Join us to hear from four Wisconsin-based public humanities professionals who pursued non-academic career paths, from academic and nonprofit administration to editorial, fundraising, and community engagement work. This panel will be moderated by Margaret Nettesheim-Hoffmann, Director of the Career Diversity Initiative at Marquette University. Questions and topics of interest will be collected ahead of time for live Q&A and informal conversation to follow.
RSVPs are required and seats are limited.
To join, please send an email with your name and affiliation to: weindling@wisc.edu. We welcome you to bring a lunch, and light refreshments will be available.
Panelists
Margaret Nettesheim-Hoffmann, Director of the Career Diversity Initiative, Marquette University (Panel Moderator)
Margaret (Maggie) Nettesheim Hoffmann is an award-winning graduate education reformer committed to advancing graduate education and building sustainable programming initiatives. In her role as the Director of the Career Diversity Initiative at Marquette University, she has built collaborative communities of practice, engaged with Milwaukee-based nonprofits designing experiential internship projects for graduate students, and has consulted on doctoral curricular reform with graduate schools across the United States. Her work is supported by a $1.3 million grant from the Humanities Without Walls Consortium (HWW) and the Mellon Foundation. In 2022, she received the Excellence and Innovation in Graduate Education Award from the Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools. She has consulted with organizations within and beyond the academy including the University of Pittsburgh, Saint Louis University, and the Milwaukee Turners, one of the oldest civic organizations in the state of Wisconsin.
Noah Salata, Senior Grantmaking and Community Engagement Specialist, American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation
As a trust-based advocate, Noah Salata focuses on using philanthropy and grantmaking to contribute to healthier and more connected communities. As a senior grantmaking and community engagement specialist for the American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation, he believes that the antiquated and systemic challenges of philanthropy can be reduced through creating collaborative relationships, centering equity, and intentional power-sharing. In support of a better philanthropic ecosystem, he also serves as a member of the Advisory Board at the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies, the programming committee for the Wisconsin Philanthropy Network, and on the board of directors for the Center for Community Stewardship and the Marquette Neighborhood Association. Noah has undergraduate degrees in Communications and English and received his MBA in Organizational Leadership from Norwich University. He loves calling Madison, WI home and is always willing to talk more about unrestricted funding.
Rachel Byington, PhD, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Tribal Liaison, Wisconsin Historical Society
Rachel Byington completed her BS, master’s, and PhD in the School of Human Ecology in the Department of Civil Society and Community Studies at UW-Madison. Her dissertation is titled, “And We Were a Unit”: Urban American Indian Youth Perspectives on Act 31. The study examined the experiences of Native youth learning about Native peoples in public schools. Her master’s study research focused on the impacts of cultural programs that teach elements of traditional practices with an environmental focus on urban Native youth. She was recently hired as the Tribal Liaison for the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS). Building upon the foundation of Act 31—the set of state statutes that outline the requirements for teaching about the Tribes in Wisconsin—she diplomatically leads outreach between the Native Nations of Wisconsin and WHS to develop positive relationships and support advancement of the society’s programmatic initiatives and services by ensuring appropriate tribal input and consultation.
Tony Chambers, Director for Community Well-Being at the Center for Healthy Minds, UW-Madison
Tony Chambers is the Director for Community Well-Being at the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tony is also a Senior Lecturer in the department of Counseling Psychology, and co-leads for the Badger Belonging Initiative in the College of Letters and Sciences.
Tony was the Vice President for Student Development and Dean of Students at Edgewood College in Madison, WI. Before moving to Madison in 2016, Tony was the Chairperson for the Leadership, Higher and Adult Education Department, Associate Professor of Higher Education, and Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Students in Postsecondary Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)/University of Toronto. Tony was also the Associate Vice- Provost, Students at the University of Toronto. He was the founding Associate Director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good and Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Michigan.
Tony has served as a senior administrator and/or faculty member at several higher education institutions including Michigan State University, University of Iowa, University of Missouri-St. Louis, University of Florida, and Illinois State University. He researched and taught in the areas of college student learning, development, and success, as well as the social purposes of postsecondary education. Tony also served as a program officer and founding director of the Fetzer Fellows and Senior Scholars Program at the John Fetzer Institute, and on the board of the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Tony received the Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship and the Salzburg Seminar Fellowship and served on several domestic and international boards focusing on higher education and civic engagement. He has published widely in various professional journals and edited books, including the co-edited book, Higher Education for the Public Good: Emerging Voices from a National Movement (Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2005).
