharistic minister, St. George’s Episcopal Church

On Servant-Leadership . . .

When called upon by the group, a servant-leader is able to lead as a steward leads – for the good of the group as discerned by the group. Most of the time, however, the servant-leader prefers to call forth and nurture the leadership and talents of others. Thus the servant-leader is the antithesis of the boss who “leads” by imposing his arrogant will upon a silenced, suffering crowd. The servant-leader trusts, communicates, and shares responsibility broadly.

Education

    Ph.D. Linguistics
        The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
    M.A. English
        Virginia Polytechnic University and State University,
        Blacksburg, VA
    B.A. English
        Virginia Polytechnic University and State University,
        Blacksburg, VA

Professional Memberships

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
• Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
• Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA)
• International Cognitive Linguistics Association (ICLA)

Undergraduate Courses Taught

• The Writing Process
• Grammar
• English Language and Linguistics
• Survey of World Literature
• Critical Theory

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