Miller is an associate professor in the College of Fine and Applied Arts’ STBE department and director of the department’s building sciences program. He is also a registered architect practicing collaboratively in the mountains of Western North Carolina through his firm David Jason Miller Architect PLLC.

Miller joined Appalachian’s faculty as a full-time lecturer in August 2009, accepted a position as an assistant professor in August 2012 and received promotion to the rank of associate professor with permanent tenure in July 2017.

During his career at Appalachian, Miller has taught or acted as the faculty supervisor for 16 different course preparations, including lecture-based courses on construction means and methods; project-based courses on architectural graphics and digital modeling; studio-based courses in architectural design; professional internship and construction safety courses; and individual graduate thesis projects. He has also taught 15 study abroad courses.

He served as a principal faculty adviser for The Solar Homestead and Maison Reciprocity, Appalachian’s highly successful entries to the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon in Washington, D.C., and the Solar Decathlon Europe 2014. These net-zero energy residential projects garnered the university attention on national and international stages.

He holds a B.A. in art history and history from Washington and Lee University and a Master of Architecture from North Carolina State University’s College of Design.

Hirst is a professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Mathematical Sciences and is co-director of the department’s Master of Arts in mathematics program.

She served on the Mathematical Association of America’s Committee on the Mathematical Education of Teachers (COMET) from 2009–14. She has also served as regional coordinator for the Mathematical Association of America’s Preparing Mathematicians to Educate Teachers (PMET) initiative and as co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundation-funded National Computational Science and Shodor Computational Science institutes.

Additionally, Hirst helps with Project Interactivate and other mathematics and computational science initiatives of The Shodor Education Foundation Inc.

From 2005–13, Hirst served as associate dean of Appalachian’s Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate studies, during which time she was responsible for and supervised staff in graduate recruiting, admissions, assistantships and records.

She has served on many university committees and as secretary for the North Carolina Conference of Graduate Schools. She is a current member of Appalachian’s Arts and Cultural Programs Committee and she chairs the university’s Scholarship Advisory Council.

Brackney is a professor in the Walker College of Business’ Department of Accounting at Appalachian.

He teaches courses on financial accounting and international accounting, and his research interests include financial accounting and reporting, international accounting and accounting practice.

His research has been published in Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Issues in Accounting Education, The CPA Journal and others.

Brackney is a past recipient of the North Carolina Association of Certified Public Accountants Outstanding Educator Award and is a member of both the American Accounting Association and the North Carolina Association of CPAs.

He holds a Ph.D. in accounting from UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as a BSBA and an M.S. in accounting from Old Dominion University.

Jackson, a professor in the RCOE’s Department of Leadership and Educational Studies, joined the department’s faculty in 2003. She teaches graduate-level research methods and critical/feminist theory courses to students pursuing master’s, specialist and doctoral degrees in various program areas, both within and outside the RCOE.

Jackson has closely mentored over 40 graduate students in doctoral dissertation and master’s thesis work. Five doctoral students she has taught and/or mentored have won Appalachian’s Alice Phoebe Naylor Award for Outstanding Dissertation.

She is the recipient of the 2018–19 100 Scholars Research Award, conferred by Appalachian’s Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies, and the RCOE’s 2019 Outstanding Mentoring Award. Additionally, Jackson is a two-time recipient of the UNC Board of Governors Appalachian State University Campus Teaching Excellence Award, having first won the award in 2010.

She holds a Ph.D. in language and literacy education from the University of Georgia, where she also obtained graduate certificates in women’s studies and qualitative research.

Nave is a senior lecturer in the First Year Seminar program, a division of Appalachian’s University College, and serves as the coordinator of universal design for learning (UDL) in the university’s Center for Academic Excellence.

Nave taught at the State University of New York at Oneonta, Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute before joining Appalachian’s Department of Art as an adjunct instructor in 2007.

She moved into her position in the First Year Seminar program in 2014 and served as a Faculty Fellow before becoming the UDL coordinator in the Center for Academic Excellence. UDL is a design framework and set of guidelines that aims to reduce barriers to learning for all students by offering multiple means of engagement, representation and expression.

She is a member of the International Arts Movement and has given talks about innovative teaching strategies and civic engagement in Athens, Greece, South Africa and Australia.

Nave holds an M.A. in art history with a focus on Greek art and a B.A in art history and religion from Williams College.

Nelsen is an associate professor in the Department of Leadership and Educational Studies, which is housed in the university’s Reich College of Education (RCOE). He joined the RCOE faculty in 2007.

At Appalachian, he primarily teaches courses on issues of social justice and public schooling. Nelsen grounds his teaching and research in the philosophy and practice of nonviolence, social justice and democratic education.

A former high school English teacher and adventure educator who led wilderness expeditions and taught outdoor education skills, Nelsen earned a Doctor of Philosophy in education from the University of New Hampshire, with a focus on understanding issues of social justice through the lens of pragmatism.

He is co-editor of the interdisciplinary academic journal Democracy and Education.

Smith is a professor in and chair of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Anthropology and has been an Appalachian faculty member since 2008.

His teaching deals with the cultural politics of representation and indigenous movements, cultural and political constructions of knowledge, language and culture, contemporary Latin America, identity formation and the practical application of theory/knowledge.

Smith is also the director of the Department of Anthropology’s honors program and has previously served on numerous leadership committees throughout the university, on which he advocated for the support of academics and ensuring that excellence in teaching, informed by research, remains the priority of Appalachian.

He was inducted into the College of Arts and Sciences’ Academy of Outstanding Teachers in 2015. Additionally, he is the recipient of the college’s 2012 William C. Strickland Outstanding Young Faculty Award and the 2017–18 Jimmy Smith Outstanding Service Award.

He holds a B.A. in Latin American studies with a focus on Mesoamerican linguistics and a B.S. in anthropology from Tulane University, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D., both in anthropology, from the State University of New York at Albany.