Dr. Cassie Patterson

Dr. Cassie Rosita Patterson (she/her/hers) received her PhD from the Department of English with a Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization in Folklore at Ohio State University. Dr. Patterson served as the Associate Director of the Center for Folklore Studies and Director of the Folklore Archives from 2012-2021.
Dr. Patterson is a first-generation Salvadoran American who grew up in southern California and moved to Ohio to attend graduate school at Ohio State University in 2007.
Dr. Patterson co-created the Ohio Field School (with her colleague, Dr. Katherine Borland), an integrated community engagement program, archival collection, and service-learning course that asked, How do Ohioans create a sense of place in a changing environment? She quickly fell in love with southern Ohio and decided to move to Scioto County to delve deeper into collaborative, community-based participatory and action research approaches.
Dr. Patterson lives in Shawnee State Forest with her partner Brian and two dogs, Willa and Sounder. She enjoys reading, exploring the woods, and chronicling the vernal pool in her backyard.
Photo credit: Profe Elena Foulis.

Profe Elena Foulis

Dr. Elena Foulis is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University, San Antonio. She is a student-centered educator with over 15 years of experience in higher education. She is an Ohio State alumnus and holds B.A and M.A degrees in Spanish and Latin American Literature and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. Her research and teaching interests include U.S. Latina/o literature, Spanish for Heritage Learners and Oral History.
She has presented her work at national and international conferences. She teaches undergraduate courses in service-learning, Latin American Literature and Spanish for heritage learners. Her articles explore Latin@ voices through oral history and performance, identity and place through linguistic landscape and ethnography and family history in advanced heritage language writing courses.
Dr. Foulis is working on a digital oral history project about Latin@s in Ohio, which is being archived at the Center for Folklore Studies’ internet collection. Some of these narratives can be found in her iBook titled, Latin@ Stories Across Ohio.
She is also host and producer for the Latin@ Stories podcast, an extension of her oral history project. This podcast invites audiences to connect and learn more about the Latin@/Hispanic experiences locally, while amplifying the voices of the community everywhere. In 2022, she was a TedxOhioState speaker, her TedTallk was titled, “We Are More Than a Statistic: Oral History and Latinx Identities.”

Dr. Barbara Bradbury

Dr. Barb Bradbury is the retired Dean of Students at Shawnee State University (SSU) and co-owner of the Hurricane Run organic farm near Otway, Ohio. Dr. Bradbury received her MA in Counseling and PhD in Higher Education Administration. Her dissertation is titled, The Integration of First-Year, First-Generation College Students from Ohio Appalachia: A Multiple Case Study. Barb was involved in several Student Affairs programs at Shawnee State University, including Counseling, Career Services, Residential Life, Judicial Affairs, Student Activities, Multicultural Affairs, Center for Community services, Trio Programs, and BASICS.
Since retiring, Barb has remained active in her community, volunteering as a Friendship Family program for international students at SSU and consulting with local organizations such as Scioto Foundation and the Southern Ohio Museum and Cultural Center.
As an avid outdoor enthusiast Barb helped found Connex Inc., a local nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote community engagement through bicycling and other outdoor activities.

Susan Eleuterio, M.A.

Susan Eleuterio is a professional folklorist, educator, and consultant to non-profits. She has conducted fieldwork and developed public programs including exhibits, festivals, performances, along with school-based and professional development programs for artists, teachers, and organizations across the United States.
She holds an MA in American Folk Culture from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY/Oneonta) and a BA in English/Education from the University of Delaware and serves as an adjunct faculty member of Goucher College's Master's in Cultural Sustainability and as Director of the Graduate Virtual Writing Center.
She has served as a contract folklorist for The Placemaking in Scioto County traveling exhibit and Placemaking 2.0 School Curriculum Project for the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University.

Steve Free

Steve Free is an Internationally Acclaimed Award Winning singer/songwriter whose music is drawn from his Native American (Shawnee/Cherokee) and Appalachian roots. He has won numerous Music Industry Awards including 9 ASCAP Awards, a Platinum Record, a 2016 Grammy nomination, and three Americana Music Award nominations.
He has charted over 50 songs on The National and International Charts including 21 # 1 songs and is one of the most popular Folk/Americana Artist on European and International radio.In 2008 he won The Governors Award For The Arts as the #1 Artist in his home state of Ohio received an Arts Award from The Kentucky State Senate in 2009 for his contributions to Appalachia.

Edwin Martell

Bio comming soon!

JD Emnett

Joseph D. Emnett, or J.D. as he is commonly known, is an educator with over 21 years of experience in the field. He holds a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from Shawnee State University, a Master's in Educational Administration from Ohio University, and has received his Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) endorsement from Findlay University.
J.D.'s career in education has been diverse, having served in various roles such as a physical education teacher, athletic director, assistant principal, principal, and currently as a curriculum specialist for South Central Ohio ESC where he directs their English as a Second Language department. J.D. has a passion for improving educational outcomes and ensuring that all students have access to quality education.
Currently, as a curriculum specialist, J.D. uses his extensive knowledge and experience to help educators design and implement effective instructional programs that promote student learning. He is a strong advocate for innovation and collaboration and is always seeking new ways to improve educational outcomes.
J.D. has also enjoys leading mission trips. He has led mission trips to Nicaragua, Belize, Jamaica, and the Navajo Reservation. He uses the experience of leading these trips and interacting with those from other countries extensively while working with English Learners and their families stateside.
J.D. tries to live his in light of the following three quotes:
“Paying attention to others, giving them the respect they deserve, and politely serving them makes a positive difference.” Mark Sanborn
“There is a brilliant child locked inside of every student” Marva Collins
“I alone cannot change the world but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” Mother Teresa

Liza Jane Boggz

Liza Jane Boggz is a multi-generational Appalachian artist, born and raised in Portsmouth, Ohio and living in commune with other local artists and musicians.
Lucky to have experienced the area's influential art and punk scene of the 90's, Liza is in pursuit of photos, music and stories to document a time and place that became a subcultural movement.
Currently, she is in the process of studying and rendering a series of artworks depicting and incorporating the myths, legends, symbolism and folklore of the area.

Sarah Craycraft

Sarah is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Studies, where she specializes in folklore and contemporary East European studies. Her dissertation investigates intergenerational connections to place and projects as format for Bulgarian village revitalization. She is passionate about the creative, activist, and grassroots networks of young people in Bulgaria and Appalachia, as well as the (self) documentation of this work.
Sarah approaches the study of youth cultural practices and rural initiatives through a comparative lens, asking how the critical comparison of experiences can offer greater insight into the particularities of distinct contexts.
She is the co-creator of "Open Wardrobes," a documentation and photography project which explores the textile collections and intimate stories of women in Bulgarian villages. Sarah grew up in grew up in Brown County, Ohio.

Sarah Diamond Burroway

Sarah Diamond Burroway is a writer and native of northeast Kentucky who lives in the blue-collar community where she was born. She believes everyone has a story and that all stories have value and deserve to be told. Her essays and poems have appeared in Still: The Journal, The Bitter Southerner, Worcester Journal, the Women of Appalachia Project's anthologies, and other publications. Sarah’s plays and monologues have been produced in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, New York, and California. She earned a Master of Fine Art in Creative Nonfiction from Eastern Kentucky University's Bluegrass Writers Studio ('19.) Her thesis manuscript is a collection of personal and narrative essays titled, “23: The Appalachian Foothills People, Place, and the Opioid Epidemic.”
A former radio journalist and higher education administrator, Sarah leads grants and contracts for a nationally-facing nonprofit which is focused on public data for good. She loves living near the Ohio River and the people of the Central Appalachia region.
ID: Headshot of Sarah Diamond Burroway appears smiling in this photo, and wears dark framed glasses. Her light red hair is graying and touches her shoulder. A bouquet of heirloom flowers is seen in the photo, offset behind her. She is wearing a black shirt, a salmon-colored cardigan, and a silver chain around her neck.

Dr. Sophia Enriquez

Dr. Sophia M. Enriquez (she/her) is a Chicana-Appalachian scholar and musician. Dr. Enriquez is Assistant Professor of Music at Duke University and teaches in the porgram for Latinx Studies in the Global South. She earned her PhD in Ethnomusicology at Ohio State University in 2020. Sophia's dissertation, “Canciones de Los Apalaches: Latinx Music, Migration, and Belonging in Appalachia,” explores the interactions of Latin-American and Appalachian folk music traditions and Latinx community and migration in the Appalachian region/U.S. South more broadly. Her work also documents her family's musical migration narrative from the U.S.-Mexico border, to the Mississippi Delta, to Southern Ohio. Building disciplinary relationships across Latinx studies, Appalachian studies, and ethnomusicology, Sophia's work sheds light on the complexities of the shifting U.S. cultural landscape and offers new perspectives on Latinx community and belonging through music.
Sophia has been involved in a number of public folklore projects and is passionate about building relationships across higher education institutions and local communities. As a teacher, Sophia encourages students to explore these communities and the value of the arts and humanities in a global context. Her teaching praxis is informed by Latinx and Women of Color feminisms that provide students with the tools to make sense of complicated histories and contemporary concerns.
Sophia is a practitioner of Appalachian and Mexican folk musics (including bluegrass, mariachi, and canción ranchera) and performs in Columbus, Ohio as part of the Good Time Girls, a female folk trio that writes original music inspired by intersectional experiences.

Zachary Greene

Zachary Greene is the Director of Academic and Inclusive Excellence at the Richard A. Gillespie College of Veterinary Medicine of Lincoln Memorial University. He spent seven years teaching Spanish and World Cultures at J. Frank White Academy, where he won several awards for his teaching and community engagement with students. He is a Fulbright Scholar, a licensed teacher, and a licensed administrator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, a bachelor’s degree in Humanities, and a minor in Theology. He completed his master’s degree in education (Curriculum & Instruction) at Carson-Newman University and holds an Education Specialist degree (Instructional Leadership) from Lincoln Memorial University.
As a Appalachian Spanish-speaker with years of experience in Latin America, he organizes The Mountain Fiesta, a seven-year-old community engagement project and festival that builds and maintains cultural bridges between diverse populations in the region. He has devoted the last fifteen years of his life to advising, teaching, and developing young people into compassionate and engaged members of their community and our world.

Franklin Harris IV

Franklin Harris IV is a graduate of Portsmouth High School who is currently attending Ohio University. He is a First Gen college student pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Computer Engineering.
Franklin enjoys art, tinkering with electronics (especially computers), reading, and music.
He has previously worked with Community Action on their Summer Food Program and as a Custodial Assistant for Portsmouth Elementary. He has also worked with Future Plans with the Grit Program.
His mission is to live his life to the best of his ability.

Iraís García

Iraís García is a Marketing and Design professional with more than ten years of experience managing design projects across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Iraís is also experienced in leading the marketing campaigns for Southern Ohio Folklife where she maintains the branding and development of graphic material for social media.
Iraís is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, and has lived in the Southern Ohio region for more than two years. While in Ohio, she studied at Shawnee State University and participated in many events sponsored by the University’s Center for International Programs and Study Abroad. In addition, Iraís has a Bachelor’s Degree in Interior Design from the University of Guadalajara’s School of Architecture and Design.
Iraís is passionate about embracing the Latin community in Southern Ohio and finding ways to shine a light on Latin culture within the community.