Averett University’s
Spring 2008 Commencement Speaker

Robert C. Vaughan, III

Rob Vaughan is President (CEO) and founding Director of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, founding Director of the South Atlantic Humanities Center, and a member of the faculty of the University of Virginia’s Darden School, where he teaches in the MBA and Executive Education programs.  Among his publications are The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Its Evolution and Consequences in American History (with Merrill Peterson, Cambridge), A New Perspective: Southern Women’s Cultural History (Charlottesville), and The South (with Rebecca Mark, Greenwood). He received his B.A. from Washington and Lee University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia.

Rob has served recently as President of the National Humanities Alliance, President of the Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Vice President of SOLINET (the Southeastern Library Network), and Secretary of the American Shakespeare Center. He serves currently on the Boards of the National Humanities Alliance as Past President, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Anniversary Committee as Chair,
the Center for Nonprofit Excellence as Chair, Tupelo Press, and the Virginia Association of Museums (ex officio). He is an Advisory Editor of The Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) and a member of the Virginia Cultural Network. Rob has served as a Judge for the John Dos Passos Prize in American Literature, for the State Council of Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Awards in Virginia, and for the Carnegie Foundation/CASE National Professors of the Year Awards. He has been the Commencement Speaker at Virginia Wesleyan College and The Highland School and in May will be the Commencement Speaker at Averett University, and received the first annual Ann Brownson Award for Dedication to the Museum Profession, the VFH 25th Anniversary Award for Leadership in the Humanities, the Public Service Award from the Virginia Social Science Association, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Piedmont Council for the Arts.

Rob is a former Chairman of the National Federation of State Humanities Councils and a past President of the Piedmont Council for the Arts.  He has served as a member of the Boards of the   Library of Virginia, APVA-Preservation Virginia and its Executive Committee, the Charlottesville Oratorio Society, the University of Utah Humanities Center, the National Coordinating Committee for the Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Thomas Jefferson’s Birth, and the Program Committee for Jamestown 2007. He has been a consultant to the University of North Carolina, the West Virginia Board of Regents, Hendrix College, Virginia Tech, the American Council of Learned Societies, and various humanities and non-profit organizations.  He has also served as Regional Chairman of the Capital Campaign for Washington & Lee University, Moderator for the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Charlottesville, andElder on the Session of Westminster Presbyterian Church.