Helping Realize BEI Goals
Board Members
Michael McDermott, President
Black Earth, Wisconsin
Retired physician, social justice and environmental activist, host of Brigit Rest.
Flo Golod, Treasurer
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Executive Director for 20 years of Southside Family School, an award-winning alternative school with an innovative civil rights curriculum; professional fund-raiser and fiction writer; Flo Golod & Associates works with organizations on capital campaigns, annual campaigns and start-up efforts. Flo received the 1985 McKnight Award for Community Service in the Twin Cities.
Ann Fisher-Wirth
Oxford, Mississippi
Professor in the English Department at the University of Mississippi
Bob Braine
Wantaugh, New York
Retired staff member from Time Inc, active in secular humanist organizations that encourage real-world efforts to improve the human condition.
Kevin Koch
Dubuque, Iowa
Professor of English. Dr. Koch facilitated an affiliation between BEI and Loras College, a source of interns during the school year and summer
Mary Jo Nietz
Columbia, MO
Professor Emerita, Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Missouri. Columbia, MO
Mary Swander
Ames, Iowa
Former Fellow; Poet Laureate of Iowa; founder of AgArts.
Shayle Miller
Evanston, Illinois
Retired emergency room physician, active in educational issues.
Pam Uschuk
Tucson, Arizona
Editor and Publisher of Cutthroat a Journal of the Arts that has featured hundreds of poets in print and in programs
Board Duties
1. To establish organizational systems that support BEI’s goals.
2. To assess potential projects in terms of the organization’s goals.
3. To hold sacred space in furtherance of those goals.
4. To serve as public representatives of the organization to media, other organizations, and donors.
5. To assist in fund-raising for BEI programs.
