summerart2018: About the Speakers

Dr. Raab is the Anthropology Instructor at Longview Community College, as well as an adjunct at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and Johnson County Community College. She is primarily interested in historic sites archaeology, focusing on economics and land use during the nineteenth century in the American Midwest, and the impact of warfare, slavery, and subordination. She has research interests surrounding the Missouri and Kansas Border War and General Orders No. 11. Highlights of her work include coordination with the UMKC History Department on an ongoing NEH grant-funded educational program educating K-12 teachers about the Kansas and Missouri Border War. This program is titled, “Crossroads of Conflict: Contested Visions of Freedom & the Missouri-Kansas Border Wars.” Her work in Bates County is featured in two episodes of season #2 (2018) of the PBS series, “America From the Ground Up,” and was also featured in the March/April 2010 issue of Archaeology magazine. She is also editing and contributing two articles to the 2019 issue of Missouri Archaeologist, focused on how archaeology can contribute to a more in-depth understanding of Missouri history.

John Bradbury began working for the Western Historical Manuscript Collection when its office in Rolla opened in 1980 and served as assistant director at the Research Center–Rolla after WHMC merged with SHSMO in 2011. He retired and was appointed a Center for Missouri Studies senior fellow in 2015. Bradbury has written, edited, and compiled more than 90 scholarly articles and books, and is also the author of countless book reviews, newsletter stories, and outreach publications. Mr. Bradbury is a Fellow of the Center for Missouri Studies.

George H. Hoemann, formerly Assistant Dean for Distance Education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, holds degrees in U.S. history from Drake University (BA, 1974) and Rice University (MA, 1978, PhD, 1982), as well as the MSLS from the University of Tennessee (1995). At Rice he studied U.S. Constitutional-Legal history focusing on the constitutional and political aspects of the American Civil War, finishing with his dissertation, “What God Hath Wrought: The Embodiment of Freedom in the Thirteenth Amendment.” Subsequently, Hoemann served as Assistant Editor for the Papers of John Marshall (The College of William & Mary), the Papers of Thomas Jefferson (Princeton University) and as Associate Editor of the Papers of Andrew Jackson (The University of Tennessee, Knoxville). He retired from Quincy University in 2014.

Mr. Florian L. Waitl is the Command Historian at the U.S. Army Engineer School at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. He received his Master of Arts in Military History from Norwich University and has an extensive background in military history, leadership development, team building, and lessons learned programs. He served both as an enlisted and an officer in the U.S. Military and deployed as an Army Civilian on two different occasions to Afghanistan.  He facilitated leadership seminars at dozens of universities and at various prestigious military leadership institutions such as the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College (CGSC), the U.S. Army Engineer School, the British Land Warfare Centre, and for the German Führungsakademie der Bundeswehr.

Carole Shelton is a storyteller, an author and a retired educator. She tells stories with a hint of music from around the world. As part of her repertoire she has researched and crafted historical first person portrayals of African American women. Her stories and characters come alive and she encourages audience participation. Carole believes stories have the ability to inspire, empower, and open worlds of possibilities for the listeners and the tellers.

Connie Grisier, a former history instructor and member of the National Association of Interpreters, retired as the historical administrator of Missouri's American Indian Cultural Center at Van Meter State Park. Since retiring to the Truman Lake area, she is the volunteer event coordinator for the Children's Corner at the Henry County Museum.