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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- September 4 , 2007
CONTACT: Scott Hirko, Public Relations Officer,
shirko [at] mihumanities.org, 517-372-0029 ext. 25

Karen Smith from Traverse City, Amy DeWys-VanHecke from Grosse Pointe Farms

(LANSING)-----The Michigan Humanities Council announces that two individuals were recently elected to its Board of Directors: Karen Emens Smith from Traverse City and Amy DeWys-VanHecke from Grosse Pointe Farms. They were elected on June 14, 2007, and will serve until December 31, 2008.

Amy DeWys-VanHecke of Grosse Pointe Farms brings to the Council nearly 20 years of volunteer and work experience in nonprofit and cultural organizations in Iowa, Mississippi, and Michigan. She is currently a partner at ASA Consulting Group in Southfield, where she assists with nonprofit organizations with client base development, grant writing, and developing curriculum and educational programs. DeWys-VanHecke is also an adjunct instruct at Henry Ford Community College. Previously, she was the curator of Education at the Detroit Historical Museum and an educational consultant to Detroit 300, Inc. She volunteers for several community organizations and recently served on arts grant review panels for the Michigan Council of Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Michigan Department of Education. From 1991 - 1996, DeWys-VanHecke was a museums educator at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, where she worked on her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership. She also earned a Master of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Iowa in 1990 and a Bachelor of Arts Interdisciplinary Degree in Archaeology from Calvin College in 1988.

Karen Emens Smith of Traverse City has a distinguished career as both a civic leader in arts and culture and as a national touring soprano soloist from the mid-1960s to early-1990s. She is the co-founder and director of the Young People Theater Series, Inc., of Traverse City, and serves on the 1891 City Opera House Heritage Association Board, the Traverse Symphony Orchestra Board, and the Traverse Area Arts Council. Smith has 30 years of experience with youth educational activities in the Traverse City area. Her leadership includes service on several statewide arts organizations, including from 2002-2006 on the board of the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs, from 1991-1994 on the University of Michigan School of Music and Hill Auditorium capital campaign committees, and the University of Michigan School of Music Alumni Society board of governors.

The Michigan Humanities Council's Board of Directors currently consists of 21 members whose responsibilities include program and proposal review, planning, fundraising, advocacy for the humanities, liaison to projects, and other representation of the Council at activities around the state. Four members of the Council are gubernatorial appointees while the Council Board elected 17.

The Michigan Humanities Council, founded in 1974, is the state's independent, non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. For additional information on the Michigan Humanities Council, please visit: www.michiganhumanities.org or call 517-372-7770.