George McGovern
A war hero, 22-year U.S. congressman and presidential candidate, George McGovern will long be remembered for his courage in speaking out against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, his friendship and respect for the common man, and his work on behalf of American farmers and hungry children throughout the world.

In 1956 McGovern was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives where he served until 1960 when President John F. Kennedy named him the first director of the Food for Peace Program and special assistant to the president. In this position he made the first offer of U.S. assistance that paved the way for the establishment of the World Food Programme. Throughout his congressional career, McGovern was instrumental in creating programs to alleviate hunger, including Food for Peace, the school lunch program and food stamps.

In 1998, President Bill Clinton appointed him ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, and in 2000 honored him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2001, he was appointed the first United Nations global ambassador on world hunger.

McGovern is a native of South Dakota and a graduate of Dakota Wesleyan University where he was also a history professor.

Ahrar Ahmad
Ahrar Ahmad received his Ph.D. in political science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill., and has been teaching at Black Hills State University, in Spearfish, S.D., since 1992.  He teaches mostly in the areas of comparative politics and international relations.  He has published widely, and presented papers at many academic conferences on issues related to development and underdevelopment in South Asia, the relationship between Islam and democracy, and the role of non-governmental organizations in a globalized world.  He has received the Distinguished Faculty of the Year at Black Hills State, was a Senior Fulbright scholar in 2007-08, and was honored with the Carnegie Award (Teaching) for South Dakota in 2007.

Cooper Garnos
Cooper Garnos serves in the South Dakota State Senate representing the voters of District 21. Prior to his election to the Senate he served on the leadership team in the State House of Representatives as a majority whip for four years. While in the House he served on the education, taxation, state affairs, and state-tribal relations committees.Garnos received his bachelor's degree in education from Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, and earned a master's degree in education from South Dakota State University. In 2004, he completed the education specialist degree from USF. He taught physical education and social studies for 13 years in Presho for the Lyman School District while also working with his parents, Owen and Sally Garnos, and brother Quint on their family farm and ranch operation. The Garnos family farm has been in operation for more than 100 years, worked by four generations.

Jason A. Heppler
Jason A. Heppler is a Ph.D. student specializing in the 20th century North American West, the history of technology and digital history. He currently serves as the project manager for the William F. Cody Digital Archive at the Center for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He earned his B.A. in history at South Dakota State University and his M.A. in history from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Gretchen Heefner
Gretchen Heefner is the author of the forthcoming book, “The Missile
Next Door” (Harvard University Press, 2012,) as well as articles
in Western Historical Quarterly and Pacific Historical Review. She
received her doctorate from Yale University and is currently a
visiting assistant professor at Connecticut College. Her research
and teaching focus on 20th century American politics and the
United States in the world. She is currently writing on the politics of
land in the American West.

Bernie Hunhoff
Bernie Hunhoff serves as Democratic Minority Leader in the South Dakota State Legislature. He has been editor and publisher of South Dakota Magazine since it started publication in 1985.

John Husmann
John Husmann serves as the chair of the Department of History at Dakota Wesleyan University. He has taught a wide range of courses, including American environmental history and South Dakota history. He enjoys researching topics in environmental history and South Dakota history. He is also interested in the history of the Great Plains, particularly the Great Plains in comparative perspective with other regions of the world. He completed his doctoral studies in history at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. His dissertation was a comparative history of tree-planting traditions in Nebraska and South Australia. He continues to conduct research in environmental history and comparative history.

Dusty Johnson
Dustin “Dusty” Johnson is a Visiting McGovern Professor of Leadership and Public Service at Dakota Wesleyan University. He has taught courses in public policy, primarily those related to policy formation and analysis, since 2007.

Johnson serves as Gov. Dennis Daugaard’s chief of staff. Prior to joining the Daugaard administration, he served as chairman of the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission for six years. Before his 2004 election to the PUC, Dusty worked in Gov. Mike Rounds’ administration as a senior policy adviser.

Dusty grew up in Pierre, S.D., and graduated from Riggs High School in Pierre. He went on to college at the University of South Dakota, Vermillion, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. A Truman Scholar, Dusty went on to post-graduate work at the Stene Center at the University of Kansas. There, he earned his master’s degree in public administration.

Dusty and his wife, Jacquelyn, have two sons, Max and Ben. Dusty enjoys camping, watching college basketball and other sports, and hanging out with his sons.

Joel Johnson
Joel Johnson received his Ph.D. in political philosophy from Harvard
University, where he also served as lecturer on government.
He is now a professor in the Department of Government and
international Affairs at Augustana College. During 2010-11 he
served as a Fulbright Senior Scholar in the Department of British
and American Studies at Philipps-Universitat Marburg in Hessen,
Germany. His primary research interests include American political
thought, politics and literature, and theories of justice. He is the
author of “Beyond Practical Virtue: A Defense of Liberal Democracy
through Literature” (University of Missouri Press, 2007) and numerous
journal articles.

Jon Lauck
Jon K. Lauck grew up in Madison, S.D., and earned his
B.A. from South Dakota State University, his M.A. and Ph.D. from
the University of Iowa, and his law degree from the University of
Minnesota. Lauck’s books include “American Agriculture and the
Problem of Monopoly”(University of Nebraska Press, 2000); “Daschle v.
Thune: Anatomy of a High Plains Senate Race”(University of Oklahoma
Press, 2007); and “Prairie Republic: The Political Culture of Dakota
Territory”(University of Oklahoma Press, 2010).

Richard Lofthus
Richard Lofthus is a professor of history at Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D. He teaches a wide variety of history courses, and his primary research interest is World War I. He is a North Dakota native and a graduate of the University of North Dakota and Regent College, British Columbia.

John E. Miller
John E. Miller, a specialist in 20th century American political
and cultural history, taught at the University of Tulsa and South
Dakota State University for three decades. He is the author of “Governor Philip F. La Follette, the Wisconsin Progressives, and the New
Deal”(University of Missouri Press, 1982) and a number of scholarly
articles on politics in the Midwest. He currently is working on a
study of South Dakota political culture during the middle decades of
the 20th century.

Paula M. Nelson
Paula M. Nelson is professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-
Platteville, where she has taught since 1988. Her scholarly interests
include the study of the Northern Great Plains, especially South
Dakota. She is the author of “After the West Was Won: Homesteaders
and Townbuilders in Western South Dakota, 1900–1917”(1986); “The
Prairie Winnows Out It’s Own: The West River Country of South Dakota
in the Years of Depression and Dust” (1996); and she is the editor of “Sunshine
Always: The Courtship Letters of Joseph Gossage and Alice Bower in
Dakota Territory” (2007). She is working on a study of Canton, S.D., during its first decades.

Ben Nesselhuf
Ben Nesselhuf serves as chair of the South Dakota Democratic Party. He is a graduate of both Vermillion High School and the University of South Dakota. In 2000, Ben was elected to the South Dakota House of Representatives representing District 17. At that time, he was the youngest representative ever elected to the legislature. During his two terms in the House, Ben gained a reputation for being an advocate for open government and campaign finance reform. In 2004, Ben was elected to the State Senate. After being elected to his second term, Ben was elected by his fellow senators to be the Caucus Chairman of the Senate Democrat Caucus.

William C. Pratt
William C. Pratt earned his Ph.D. from Emory University and served
on the faculty of the University of Nebraska at Omaha for 42
years. Much of his research addresses farm and political movements
in the Upper Midwest and on the Northern Plains. In 2000, he was the Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer in American
History at Moscow State University; in 2007, he was a
Senior Fulbright lecturer at the University of Warsaw. He has served
on the board of trustees of the Nebraska State Historical Society
and as its president in 2011.

Jon D. Schaff
Jon D. Schaff has taught at Northern State University in Aberdeen since 2001. He as published on the domestic policy of the Lincoln administration, the benefits of the Electoral College, the problems of campaign finance regulations and on hate crimes policy. He is currently working on projects involving the influence of Alexander Hamilton on Lincoln's political thought and on visions of progress in the works of Nebraska novelist Willa Cather.

A native of Rochester, Minn., Dr. Schaff received his bachelor's degree from St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. He went on to earn an M.A. in political science at the University of Wyoming and his Ph.D. at Loyola University Chicago.

Donald C. Simmons Jr.
Donald Simmons joined the Dakota Wesleyan University faculty in 2006 as the first full-time director of the McGovern Center and the founding chairman of the DWU Department of Leadership and Public Service. He now serves as the dean of the College of Leadership and Public Service and Graduate Studies. A native of Mississippi, Dr.Simmons received his Ph.D. in history and international studies from the University of Denver. Most of his research has focused on the displacement of peoples throughout history, primarily as a result of wars and conflict. He has published numerous books and journal articles and appeared as a guest on many national television and radio programs.

Frank Van Nuys
Frank Van Nuys is associate professor of history at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. He earned a B.A. in history from South Dakota State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming. He is the author of “Americanizing the West: Race, Immigrants, and Citizenship, 1890-1930,” published by the University Press of Kansas in 2002. Dr. Van Nuys is currently researching the history of predatory mammal control in the American West.

Donald Watt
Donald Watt, McGovern Center Fellow, was previously vice president for academic affairs at Dakota Wesleyan University.  After completing his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, and before joining Dakota Wesleyan, he was associate professor of political science and an academic dean at Southern Arkansas University and a visiting professor at Moscow State Pedagogical University (Russia).  His writing has been included in 22 academic publications, plus articles in the Mitchell Daily Republic regarding insights gained from attending the 2008 national conventions.  He has presented papers on topics in political science and religion at regional and national conferences.