Kim Davenport was the founding director and chief curator of the Rice University Art Gallery from 1994 until her retirement. She holds degrees from Maryland Institute College of Art and…

Luther Brown spent most of his early life in Elmhurst, Illinois and received his BA from Elmhurst College.  He received is MA and PhD in ecology from Ohio State University,…

Felipe Chavez-Ramirez has a long history of involvement in whooping crane research and conservation activities, beginning in 1993 with his PhD thesis work at Texas A&M University. He is the…

Chris Barbic is founder of YES Prep, the founding superintendent of Tennessee's Achievement School District, and a board member of the Tennessee Charter School Center. (Fall 2010)

Mike Feinberg co-founded KIPP in Houston in 1994 and served as Superintendent of KIPP Houston until 2012. He is co-founder and president of Texas School Venture Fund. (Fall 2010)

Houston welcomed Dr. Terry Grier as superintendent of HISD in September 2009, after the district’s trustees voted unanimously in favor of his selection. Promising to transform HISD’s educational culture, he…

Melissa F. Kean was Rice University’s Centennial Historian from 2005 until her retirement in 2020. She is the author of Desegregating Private Higher Education in the South: Duke, Emory, Rice,…

Kate S. Kirkland is the author of Captain James A. Baker of Houston, 1857–1941 (Texas A&M University Press, 2012), published in conjunction with Rice University’s centennial, and The Hogg Family…

John B. Boles retired in 2019 as the William Pettus Hobby Professor of American History at Rice University, where he taught for 38 years. He is the author of the…

Clive Swansbourne studied at the Royal College of Music in London 
and received his doctorate from the Yale School of Music. He has won prizes in international competitions, and performed…