Smith Named to National Humanities Center Advisory Council
Geoffrey Smith, dean of students and humanities department co-chair at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School, has been named to the National Humanities Center Teacher Advisory Council.
The National Humanities Center provides leadership, training, resources, and partnerships that advance humanities education at the K–16 level. NHC’s work focuses on the integration of strong scholarship and content, inquiry-based pedagogy, and emerging technology. The Teacher Advisory Council supports the Education Department of the NHC. Chosen to represent multiple disciplines in the humanities, the teachers who serve on the council help to develop, evaluate, and promote the National Humanities Center’s educational materials and projects.
In addition to leading student life at SAS, Dean Smith teaches a place-based course in American Studies and electives on the Holocaust, research methods, and other topics. He is past recipient of the Outstanding Educator Award from Humanities Tennessee and the Belz-Lipman Holocaust Educator Award from the Tennessee Holocaust Commission. Dean Smith coached this year’s winning varsity boys’ soccer team and has advised the school’s Ethics Bowl team to three state championships. A graduate of the University of the South, he previously taught at All Saints’ Academy in Winter Haven, Fla.
“Dean Smith’s love of education, deep commitment to his students’ success in and out of the classroom, and devotion to teaching history and humanities, ‘warts and all,’ with a belief in his students’ ability to wrestle with difficult questions has made him one of our most beloved and valued teachers,” said Head of School Karl Sjolund. “I am pleased that his participation in the National Humanities Center’s Teacher Advisory Council will both help to raise SAS’s profile as an innovative center of learning and provide a forum for Geoffrey to share his expertise as a mentor to other educators.”