Employee Directory
Kiera Ball
Kiera Ball
Instructor of English and Reading
Technology Center 265
- 605-626-7602
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
Lysbeth Em Benkert
Department Chair/Professor of English
Technology Center 373
- 605-626-7698
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
Kristen Brown
Assistant Professor of English
Technology Center 255
- 605-626-7703
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
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.
Indigenous studies
The long nineteenth century
Sensory/sound studies
Environmental ethics
Settler colonialism
Queer ecologies
Vicki Evans
Vicki Evans
English Instructor/Tutoring Center Director
Technology Center 151
- 605-626-2665
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
Justin Foote
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies/Director of Forensics
Technology Center 351
- 605-626-7706
Juan Gonzalez
Juan Gonzalez
Associate Professor of Spanish
Tech Center 249
- 605-626-3352
Ph.D, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Juan M. Gonzalez, originally from Salt Lake City Utah, worked for 18 years as an international public relations specialist/marketing rep for an advertising firm. Part of his responsibilities included making three to four week trips throughout South America and Mexico to meet and greet radio and TV managers and owners. He has worked and lived in every major city in that area.
An economic downturn in the mid-90s found him without work and consequently he went back to school to complete a BA and MA in Spanish at the University of Utah. He left Utah in 1998 to complete his Ph.D in Spanish at the University of Wisconsin - Madison, from which he graduated in 2005. Recently, he spent four years teaching Spanish at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado.
Juan has been teaching at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota since spring 2009. He enjoys biking, hiking, spaghetti westerns, horror and science fiction movies, and classic rock from the late 60s and early 70s.
When he refers to the language and culture of Latin America, he speaks and writes from personal experience. His research interests include business protocol in Latin America, postcolonial theory and writing, the evolution of Latin music and film, and the Spanish Civil War, which was the focus of his dissertation.
Elizabeth K. Haller
Elizabeth K. Haller
Associate Dean, Professor of English
Tech Center 371
- 605-626-7705
Ginny Lewis
Ginny Lewis
Professor of German
Technology Center 248
- 605-626-7696
Library Cat Translating website
Sarah Meirose
Sarah Meirose
English, Reading and Communication Studies Instructor
Huron Campus
- 605-626-2601