KEARNEY – Three University of Nebraska at Kearney faculty members have been selected for endowed positions recognizing their accomplishments in teaching, scholarship and service.
David Vail, Theodora Ziolkowski and Michelle Beissel Heath, all faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences, recently received endowed appointments supporting their continued academic and professional work.
David Vail
Vail, a professor in the Department of History, is the newest Ron and Carol Cope Professor. The five-year professorship recognizes faculty excellence and provides a $10,000 annual stipend.
A UNK faculty member since 2016, Vail teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in areas such as environmental and agricultural history, U.S. history, public history and the history of science and medicine. His research focuses on many of those same areas, with an emphasis on the Great Plains.
Vail has received numerous honors for his teaching, including the James C. Giesen Teaching Excellence Award in Agricultural and Rural History from the Agricultural History Society, Pratt-Heins Award for Teaching and UNK’s Excellence in Teaching General Studies Award. He was named UNK’s Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year by undergraduate students in 2020-21.
A first-generation college graduate, Vail serves on the UNK First Generation Leadership Team and chairs the Humanities Nebraska Board of Directors. He has published extensively in academic journals and authored, co-authored or co-edited several books. He also oversees the interdisciplinary medical humanities minor at UNK.
“The Cope Professorship recognizes a faculty member whose impact reaches every corner of UNK’s mission,” said Janet Eckerson, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Dr. David Vail is a wonderful example of a faculty member whose excellence isn’t confined to one part of the job. He’s a nationally respected historian, an award-winning teacher, a leader in Nebraska’s humanities community and a supporter of first-generation students on campus.”
Theodora Ziolkowski
Ziolkowski, an assistant professor in the Department of English, was selected as the Paul W. Reynolds and Clarice Kingston Reynolds Chair of Creative Writing. Her five-year appointment includes a $10,000 annual stipend. As Reynolds Chair, she will organize the Reynolds Visiting Writers Series, which brings poets and authors to campus for public readings, talks and master classes.
An accomplished fiction writer and poet, Ziolkowski teaches undergraduate and graduate creative writing courses at UNK, where she’s been a faculty member since 2022. She is the author of the Next Generation Indie Book Award-winning novella “On the Rocks” and the 2025 poetry collection “Ghostlit.” Her poetry, fiction and essays have appeared in more than 60 literary journals, anthologies and exhibits.
In addition to her roles at UNK, she serves as a faculty mentor in the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s low-residency MFA program.
Beissel Heath, chair of the Department of English, called Ziolkowski a “rising star” in the world of creative writing who’s highly regarded by her peers and colleagues.
“She brings a fresh voice and an exuberant talent to the Reynolds Chair,” Beissel Heath said. “Theodora is distinguishing herself in the English Department as an outstanding advocate for the arts and humanities, a passionate teacher and generous mentor, and a gifted community builder inside and outside the classroom.”
Michelle Beissel Heath
Beissel Heath was selected as the Dave and Tancie Martin Chair in English. The three-year appointment provides $5,000 in total support. She also holds a Martin Distinguished Professorship and was recognized last week with the Pratt-Heins Award for Scholarship and Research.
A UNK faculty member since 2009, Beissel Heath has established an international reputation through her research in Victorian and children’s literature. Her scholarly work includes peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, reviews and presentations at national and international conferences.
Her 2018 book, “Nineteenth-Century Fictions of Childhood and the Politics of Play,” examines games and play in British and American children’s culture during the 19th century. She is currently writing a second book and contributing a chapter on games and 19th-century children’s literature to a multivolume history being published by Cambridge University Press.
English professor Susan Honeyman highlighted Beissel Heath’s commitment to mentoring undergraduate and graduate research along with her contributions as a scholar.
“Michelle has consistently gone beyond classroom teaching to mentor undergraduate and graduate research in SSRP, URF, conference presentations and thesis work,” Honeyman said.
Honeyman also praised Beissel Heath’s archival research and success securing grants to support her scholarship, calling her work “integral to a growing subfield on games as socializing texts.”
“She is one of the most important scholars to cite in the study of games, early readers and specifically James Barrie’s ‘Peter and Wendy.’”