"Tír
gan teanga, tír gan anam." -- Irish
proverb
[A country without its language is a country without its soul.]
Welcome
to my bio page!
I am an academic librarian and
assistant professor at Northeastern State University’s Broken Arrow
campus. I’ve worked in a library setting
for over twenty five years and have been with NSU since October 2001 as the Information Services Librarian and
(occasionally) an adjunct Instructor in the College of Education, Curriculum
and Instruction, Library Media and Information Technology department. I also
teach Freshman Strategies courses at the Southeast campus of Tulsa Community
College. Being able to work with
freshmen and help them develop skills to academic success is very enjoyable and
rewarding.
A bit about my early life -- I’m an
Army brat so I’ve moved around quite a bit from army base to army base. I was born in Maryland and have lived in ten
states and have visited over twenty foreign countries -- many of which I
backpacked across throughout the years.
I’m one of four children and am a fraternal twin. My parents are from
Currently, I live in an underground
house on five acres in Osage County – a sound purchase given our consistent
tornadic Oklahoma weather. I share my
home with my husband, Paul, Curator at the Tulsa Zoo, and my daughter, Kateri –
sophomore at Edison Preparatory High School…as well as our “zoo”. We have a menagerie of animals: six dogs,
three cats, a rabbit, two horses, a Sicilian donkey, and the list goes on…
My hobbies include backpacking,
spelunking, horseback riding, painting (in a variety of mediums), beading,
showing dogs (Irish wolfhounds, Pugs) in conformation, and reading
(naturally). My favorite all-time singer
is Meatloaf, my current favorite band is Coheed and Cambria -- but I’ll always
have a soft spot for Aerosmith, Black Sabbath and Metallica. Although I don’t spend much time watching TV,
I’m a HUGE “Chuck” fan and enjoy catching an occasional episode of “Criminal Minds”.
I received a bachelor’s
degree in political science and public policy (Pennsylvania), a master’s degree
in library and information science, (University of Oklahoma), and a doctorate
in higher education administration (Oklahoma State). My personal and professional research
interests include assisting students in the transition to college. I research and write in the areas of
integrating technology into the curriculum, developing structured communication
forms of distribution media through integrated library systems, leadership in
higher education, social justice for indigenous peoples, and academic
achievement and retention of American Indian college students.
I had an opportunity to visit Tasmania
in July 2008 to present research based on my dissertation topic –
“Sociocultural factors to American Indian academic success in college” and
presented my ongoing research on academic success/retention at the APA
conference in Toronto during August 2009.
I received a UK Fulbright research scholarship in 2010 (Scholar in
Governance and Public Policy 2011) to Queen’s University Belfast and was
fortunate to have the opportunity to learn firsthand the rich history and
heritage of the Irish, their Department of Education and it’s public policy,
and the role it plays in language revitalization efforts. The next country I plan to visit is New
Zealand to engage in further research for a book. The concept for the book I’m working on
focuses on the destruction of indigenous cultural languages with a chapter
devoted to a variety of cultures/places: Aboriginal/Australia, American
Indian/U.S, First Nation/Canada, Irish/Northern Ireland, Welsh/Wales, Maori/New
Zealand.
Through my Fulbright research, I also
had the opportunity to judge the semi-finals of the Institute of Ideas Debating
Matters competition (where I had a very interesting post-debate informal
conversation with several high school students regarding England and the United
States’ cessation and subsequent revolution from the Crown). I also was able to attend numerous lectures
and seminars around the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland, and present informal
seminars in Belfast as well as an Occasional Lectureship (on the history of the
United State’s American Indian boarding school policies) at Swansea University
in Swansea Wales. Additionally, I am
working to put together an International Study Abroad program with St. Mary’s
University College, (Belfast’s teacher education college) and NSU given our
shared interest in educating teachers and in language revitalization efforts in
K-12 (Irish and Cherokee respectively).
Currently, I’m directing an Institute
of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) million dollar grant through the “Laura
Bush 21st Century Librarian Program” at the NSU BA campus. Our three year program provides a cohort of
twenty students with an online (DE) graduate degree in School Library Media and
Information Technology with a specific concentration on cultural responsiveness
to American Indian students’ unique needs.
I look forward to witnessing these students’ growth as scholars and
professionals.
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"When we walk upon Mother Earth, we always
plant our feet carefully because we know the faces of our past generations are
looking up at us from beneath the ground.
We never forget them."
-- Oren Lyons, Haudenosaunee, Onondaga Nation
Dr. Pamela Louderback
Assistant Professor
Information Services Librarian
918.449.6453 (p)
918.449.6454 (f)
Last updated: 06/15/11