Associate Professor of Sociology
Maryville College
Maryville, Tennessee 37804
susan.ambler@maryvillecollege.edu
865-981-8232

Professor Ambler describes her work:

My view of being a sociologist includes working with community organizations. Since sociologists have knowledge and skills that other community people may not have, I believe we have an obligation to use our knowledge and skills to help improve our communities. I am especially interested in working to promote social justice, particularly to work to empower people who have less economic and political power. I do this in several ways.

First, I do community-based research projects. My current research is discussed below. Second, I do volunteer work with community-based organizations.
Since 1984 I have been working with a grass roots group in Jellico, Tennessee called Mountain Women's Exchange. Some of the mission statement of Mountain Women's Exchange states, "We are Appalachian people who care about the quality of life in the mountains of East Tennessee and East Kentucky. We exist to promote educational, cultural, and economic development for families and communities and to foster grassroots leadership. We serve youth and adults in rural communities." I have worked primarily with their college program and have served on their board at times. I also serve on the Board of Directors of Community Shares as a representative of Mountain Women's Exchange. Community Shares is an alternative fund to United Way raising money for its member organizations. The member groups of Community Shares are all located in Tennessee and are committed to social change and social justice in their communities.

During Spring, 2000 I was on a sabbatical working three research projects, creating a study guide for the Blount County Land Use project, writing a proposal for a collaborative grant project on participatory research, and evaluating the Blount County Drug Court. The land use project involved working with a group of community people interested in documenting how their relationships with the land have changed in the last 100 years. The group learned how to conduct oral history interviews and interviewed several senior citizens who were willing to talk about their lives in Blount County. The group also decided to develop a pictorial exhibit about land use changes as a part of the project. The exhibit is located at Townsend Visitors Center on Hwy 321. (Townsend is located in Tennessee near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.) The study guide was taken primarily from secondary sources and provides detail to accompany the exhibit.

The grant proposal involves a group of faculty from several Appalachian liberal arts colleges working with community organizations in the region. We have been doing community-based research projects for the last five years. We decided to apply for a Teaching & Technology Grant from the Appalachian College Association to support developing a course module and teaching resources about participatory community-based research. I am spending some of my time this year coordinating this grant as well as developing resources for teaching. We are also starting an organization called Just Connections that will network Appalachian college students and faculty with communities who have identified research needs. We are developing a web site to provide resources for other faculty to use, and to provide information about possible participatory research projects.

The third project, evaluating Blount County's Drug Court, began in April, 2000 and was completed in July. I did the evaluation in collaboration with Mark O'Gorman, a colleague in political science at Maryville College. The evaluation is one of the requirements that the Drug Court Program must fulfill in order to continue to receive start-up money from the Department of Justice. The Court has been in existence since January, 1999.

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Marie Cirillo - Clearfork Valley

marie@jellico.net
423-784-6832

Marie Cirillo describes her story:

I am a seventh generation from early settlers in rural Kentucky whose family incorporated English, German and Irish immigrants. My mother's move to New York and marriage to an Italian immigrant gave me the unique exposure to the diversity found in the American family which included a rural-urban mix of life styles. Raised in a residential section of Brooklyn, I was a student of music, since that was both mother and dad's profession. I returned to the rural south at age 19 as a missionary where I worked for 18 years in the coal fields of Appalachia and in the cities where Appalachians were migrating in the 1950s and 1960s. My formal studies were in art, theology and sociology.

In 1967 I broke out of all the boxes to establish myself in the Clearfork Valley, where I continue to live. I was centered on the idea of community and the differences between rural and urban communities. My question was about why people who held values that drew them to rural life did not really have that choice any more. What followed for many years was an engagement with local people in trying to make life possible and livable in the Clearfork Valley. I believed that if we could find answers here it would be an answer to a larger constituency. Industrialization seems to bring on urbanization. And along with that we now know industrialization brings on things good and bad, depending on ones idea of a good life.

What I knew was that what happened over a seven generation period for me happened in Appalachia within a period of about fifteen years. The drama and the trauma of the impact of migration and environmental degradation (the natural resources of a community) were dissipated. This was a demonstration of the influence of an industrial system on the life of all Americans. Today it is clear that industrialism and urbanization are spreading all over the world. It is time for communities both rural and urban to articulate their values and mobilize for a few wins.

I sought answers as I worked through Appalachian Community Development, a program of the Catholic Church, and with local people. I try to support individuals and community groups who step forward to make a contribution to their community's survival. In time I started connecting with regional, national and international groups that supported the work of community based initiatives. I have moved through crafts to clinics, from factories to child care centers, from housing to forestry, from women to adult education.

At this time in the development of the community I am focusing on two activities. A newsletter entitled What on Earth: Is Going on in the Clearfork Valley comes out bi-weekly. A team of four holds this together while others in the community call, write, make suggestions and pass copies on to their kin who have left the area. The other activity is an effort to highlight the diversity of works going on in the community by developing the Clearfork Community Institute as a learning center to support local community based development organizations (CBOs). Over a period of about three years it became clear that people wanted this to be a place for intergenerational experiences, a place to orient local work, study and fun around concerns for a sustainable economy, a meaningful community based education program and a spirit-culture centering. The learning center would promote peer learning, seek the help of experts and find a special place for visiting students who come to share our experience and bring their own skills and insights into our efforts.

I continue to make contacts with individuals and organizations/institutions outside of the community who share our values, see the need to interface for a stimulating exchange, and have something to give and are open to receive. We look today for serious partners.

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Steve Fisher - Emory & Henry College
Professor Emeritus

Past Director of the Appalachian Center for Community Service @ Emory & Henry College
Emory, VA
slfisher44@earthlink.net

Steve Fisher taught for 35 years at Emory & Henry College where he helped create an Appalachian Studies minor, the Appalachian Center for Community Service, and an interdisciplinary service-learning major. He was the 1999 Carnegie Foundation Outstanding Baccalaureate College Professor of the Year and has won a number of other teaching-related awards.

He is the editor of Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change and has written extensively on a variety of Appalachian issues, including identity, resistance, and political economy, and on teaching and community-based education. He has been active in a number of Appalachian resistance efforts including the land study, Appalachian Alliance, and the Pittston strike and has worked to build links between the academic community and activists in the region. He was co-founder and columnist for The Plow, an alternative regional newspaper in the late 1970s.

He serves on the board of the Highlander Center, is an active member of the Appalachian Peace Education Center and the Virginia Organizing Project, and is Chair of his county's Planning Commission. He was the program chair of the first Appalachian Studies Conference, has served as President of the Appalachian Studies Association, and currently serves on the ASA long range planning committee.

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George Loveland - Ferrum College

Head of Library Public Services
Ferrum College
Ferrum, VA
gloveland@ferrum.edu
540-365-4427

George Loveland is most interested in using his information science knowledge and skills to move information access from the academy to the community. Believing that knowledge is indeed power, he works to help community activists achieve greater information access, thus shifting the balance of power somewhat from elite intellectuals to grassroots activists.

He is a founder and Co-Chair of the Friends of the Harry Lasker Library at Highlander, an organization that supports the role of information activism through the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. He is founder and coordinator of the People's Information Network, an informal network of researchers that provide research assistance to unions and community organizations fighting for radical democratic change. He is also the librarian of Just Connections.

George is a member of the Appalachian Studies Association, the American Association of University Professors, and the Industrial Workers of the World. He has led students on alternative breaks focused on service learning. He has published articles on the Harry Lasker Library at Highlander and is currently at work on a book on the union-led buyout of Champion International Paper in Canton, North Carolina.

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Guy Larry Osborne - Carson-Newman College

Professor of Psychology
Carson-Newman College
Jefferson City, TN
losborne@cn.edu
865-471-3470

Larry's research, teaching and activism come out of the fields of community and environmental psychology. He is interested in the interrelationships of human development, social justice, and the natural world.

When asked to describe his approach to thinking about what makes for healthy development, he states, "I look at these things from an ecological and community perspective. To me if you want to help see people living happy, empowered, and healthy lives, you need to work together towards having healthy, democratic communities and healthy, diverse ecosystems."

He has been involved in several successful participatory action research projects in which college students have worked in partnership with such grass-roots groups as Mountain Women's Exchange in Jellico, TN, Citizens of Lee Environmental Action Network in Lee County, VA, and Citizens for Job Equality and Fairness in Jefferson County, TN.

Franki Patton Rutherford - Big Creek People in Action, Inc.

frankipr@hotmail.com
304-875-3418

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Kathie Shiba - Maryville College

Professor of Psychology
Maryville College
Maryville, TN 37804
kathie.shiba@maryvillecollege.edu
865-981-8270

Kathie Shiba describes herself:

As a developmental psychologist I am interested in understanding the development of identity, personality, and leadership -- particularly in women. In the past, I have been interested in how prejudice and discrimination have developed and been supported. Currently, my focus is on understanding how, especially during times of hardship and stress, some individuals can be positive, nonviolent, and motivated to endure and make changes, both in personal relationships and in institutions.

As a parent, I live in my community aware of the impact that availability of resources (such as education, economics, and social support) have on not only my children's future, but also that of the world. This has motivated me to be active in my community, to support work which leads to peace, sustainability, diversity, and respect.

I am committed to my vocation -- that of learner and teacher -- and strive to work towards a peaceful and just world. I hope that I am as worthy a role model to my students and children, as my role models have been to me.
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Deborah Thompson

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Last updated: 23 July 2008 Kathie Shiba