Employee Directory

Kiera Ball

Instructor of English and Reading

Technology Center 265

Kiera Ball is an Instructor of English, having joined Northern’s faculty in 2023. She holds a master’s degree in English literature from the University of South Dakota and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Sioux Falls in English and theology/philosophy.

Her research interests focus on regional literature and gender and theology in 19th- and 20th-century American and British literature.
 

Lysbeth Em Benkert

Department Chair/Professor of English

Technology Center 373

Resume/CV

Dr. Lysbeth Em Benkert arrived at Northern State University in the fall of 1995, one year after receiving her Ph.D from Washington State University. 

Her specializations include rhetorical theory and early modern literature, including Shakespeare. She also teaches creative writing. In addition to her academic scholarship, she has published original poems in a variety of literary magazines and a chapbook titled #girl stuff (Dancing Girl Press, 2018). A second chapbook of poems, Please thank you but why, is forthcoming in February of 2023.

Kristen Brown

Assistant Professor of English

Technology Center 255

Ph.D. in English and American Literature, University of South Carolina, 2020

M.A. in English, Gannon University, 2009

B.S. in English/Secondary Education Track, Towson University, 2001

CV

After teaching in the eastern and southwestern U.S., Dr. Kristen Brown joined Northern's faculty in 2022. While earning her Ph.D. in English and American Literature at The University of South Carolina, she taught composition, literature, and ethics courses while designing her own minor in indigenous studies with emphasis on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her research was funded in part by the national Bilinski Dissertation Fellowship.

Dr. Brown’s teaching and research often focus on indigenous perspectives and environmental themes. In addition to recent scholarship published in Western American Literature and Resonance: The Journal of Sound and Culture, she has a chapter forthcoming in a book titled Race in the Multiethnic Literature Classroom in which she considers how Dakota author-activist Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) uses storytelling to challenge the logics of settler civilization projects while carving space for common ground.

Vicki Evans

English Instructor/Tutoring Center Director

Technology Center 151

M.S. English Education, Northern State University

B.A. English, Northern State University

Vicki Evans, a Northern graduate, teaches English and directs NSU Tutoring Services. Her graduate thesis focused on composition and rhetoric, and she holds an emphasis in teaching English as a second language.

Research Interests

Developmental writing

Composition

First-generation students

Second language learners

Courses Taught

ENGL 033

Justin Foote

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies/Director of Forensics

Technology Center 351

Juan Gonzalez

Associate Professor of Spanish

Technology Center 249

Elizabeth K. Haller

Associate Dean, Professor of English

Technology Center 371

Ginny Lewis

Professor of German, First Year Seminar Coordinator

Technology Center 248

Sarah Meirose

English, Reading and Communication Studies Instructor

Huron Campus