Rosann has a Master of Arts in Storytelling from East Tennessee State University, one of the few select fully accredited graduate programs in professional and applied storytelling in the United States. Her thesis, From Teacher to Teller, used autobiographical inquiry to explore storytelling as a teaching tool. She received the Dan Crowley Memorial Research Award for Best Graduate Paper for her research on Appalachian oral literature from the Storytelling Section of the American Folklore Society. In 2005, she was a charter advisory board member for the Center and joined the Center staff in 2008. Her hobbies are sharing stories with communities far and near. 

Dr. Chris Dockery, Appalachian Teaching Fellow

Chris Dockery holds an M.F.A. degree in painting from Clemson University and a Ph.D. in art education from the University of Georgia. She is the coordinator of the art education program in the department of visual arts at NGCSU.    

In her academic research, Chris explores alternative approaches to creative education. Her dissertation entitled, Picturing Utopia: A Collective Portrait of Three Craft Schools of the Southern Highlands examines the craft school as a historical model of progressive pedagogy and instruction in training individuals in creative media and pursuit. Chris has utilized her research findings in her own approach to visual arts education both in the studio and in training students to teach art in a school environment.  She is the co-author of Finding Balance in Contemporary Foundations Programs. (2006-2007).  FATE in Review.Vol. 28.and continues to pursue her research into regional models of visual arts pedagogy. She has presented her research at a number of national and regional conferences including most recently the National Art Education Association Conference and the Appalachian Studies Association Conference.

Chris sees her academic research and her artistic work as a means to the same end. She is a product of the region, a native of Murphy, North Carolina and infuses her passion for the region and her Appalachian identity in all products of her creative and scholarly search.

The Center has a 23-member Faculty Advisory Committee and a cadre of student and community volunteers.