Planning committee

Dr. Douglas Anderson

A Northwestern College history professor, Anderson holds a Master of Library Science degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and a doctorate in American Religious History from the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. He studies and writes about religion and the American West. He has also expanded his interest in place to include the Midwest, creating courses such as History of Iowa and Cities and Towns in the Midwest. Anderson is serving his second term on the State Nominations Review Committee for the National Register of Historic Places, and he is project archivist for a two-year Human Resource Development Program grant to Northwestern College’s Ramaker Library.

Janine Calsbeek

A native Iowan, Calsbeek earned an English degree from Northwestern College. Interested in sustainable agriculture as a college student in 1984, she interned at The Land Institute in Salina, Kan., learning from Wes Jackson, Wendell Berry and others. Currently, Calsbeek lives in Orange City and teaches art, is a host family coordinator for international college students, and volunteers for various northwest Iowa organizations. Her stories and photography, covering local people and events for Orange City’s newspaper, the Sioux County Capital-Democrat, are inspired by authors like Jackson, Berry and Kathleen Norris.

Daniel Daily

Daily holds graduate degrees from Duke University and the University of North Carolina. Before becoming director of Northwestern’s Ramaker Library in 2003, he served as an archivist at Duke and Dartmouth College. While at Dartmouth, Daily led the New Hampshire Local Records Project, funded by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Dartmouth College Oral History Project. He currently serves, per gubernatorial appointment, on the Iowa Historical Records Advisory Board. He also has served as a panelist for the Challenge Grant Program at the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Dr. Keith Fynaardt

Fynaardt holds master’s and doctoral degrees in English from Iowa State University and Northern Illinois University, respectively. As an English professor at Northwestern, his research—and lifestyle—explore the intersection of agriculture and the humanities. In addition to working on a book about modern agriculture’s impact on Midwestern croplands and communities, he is also restoring a historic Sioux County farm where his family will live and students will be welcome. Fynaardt has developed courses like Literature of the Agricultural Imagination and Writing the Farm.

Jill Haarsma

Haarsma graduated from Northwestern College with a B.A. in humanities. Executive assistant to Northwestern’s president, she previously served as events coordinator at Seattle Pacific University —managing everything from small gatherings to multiple day conferences to events with over 1,000 participants and 10,000 guests. Her event management skills include budget preparation, budget management, program development, publicity, and coordinating volunteer and other staffing.

Dr. Harold Heie

Heie is a senior fellow at the Center for Christian Studies (CCS) at Gordon College, where he served as founding director from 1994 to 2003. He previously served as vice president for academic affairs at both Messiah College and Northwestern. Prior to that, he taught mathematics at Gordon College and The King’s College. Heie has mathematical degrees from the Polytechnic University and the University of Southern California. He also has master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University. While serving as director of the CCS at Gordon College, Heie initiated an event that featured student-initiated projects around a chosen theme. Gordon College’s “Day of Learning in Common” is now in its 11th year.

Kellie Hogg

Hogg has a bachelor’s degree in English education from Northwestern College and a master’s in teaching from Morningside College. She taught high school English in the Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn (Iowa) school system for 11 years and middle school Spanish for two years. Currently she is an adjunct writing instructor at Northwest Iowa Community College. Hogg has been involved in the Iowa Writing Project and helped create the Hispanic Literacy Project, staffed by local writers who are collecting and writing the stories of Hispanic immigrants northwest Iowa.