Advisory Board

The Phelps Scholars Program is sponsored by the Office of the Provost at Hope College. It is overseen by an Advisory Board consisting of representatives of the faculty, the Student Development Office, and the Admissions Office.

	Jim Boelkins- The provost is fancy name for the chief academic officer and the position deals with all matters related to the faculty and academic program. One of those programs is the Phelps Scholars Program. Dr. Boelkins has been the provost at Hope for four years. He previously spent 15 years in medical education teaching pharmacology and doing research and 17 years in academic adminstration at two other institutions. One key responsibility of the provost is to hire faculty who contribute to the cultural diversity of the Hope campus, a task he takes very seriously. Provost Boelkins was raised in Grand Rapids, MI but lived in other states for 34 years. He and his wife Barbara have three adult children and four grandchildren.
	Richard Frost is Hope's Vice-President for Student Life and Dean of Students. He has been the dean since coming to Hope in 1988. Dean Frost graduated from Luther College in Iowa and received his Ph.D. from Michigan State. He spent several years in California, both at UC - Davis (where he was the Resident Director in a hall with a multicultural focus) and at UC - Santa Barbara.
	Alfredo Gonzales is the college's assistant provost. Alfredo was born in Texas but spent much of his childhood in Mexico. He came to Hope originally as a student, returning a few years after graduation to direct the Upward Bound program. He also served for a few years as Director of Multicultural Life before moving over to the provost's office. In addition to his bachelor's degree from Hope, Assistant Provost Gonzales has a graduate degree in social work from the University of Michigan. He lives in Holland with his wife and two daughters.
	Vanessa Greene has been Director of Multicultural Life since October of 2003. Vanessa obtained her Bachelor's degree from Grand Valley State University. She returned to GVSU later and received her Master's degree in Education, with an emphasis in Student Affairs Leadership. Greene’s current community activities include serving as a member of the board of the Lakeshore Ethnic Diversity Alliance (LEDA); and is a member of NASPA and ACPA national student organizations.
	Stephen Hemenway, a member of the Hope College English Department since 1972, has been teaching a course in African-American literature for more than a quarter of a century. A graduate of the College of the Holy Cross (A.B.), Boston College (M.A.), and the University of Illinois (Ph.D.), he published his dissertation as The Novel of India (two volumes). He has been the recipient of numerous teaching honors, including Hope's Outstanding Professor-Educator (1977), Michigan Professor of the Year (1992), and an international "Innovative Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology" award (1999). For the past 26 years, he has directed Hope's Vienna Summer School.
	Lorna Hernandez Jarvis is an associate professor of psychology. She received her B.A. from the University of Akron, and her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from Kent State University. Her research interest and publications are in the area of psycholinguistics. She studies the strategies children use to learn the meanings of new words. She has also conducted several investigations on the effects of bilingualism on cognition. She has developed several courses dealing with cultural diversity issues, and has participated on several cultural diversity initiatives on campus.
	John Jobson- more info to come
	Jessica Kast-Keat- Jessica Kast-Keat is the resident director of Scott Hall. She graduated from Cornerstone University with a degree in youth ministry. She is currently attending Western Theological Seminary.
	Stacey Salas is an admissions representative at Hope College. She graduated from Evangel University in 2003.
	John Yelding is an Associate Professor of Education at Hope College, will team-teaching the Phelps Scholars sections of First-Year Seminar during the Fall 2004 semester with Dr. Green. Born in South Haven, MI, Professor Yelding is a graduate of Michigan State University and Western Michigan University and is currently completing his Doctorate in Education Leadership at WMU. He has worked at Hope since 1994 where hse specializes in Senconday Education, Multiculturalism and Rural Education. He is also the past President of the West Ottawa School board and recently recieved the Michigan Campus Compact Community Service Award. Yelding and his wife, Kathy, live in Holland and have six children.