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Gaines Center Affiliated Teaching Faculty 2024-2025: Our Year on Health and the Humanities

Jason Akhtarekharavi — Jason Akhtarekhavari

Arts in HealthCare Program Manager
A graduate of the University of Kentucky with a BA in History, Jason joined UK Arts in HealthCare in 2011 and assumed management of the program in mid-2018. Jason seeks to educate his local community and expand awareness of the health and wellness benefits of the arts. He spends much of his free time creating mixed media visual art, singing, songwriting and authoring poems for his long-standing poetry site, poems365.com. His past professional experience includes business ownership, consulting, management and administration. When not immersed in the arts, Jason likes to travel and explore the outdoors.

Lance Brunner — Lance Brunner, Ph.D

Associate Professor, Musicology and Ethnomusicology, College of Fine Arts
Lance Brunner brings an unusual perspective to his musical scholarship and teaching. A graduate of Brown University, he earned his MA and PhD degrees (1973; 1977) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also studied in Germany at the University of Erlangen with the renowned chant scholar Bruno Stäblein. Brunner’s scholarly work has focused on medieval chant and music since 1900, publishing numerous articles and reviews on these subjects; his edition and study of early medieval chant from Northern Italy was published in 1999 by A-R Editions. He has been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, including the Elliott Prize from the American Mediaeval Academy and the Notes Prize from the Music Library Association, as well as awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, American-Scandinavian Foundation, American Philosophical Society, and the German Academic Exchange Service. His career path, however, has led him to pursuits outside of music history.
He held a Kellogg National Fellowship from 1985-1988, a leadership program that also allowed him to research the role of music in human health and healing, as well as to study leadership in a wide variety of social and political contexts. He was co-founder (with Arthur Harvey) of Music for Health Services Foundation in 1986 and he served as adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Louisville (1990-93), where he helped establish the Center for the Study of Music and Medicine there. He worked in conjunction with the UK Appalachian Center to secure a $1.2 million grant to foster leadership in the Appalachian counties of Eastern Kentucky, and was the founding Director of the Commonwealth Fellowship Program from 1990-1996. He is a founding member of the UK’s Emerging Leader Institute (1989-2006) and has taught a seminar on creativity and business for MBAs at UK. He is also a certified meditation instructor who established the mindfulness meditation offering in UK’s Wellness Program. He conducts workshops in North America and Europe on creativity through the arts.
This broad range of interests, combined with his training and experience as a musicologist, make him an unusual and popular teacher.

Claire Clark — Claire D. Clark, PhD, MPH

Associate Professor, Behavioral Science, College of Medicine
Claire D. Clark, PhD, MPH is a medical educator, health historian, and associate professor at the University of Kentucky’s College of Medicine. She holds joint appointments in the University of Kentucky's Department of Behavioral Science and Department of History and is a faculty affiliate of the College of Medicine's Program for Bioethics and Center for Health Equity Transformation. She is committed to integrating the health humanities into medical, graduate, and pre-medical education and is the incoming co-president of the Health Humanities Consortium. She is the author of a peer-reviewed book, The Recovery Revolution: The Battle Over Addiction Treatment in the United States (Columbia University Press, 2017), a genealogy of the industrialization of abstinence-based addiction treatment, as well as the co-curator of archival and oral history collections related to the history of therapeutic community addiction treatment centers in the United States. Her faculty position is primarily teaching-oriented, and she co-directs Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) I and II, a required longitudinal “doctoring” course for first-year medical students across UK’s multiple campuses. ICM consists of more than 20 small groups run by MD/PhD preceptor pairs and covers topics such as doctor-patient communication, grief and loss, medical ethics, health inequities, and substance use and harm reduction. She also serves as Director of Graduate Studies for certificate, MS, and PhD programs in Clinical and Translational Science and offers the program’s graduate seminar in Clinical Research Ethics. In addition, she founded and directs a new interdisciplinary, inquiry-based pre-medical program in medical behavioral science, for which she teaches the capstone course, Shadowing: A Guide to Social Medicine. Shadowing combines an orientation to the health humanities (history of medicine, narrative medicine, visual arts and medicine, social sciences and medicine, and bioethics) with clinical experiences at interprofessional health care sites. Finally, she is developing a graduate course, History of Medicine Among African Americans: Implications for Health Disparities, to be offered jointly by the Departments of Behavioral Science and History beginning in Fall 2024. This course is one of two possible electives that may be taken in fulfillment of the coursework requirement for the Department of Behavioral Science's White Coats for Black Lives Fellowship Program.
Before coming to the University of Kentucky in January 2015, she earned her combined PhD and MPH degrees from Emory University and held fellowships at the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, TX and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Drug Use Work Group in Atlanta, GA. At UKY, she has lead or contributed to educational initiatives that have been supported with grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Institute of International Education Incorporated, and the National Institutes of Health. In 2023, she was appointed a Chellgren Endowed Professor (2023-2026) on the basis of her work with pre-medical students.

Erin Koch — Erin Koch, Ph.D

Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, College of Arts & Science
As an anthropologist Dr. Koch's primary interests are in ethnographic studies of science, technology, medicine, and health inequalities. She is currently developing new areas of research to ethnographically explore experiences with health in relation to agriculture, food, and microbes and is also interested in the practical and translational significance of plant, soil and social sciences for health and ecological wellbeing in contexts such as Kentucky, where local and regional viability and disparity are deeply rooted in agricultural histories, ecologies, institutions and practices.
Dr. Koch's previous research investigated responses to tuberculosis in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union, focusing on the implementation of a global WHO-based protocol for TB control. Her research investigated how Georgian service providers navigate changes in what counts as “expert knowledge,” and the actual versus expected results of a so-called technical solution for disease management that is at once cultural, political, and biological. In her book based on this project, Free Market Tuberculosis: Managing Epidemics in post-Soviet Georgia, she examines cultural, (micro)biological, and political aspects of TB control in Georgia, and how contemporary global health standards for TB control multiply and reproduce the very disease they are designed to combat. Free Market Tuberculosis provides important and novel anthropological insights about infectious disease, human-microbe relationships, global health paradigms and interventions, and postsocialism. The book received the 2011 annual Norman L. and Roselea J. Goldberg Prize for the best project in the area of medicine (Vanderbilt University Press) and the 2014 Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies for an outstanding monograph on Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe in anthropology, political science, sociology or geography (awarded by ASEEES).
In Georgia, Dr. Koch also studied health effects of displacement among populations forced to flee their homes during civil war. She worked in a small city in western Georgia near the Abkhaz border to investigate the clinical, state and NGO administrative aspects of health needs assessment and service distribution. Published and in-progress articles based on that research address how global health and humanitarian interventions produce moral claims about displacement and health to organize institutions, diagnoses and social spaces as they bring relief--and distress--to social displaced populations.

Mel Stein — Melissa N. Stein, Ph.D

Associate Professor, Gender & Women's Studies, College of Arts & Sciences
Melissa N. Stein (Mel Stein; she/her/hers) is an associate professor in the Gender and Women’s Studies Department at the University of Kentucky. Prior to coming to UK, she completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Rutgers University Center for Race & Ethnicity and in the Gender Studies Department at Indiana University. She received her BA from Franklin & Marshall College and her PhD in History from Rutgers University in 2008, specializing in African-American and women’s/gender history. While at Rutgers, Stein was also a graduate fellow at the Institute for Research on Women, an Excellence Fellow at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, and head research assistant at the Center for Race and Ethnicity. Her publications include "'The Blood of Innocent Children': Race, Respectability, and 'True' Victimhood in the 1985 MOVE Police Bombing" (Souls Volume 22, 2020), essays on "Science" in the Routledge History of American Sexuality (Routledge Press, 2020), "Whiteness" in Oxford Bibliographies in African American Studies (Oxford University Press, 2019), “Race as a Social Construction” and “Class” in Black Women in America (Oxford University Press, 2005), and on “Misogyny” in The Encyclopedia of Women in World History (Oxford University Press, 2007), and an article, “‘Nature is the author of such restrictions’: Science, Ethnological Medicine, and Jim Crow,” in The Culture of Jim Crow: Rethinking the Segregated South, 1880-1920, edited by Stephanie Cole and Natalie Ring (Texas A&M University Press, 2011).
Stein’s first book, Measuring Manhood: Race and the Science of Masculinity, 1830-1934 (University of Minnesota Press, 2015), is a gendered analysis of scientific racism in nineteenth and early twentieth century America that interrogates biomedical constructions of citizenship, investigates the relationship between racial and sexual sciences, and examines scientists’ attempts to offer medical solutions to the nation’s “race problems.”

Tanya Whitehouse — Chef Tanya Whitehouse

Chef and Program Manager, The Food Connection
Chef Tanya is both the heart and brains of The Food Connection's culinary programing. As the former Sous Chef of Holly Hill Inn for Ouita Michel, she brings both her culinary expertise and a passion for Kentucky-grown foods to our programing. You’ll find her both in our learning kitchen and out in the community inviting students and professionals, children and adults to gain new skills, explore new flavors, and enjoy new experiences. Chef Tanya passionately believes that we are inexorably tied to what we eat and that sitting down to a meal together can connect you with other people in a way nothing else can. Tanya’s favorite Kentucky food is her grandma’s recipe for ketchup, and her favorite tool is her 10” chef’s knife. Tanya leads a number of programs for our community members throughout the year.

Gaines Center for the Humanities Board

Matthew Clarke — Matthew Clarke

Matthew Clarke is the Executive Director of the Design Trust for Public Space, where he advocates for the power of public space to build vibrant, equitable communities. As an architect, planner, and writer, he has advanced complex architectural and urban design projects; written public-space policies; and developed national partnerships and initiatives. Prior to leading the Design Trust, Matthew was the National Director of Creative Placemaking at The Trust for Public Land. He has also held positions at SHoP Architects, NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs, and LTL Architects.

Judge Jennifer Coffman — Judge Jennifer B. Coffman

Judge Coffman is a retired U.S. District Judge for Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky.

Clay Dunn — Clay Dunn

An entrepreneur for social change, Clay Dunn is the founding Chief Executive Officer of VOW for Girls, the organization that champions girls around the world without the rights, resources, and choices to decide their own futures. Prior to VOW for Girls, Clay helped launch and build the successful No Kid Hungry campaign to end childhood hunger in America. Before moving into more purpose-driven work, he was a marketing and entertainment executive, most recently at National Geographic Channels. A native of Kentucky, Clay lives in Brooklyn with his husband.

John Edinger — John Edinger

"Jed" is co-owner of J. Edinger & Son, Inc. a family-owned and operated truck equipment company that specializes in the fabrication, installation and servicing of a variety of vocational vehicles.

Carol Farmer — Carol Farmer

Carol Farmer is active advocate for Kentucky's equine industry and owner of Shadowlawn Farm in Midway, KY.

Melody Flowers — Melody Flowers

Melody, a former Gaines Fellow and Truman Scholar, currently serves as the Assistant Vice President for Economic Development & Real Estate at the University of Kentucky, leading efforts across campus including business engagement, creative place making, and development of campus innovation spaces and economic impact programs. Prior, Melody led integrated academic and financial planning at Harvard University and brings many years of experience from the non-profit and government sectors. Passionate about community, Melody serves on the board of numerous local organizations, including CivicLex, Fayette Alliance, and the Downtown Lexington Partnership among others.

Joan Gaines — Joan B. Gaines

Joan Gaines, and her husband John, founded the UK Gaines Center for the Humanities in 1984.

Thomas Gaines — Thomas Gaines

Thomas is the CEO of KBC International Inc. and Gaines Thoroughbreds. He is the son of the Center founders John and Joan Gaines.

Steve Grossman — Steve Grossman

Steve is the Managing Director of Baird Private Wealth Management and Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Lexington Downtown Development Authority.

Donna Hall — Donna S. Hall

Donna is an active philanthropist who supports a number of organizations such as the Everglades Foundation Chairman’s Advisory Council, the Naples Botanical Garden board and Berea College's Board of Trustees.

Adam Kegley — Adam Kegley

Adam is a former Gaines Fellow and a partner at Frost Brown Todd LLP.

Josephine Richardson — Josephine D. Richardson

Josephine is a restaurateur and bookshop owner based in Whitesburg, KY where she is an active advocate for Appalachian writers, artisans and craftspeople.

Dan Rowland — Daniel Rowland

Dan is professor emeritus in the University of Kentucky Department of History and former director of the Gaines Center. Dan’s research focusses on the political culture of early modern Russia. A former Marshall Scholar, Dan serves on the boards of Bennington College and the Rowland Foundation, a foundation that supports school teachers in Vermont.

Josh Santana — Joshua Santana

Joshua is a founding partner at Santana and Fay, LLC.

Scott Shapiro — Scott Shapiro

Scott Shapiro is currently building Midland Station, an infill-housing development in Lexington's downtown. He is a former Chief Innovation Officer under Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.

Jay Varellas — Jay Varellas

Jay is a partner of Varellas & Varellas in Lexington, a past recipient of the prestigious Truman Scholarship and former Gaines Fellow.

Holly Wiedemann — Holly Wiedemann

Holly is founding principal and President of AU Associates, Inc. She has specifically worked in the renovation, creation, adaptive reuse, and development of affordable housing since 1986. She serves on multiple boards including Lexington Center/Rupp Arena Board, the Cleveland Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank, National Housing and Rehabilitation Association, the Triangle Foundation and Fayette Alliance.

Richard Young — Richard Young

Richard Young is the Founder and Executive Director of CivicLex, a civic education organization that has been recognized by the Library of Congress and the American Academy of Arts and Science as a solution for rebuilding American Democracy for the 21st Century.

President, University of Kentucky: Eli Capilouto
Provost, University of Kentucky: Robert DiPaola
Dean, Lewis Honors College: Christian Brady
Dean, College of Arts & Sciences: Ana Franco-Watkins
Director, Gaines Center for the Humanities: Michelle Sizemore
Gaines Fellows Student Representative: Ella Brown-Terry

Gaines Center Faculty of Record

Stephen Davis — Stephen Davis

Stephen Davis is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences. He is affiliated with the Department of African American and Africana Studies, the Department of History, the Social Theory Program, and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.

Herman Farrell — Herman D. Farrell III

Herman D. Farrell III is a Professor in the College of Fine Arts, Department of Theatre and Dance.

Karyn Hinkle — Karyn Hinkle

Karyn Hinkle, a Gaines alumna, is a visual and performing arts librarian based in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library.

Lou Hirsch — Lou Hirsch

Lou Hirsch is an Assistant Professor in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, Department of Plant Pathology.

Darshak Patel — Darshak Patel

Darshak Patel is a Senior Lecturer of Economics in the Gatton College of Business and Economics.

Kelly Pennell — Kelly Pennell

Kelly Pennell is a Professor of Civil Engineering in the Stanley & Karen Pigman College of Engineering. She is also the Director of the UK Superfund Research Center.

Rebecca Radtke — Rebecca Radtke

Rebekah Radtke is an Associate Professor in the College of Design, School of Interiors.

M. Sara Rosenthal — M. Sara Rosenthal

M. Sara Rosenthal is a Professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Pediatrics and Behavioral Science and the Founding Directorof the Program for Bioethics and the MCC Oncology Ethics Program

Leon Sachs — Leon Sachs

Leon Sachs is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.

Ryan Voogt — Ryan Voogt

Ryan Voogt is a Lecturer in the Lewis Honors College.

Crystal Wilkinson — Crystal Wilkinson

Crystal Wilkinson is an Associate Professor in the College of Arts & Sciences. She is affiliated with the Department of English, the Appalachian Center, the Department of African American and Africana Studies, and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.