The Advisory Board

Members of the Theran Press advisory board are authorities & revolutionaries in their fields.

They are dedicated to bringing the best new research to light, to fostering just creative partnerships,

and to transforming publishing for the good of our students, our communities, and our world.

Carrie-Ann Biondi

Carrie-Ann Biondi (PhD, Bowling Green State University 2002) is former Chair of History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies at Marymount Manhattan College, the Production Editor at Social Philosophy & Policy, and an independent author, editor, and scholar. Her research interests include citizenship theory, virtue ethics, consent theory & political obligation, philosophy of literature, popular culture and philosophy, and the philosophy of education. Carrie-Ann's pedagogical interests political philosophy, philosophy of law, ancient Greek philosophy, and ethics. She translates ancient Greek (specializing in Aristotle) and serves as the Book Review Editor for Reason Papers. Carrie-Ann's most recent on-line conversation - "Finding Virtue in the Modern World," with Bitcoin guru Robert Breedlove - can be found here.

Marshall Johnson

Marshall Johnson is the Chief Conservation Officer of the National Audubon Society. For the past decade, he’s built rural and urban community-focused habitat and ecosystem programs. His work across the U.S. brings farmers and ranchers together with grasslands, herds, and birds in a win-win alignment. His radical, market-based Conservation Ranching Program now enrolls more than 2,000,000 acres across 300 High Plains ranches. Under his leadership, Audubon Dakota's Urban Woods and Prairie Initiative managed one of the largest urban conservation programs in North America. As CCO of the National Audubon Society, he brings this ambition to the rest of the Western Hemisphere. You can see his latest TEDx Talk, here. Marshall is currently finishing his first book: Everyday Earth Day. How Regenerative Agriculture Can Save Capitalism and Heal the Earth.

Ahmad Sadri

Ahmad Sadri (PhD, New School for Social Research, New York 1988) is Professor of Sociology and James P. Gorter Chair of Islamic Studies at Lake Forest College. His research revolves around the sociology of intellectuals and religion, reform in Islam, and reform and politics of Iran. Ahmad is a widely published columnist, with articles appearing in Aljazeera, The Guardian, Salon Magazine, and the Iranian reformist newspaper, recently shuttered by Iranian authorities, Etemad-e Melli. His latest books are Reason, Freedom and Democracy in Islam: Essays by Abdolkarim Soroush (translator; Oxford University Press, 2000) and an abridged translation of Shahnameh, The Epic of the Persian Kings, (W.W. Norton, 2013) currently in its eighth printing and with an introduction to the audio book narrated by Francis Ford Coppola.

Bronwen Wickkiser

Bronwen Wickkiser (PhD, University of Texas, Austin 2003) is the inaugural Solomon Bluhm Professor of Ancient History in the Department of Classical and Oriental Studies at Hunter College and the current Elizabeth A. Whitehead Distinguished Scholar at the American School of Classical Studies, Athens. She's a specialist in ancient Greek history and culture, especially the intersection between religion, cult, and medicine. Her first book, Asklepios, Medicine, and the Politics of Healing in Fifth-Century Greece: Between Craft and Cult was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2008. Dr. Wickkiser serves on the Managing Committee of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, and has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the Loeb Classical Library Foundation. Her current research revolves around medical tourism in the ancient world.

Danielle Gravon

Danielle Gravon (MFA/MA, San Francisco Art Institute; MA/PhD University of Manchester, UK) is the Chief Curator and Director of Collections and Exhibitions at the Plains Art Museum, Fargo, ND. She is an experienced artist, art historian, and arts educator, who has museum, non-profit, and academic experience nationally and internationally. She has worked in museums like Whitworth Art Gallery and John Rylands Library in the UK, Gutenberg
Museum in Germany, Plantin-Moretus Museum in Belgium, and Rourke Art Museum in Moorhead, MN; non-profits like Creative Growth in Oakland, CA, Olive Ridley Project in the UK and Maldives, and The Arts Partnership in Fargo, ND; and universities such as Minnesota State University Moorhead, Concordia College, Minnesota State Community and Technical College, and University of Manchester. You can check out her most recent article in the Journal for the History of Knowledge, right here.

Jesper Tae Jensen

Jesper Tae Jensen is an archaeologist, screen-writer, and entrepreneur. He is the Executive Director at the Danish Institute for Mediterranean Studies (DIOMEDES), Copenhagen, and former Assistant Director at the Danish Institute at Athens (2004-2007). He received his BA in 1996, and his MA in Classical Archaeology from Aarhus University in 1999. The editor of numerous volumes on ancient Mediterranean material culture, his most recent books are Religion and Material Culture. Studying Religion and Religious Elements on the Basis of Objects, Architecture, and Space. Antiquité et Sciences Humaines. La Traversée des Frontières 3 (Brepols, 2017) and Höhlen und Felsdächer. Schatzkammern der Menschheitsgeschichte. Archäologie in Deutschland Sonderheft 3, 2023.

Spencer Pope

Spencer Pope (PhD, Brown University 2006) is Associate Professor of Greek and Roman Studies at McMaster University, Ontario. He has excavated numerous archaeological sites in Sicily and Greece, including Paliké (modern Rocchicella di Mineo), Naxos, and Ustica, with digs ranging from Bronze Age through the Hellenistic Period. He is presently co-director of the Metaponto Archaeological Project, which examines the Greek-indigenous frontier through excavation and field survey. His research interests include: urban planning and domestic architecture in the Greek world, Greek colonization and interactions with indigenous populations, ancient Greek numismatics, finances, and economics.

Emily Selove

Emily Selove (PhD, UCLA 2012) is Associate Professor of Medieval Arabic Literature at the University of Exeter. She is the author of Selections from the Art of Party-Crashing in Medieval Iraq (Syracuse University Press, 2012), Hikayat Abi al-Qasim: A Literary Banquet (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), and numerous articles on dreams, chess, and the history of magic & medicine. Emily is currently the PI of a Leverhulme-funded research project, "A Sorcerer's Handbook," which will create an edition, translation, and literary study of Sirāj al-Dīn al-Sakkākī's 13th-century Arabic grimoire, as well as the director of Exeter's MA in Magic and Occult Science. Her most recent projects include Popeye and Curly: 120 Days in Medieval Baghdad (Theran Press, 2021) and The Donkey King: Asinine Symbology in Ancient and Medieval Magic (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Joan Vorderbruggen

Joan Vorderbruggen (MArch, University of Oregon 2009) is an architect, artist, writer, photographer, and environmental advocate. She is the founder of Bircheart, a multi-disciplinary studio/workshop from which she pursues her focus and research—assisting others as they explore the intersections of nature, human, and spirit. An award-winning educator, she has taught beginning, intermediate, and advanced design courses at the college level in the Northwest and High Plains. Her most recent book is Wild Calm: Finding Mindfulness in Forest Bathing (Castle Point Books, 2019.)

Omar Correa

Omar Correa (M.Ed., Higher Education Administration 2008) is the Vice President of Strategic Enrollment Management at the University of St. Thomas. He has over 20 years of service in higher education, at both private and public institutions, with a particular emphasis on the development of innovative enrollment strategies, the retention of under-represented minorities, and institutional leadership. An award-winning administrator, Omar is also a passionate and sought-after speaker at regional, national, international conferences. You can see Omar's latest TED Talk, The Power of Motivation, right here.

William Schultz

William Schultz is the President of OCD Twin Cities, the Minnesota affiliate of the International OCD Foundation, an acclaimed OCD researcher , an OCD treatment specialist, and an OCD survivor. His research centers on the shortcomings and dangers of biogenetic etiologies of mental disorders and has been published in numerous journals including: Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, The Behavior Therapist, The Journal of Humanistic Psychology, The Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, Advances in Cognitive Therapy, Theory & Psychology, Reason Papers, and Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. His first book, Mental Health: Biology, Agency, Meaning was published with Theran Press in 2019.

Helle Hochscheid

Helle Hochscheid (PhD, University of Amsterdam 2010) is an archaeologist, historian, and educator. She is Assistant Professor of Antiquity at University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, the Netherlands. Helle's research focuses on the reception and manufacture of ancient sculpture, on ancient craft and craftspeople, and - more specifically - on the craft of women in antiquity. She's an advocate for the integration of world archaeology into young people's education and has developed an award-winning curriculum, called Archaeology in the Classroom, to that end in collaboration with Dutch primary schools. Among her most recent books are Networks of Stone. Sculpture and Society in Archaic and Classical Athens (Peter Lang, 2015) and The Value of Making: Theory and Practice in Ancient Craft Production, co-edited with Ben Russell (Brepols, 2021).

Laetitia Mizero Hellerud

Laetitia Mizero Hellerud (MS, University of Mary–Fargo) is the Executive Director of the Jeremiah Program of Fargo-Moorhead, an intercultural consultant, an educator, and a global human rights activist. A widely admired champion for social justice, she has served in numerous leadership roles in both North America and Africa. She holds an executive certificate from Harvard University’s program, Leadership, Organizing and Action: Leading for Change. Laetitia's two most recent books are Being at Home in the World: Cross-Cultural Leadership Lessons to Guide Your Journey (Aloha Publishing, 2017) and Turning Points: True Stories of Thriving Through Adversity (UBUNTU Consulting, 2018).

John Franklin

John C. Franklin (PhD, University College, London 2002) is Professor and Chair of Classics at the University of Vermont. The cultural history of ancient music technology—both physical and conceptual—is central to his research. John has held research fellowships at Warburg Institute, the American Academy in Rome, the ASCSA, the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute, the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Center for Hellenic Studies, and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, among numerous others. His most recent book is Kinyras: The Divine Lyre (Harvard University Press, 2016).

Michael Lippman

Mike Lippman (PhD, Duke University 2005) is the editor-in-chief of Didaskalia. The Journal for Ancient Performance. His research and teaching revolves around ancient Greek theatre and history; his most unusual courses are experiential and gamified, treating Sparta, Athens, and ancient athletics. He's the recent recipient of the 2018 SCS Award for Excellence for Teaching at the College Level. His most recent book is a translation with commentary of Aristophanes' Men and Their Horses (Theran Press, 2022).

David Clardy

David J. Clardy (MD, Washington University School of Medicine 1977) is a cardiologist, educator, and researcher. He is currently an attending cardiologist at Sanford Heart and Vascular Center in Fargo, ND and a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of North Dakota. David completed his Internal Medicine residency and Cardiology fellowship at Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago. In addition to patient care, his main research interests are in the fields of cardiac imaging and preventive cardiology.