Honors Academic Board

Spiral metal statue against a dark blue sky and the moon

Honors Academic Board Members

Ray Ball, Ph.D. - Honors College Dean
Martha Amore, Ph.D. - Honors Academic Board Chair
Mychal Machado, Ph.D. - Major Scholarships Coordinator

Community Engagement 

  • Donna Langley, M.S.
  • Corrie Whitmore, Ph.D.

Global & Multicultural Studies

  • Natasa Masanovic-Courtney, Ph.D.
  • Jeff Meyers, Ph.D.

Leadership

  • Kevin Berry, Ph.D.
  • Susan Meskis, M.S.
  • Kimberly Pace

Research & Creative Activity

  • Tracey Burke, Ph.D.
  • Masoumeh Heidari Kapourchali, Ph.D.
  • Taylor Keister, M.A., M.LIS.

 

Ray Ball

Ray Ball, Ph.D
Dean of the Honors College
e: rball11@alaska.edu
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Ray Ball has called Alaska home since 2012, when she arrived at UAA as a Professor of European and World History. She holds an MA and a PhD in History from Ohio State University and an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Ray researches and writes about the early Spanish Empire and the individuals who crisscrossed its vast territories, including actresses, friars, outlaw dukes, Venetian spies, and African healers. Interim Dean Ball is the author of two history books, three poetry books, and numerous articles and reviews. She's been the recipient of a Fulbright Research Award to Spain, an NEH Summer Institute Award, and the UAA Chancellor's Award for Research and for Teaching.

 

Photo of Martha Amore

Martha Amore, Ph.D.
Honors Academic Board Chair
e: mjamore@alaska.edu

Martha Amore lives in Anchorage, Alaska, with her family and teaches writing at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She holds a Master of Fine Arts in fiction and an Interdisciplinary Studies Ph.D. in creative writing. Winner of a Rasmuson Individual Artist Award, she is a contributing editor of the University of Alaska Press anthology Building Fires in the Snow: A Collection of Alaska LGBTQ Short Fiction and Poetry, which was a finalist for a LAMBDA Literary Award. Her collection of short fiction, In the Quiet Season & Other Stories, was published in 2018. She is currently hard at work on a new book.

Kevin Berry

Kevin Berry, Ph.D.
Leadership Track
e: kberry13@alaska.edu

Dr. Kevin Berry is a Professor of Economics at the University of Alaska Anchorage. He previously had a joint appointment in the Institute of Social and Economic Research from 2017-2020. He is a NOAA and NSF funded researcher and currently overseeing a suite of projects focused on Alaskan fisheries and climate change, emerging infectious diseases, and climate change in rural Alaska. Dr. Berry is a member of the Beijer Young Scholars, a fellowship at the Beijer Institute at The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He is a regular speaker to local industry and policy organizations. Dr. Berry was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University and received his PhD from the University of Wyoming. His children are 4th generation Alaskans. Kevin is an avid cyclist and hiker.
 

Photo of Tracey Burke

Tracey Burke, Ph.D.
Research & Creative Activity Track
e: tkburke@alaska.edu

 

Dr. Tracey Burke has lived in Alaska for over 35 years and has been teaching at UAA since 2003.  Based in the School of Social Work in the College of Health, Dr. Burke has worked with interdisciplinary colleagues since she started, first in the context of Community Engagement and more recently in the context of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (RCA).  Her Honors focus is RCA, and since 2014, she has been the PI and program lead for externally-funded programs supporting students in health-related research.   RCA students in the health professions or biomedical fields are especially likely to have Dr. Burke as their Honors faculty mentor/advisor.

Masoumeh Kapourchali

Masoumeh Heidari Kapourchali, Ph.D.
Research & Creative Activity Track
e: mheidari2@alaska.edu

Masoumeh is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Prior to joining UAA, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins University, Laboratory for Computational Audio Perception. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Cognitive Science, and Computational Neuroscience. She received her MS and PhD degrees from the University of Memphis in Computer Engineering, in 2016 and 2019, respectively. During her PhD and Postdoctoral fellowship, she had the opportunity to work on interdisciplinary projects, funded by NSF and NIH.

Taylor Keister

Taylor Keister, M.A., M.LIS
Research & Creative Activity Track
e: tjkeister@alaska.edu

Taylor Keister is the Humanities Librarian at the UAA/APU Consortium Library and has lived in Alaska since 2019. He is originally from northwestern Montana, where he completed his undergraduate studies in history, German, and Russian. Afterward, he moved to Kansas to pursue an MA in Slavic Literatures & Languages from the University of Kansas and a Master’s in Library in Science from Emporia State University. Throughout his career he has worked in both public and academic libraries, including a summer long fellowship in 2017 at the Library of Congress, where he assisted Russian area specialists with cataloging 19th century Russian ephemera purchased by the Library in 1906. As a librarian, Taylor enjoys supporting student research and helping them navigate library resources.

Donna Langley

Donna Langley, M.S.
Community Engagement Track
e: dklangley@alaska.edu

Donna Langley has been teaching Quantitative Studies courses at Mat-Su College since 2017. She is a graduate of the Torrey Honors Institute (now the Torrey Honors College) at Biola University in California and holds an MS in Mathematics from The University of Arizona.  Her Master's Thesis, entitled The Role of General Education Mathematics Courses in Fulfilling the Goals of the University, explores philosophical aims, policies, and purposes of mathematics education and how to help students make the most of their GER mathematics experience. This continues to be Donna's greatest academic interest, along with Honors education.  Donna is also a member of the Chignik Bay tribe and the Orthodox Church of America.

Photo of Mychal Machado

 Mychal Machado, Ph.D.
Major Scholarships Coordinator
e: mmachado2@alaska.edu

Mychal A. Machado is an Associate Professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage in the Department of Psychology. They received their Ph.D. in Behavior Analysis at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 2015 and are now a Board Certified and Licensed Behavior Analyst. Their research interests include many applications of behavior analysis, such as the integration of applied behavior analysis and technology-based interventions to improve behavioral healthcare and social justice issues, using a behavior analytic lens to evaluate methods related to popular claims in health and psychology, and the analysis of verbal behavior. Clinical areas of interest include inpatient and outpatient applications of behavior analytic treatments for children and adults experiencing autism, mental health disorders, or both. Outside of academia, Dr. Machado enjoys skiing, fishing, crocheting, Lego art creation, and spending time with their family.

Photo of Natasa Masanovic-Courtney

Natasa Masanovic-Courtney, Ph.D.
Global & Multicultural Studies Track
e: nmasanovic@alaska.edu

Dr. Masanovic-Courtney is a professor of German and the coordinator of the German program in the Department of Languages. She has taught German language and literature classes at UAA since 2003 and has served as the chair of her department from 2011-2020 and 2023-present. She has been recognized for her mentorship of students who have received prestigious international scholarships. In 2014, she was honored as one of Alaska’s YWCA Women of Achievement recipients for her leadership and efforts toward creating a better community. She believes in the value of international education and the importance of cross-cultural understanding and is committed to exploring international opportunities and education programs for UAA students. Originally, she is from Istanbul, Turkey, and grew up speaking two mother tongues, Turkish and Greek.

Jeff Meyers

Jeff Meyers, Ph.D.
Global & Multicultural Studies Track
e: jmeyers13@alaska.edu

Jeff lives in Homer with his wife Danielle, two sons Lev and Hugo, and Aussie-Doodle Obi Wan-Kenobi. He is Associate Professor of History at the Kachemak Bay Campus, a community campus of Kenai Peninsula College and UAA. There he teaches general education history courses and upper division courses ranging from Conspiracies and Secret Societies to the History of the Soviet Union and the Roman Empire. He is an Alaska Historical Society board member where he is the annual conference coordinator. He has been on the Honors Academic Board in the Global and Multicultural Studies program for two years.

 Photo of Kimberly Pace

Kimberly Pace
Leadership Track
e: kjpace@alaska.edu

Kimberly Pace is from the thriving metropolis of Soldotna.  After graduating from High School, she moved to Missoula, MT and majored in Political Science with a minor in History, from the University of Montana.  Kimberly did her Graduate work in Political Science and History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. 

Kimberly is a Professor of Political Science and the Coordinator of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at the UAA, she has been at the University since 1998.  She is a Senator on the Faculty Senate and for the past 19 years has been the Faculty Director for the Model United Nations for the state of Alaska.  She is the Internship Coordinator for both Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies. 

For the past 6 years, she has served on the Anchorage Equal Rights Commission (AERC) and is the past Chair. Additionally, Kimberly serves on the Board of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts where she advocates for accessibility and the needs of the differently abled. 

Kimberly is married to the lovely Sheri and they are the proud parents of Theodore Roosevelt aka Teddy, a 10 lbs. 13 year-old Pomeranian rescue.

Susan Meskis

Susan Meskis, DNP
Leadership Track
e: sdmeskis@alaska.edu 

Susan Meskis is Associate Professor of Nursing at UAA. She was born in Indiana.  She achieved her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Valparaiso University and earned a Master of Science in Nursing and a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Regis University in Colorado and is currently studying for her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage.  Susan is a leader for Sigma Theta Tau, Theta Omicron Chapter, an ELNEC Regional Chair, and a Rotarian.  She has a diverse background in nursing and is most passionate about End-of-Life care and medical missions. 

Corrie Whitmore

Corrie Whitmore, Ph.D.
Community Engagement Track
e: cwhitmor@alaska.edu

Dr. Whitmore is a lifelong Alaskan who returned to the state after completing an M.S. in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Virginia Tech—to help Alaska "grow our own" workforce. She previously earned a bachelors degree at UAF, as a “UA Scholar,” and did EPSCOR-supported undergraduate research, investigating The Effects of Dietary Antioxidants on Learning and Memory in Mature Holland Lop Rabbits under the guidance of Dr. Anita Hartmann. Her current research interests center around culturally responsive evaluation in Indigenous communities, the role of trust in a patient-provider relationship, and effective teaching in the Health Science classroom. Dr. Whitmore's teaching invites story into the health policy classroom, partners evaluation students with community programs where they can apply their learning to support operations, and introduces students to what public health looks like in Alaska.