Gayle A. Levy, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French and Honors Program Director

Gayle Levy began her life-long love of French at the age of five when she learned how to say “jus d’orange” in kindergarten. She honed her francophilia as an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley and during her graduate studies at The Johns Hopkins University, Duke University and the École Normale Supérieure-Ulm in Paris. Currently, her research centers on French resistance fighters during World War II. In 2012, she was selected to receive the prestigious Palmes Académiques award for her research and contributions to the study of French literature and history.

Levy has served continuously since 2003 as the director of the Honors Program. She loves meeting and working with these exceptional students. She is particularly proud of the way the students have taken leadership roles in and helped shape the Honors Program initiatives.

Stephen R. Christ, Ph.D. Assistant Teaching Professor, Honors Program

Stephen R. Christ is an assistant teaching professor of social/behavioral science in the UMKC Honors Program. In his research, Dr. Christ examines the everyday experiences of Mexican immigrants in the United States that contribute to Mexican-American identity formation. More specifically, how Mexican Americans experience daily life at home, at work, in public life and in how these experiences impact their sense of personal identity, their relationships with natives, their interactions with their families and community and the identity work that goes into producing such categories and social worlds.

Dr. Christ’s current book project, Authentic Imitations: Culture and Society in a Globalized World, examines the negotiated construction of authenticity among Latino/a immigrants employed in the Mexican restaurant industry, a site in which authenticity is a major theme.  Dr. Christ has presented his original research at regional, national, and international conferences and has been awarded several research awards, including the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Dissertation Scholarship, the John D. Bies International Travel Research Award and the Robert W. Habenstein Dissertation Fellowship.  His work has appeared in peer reviewed journals such as Organizational Cultures: An International Journal, Rural Sociology and Qualitative Sociological Review and has been featured in over 60 national and international news sources including the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and NPR.

Henrietta Rix Wood, Ph.D., Teaching Professor, Honors Program

Henrietta Rix Wood is a Teaching Professor in the Honors Program and teaches writing, research, and general education courses. Dr. Wood earned her interdisciplinary doctorate in English and History at UMKC; she has a master’s degree in English from UMKC and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Her research focuses on the rhetoric and history of women in the United States.

Dr. Wood’s book, Praising Girls: The Rhetoric of Young Women, 1895-1930, was published by Southern Illinois University Press in 2016. She co-edited In the Archives of Composition: Writing and Rhetoric in High Schools and Normal Schools, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2015. Her articles about Kansas City civil rights activist Lucile Bluford appear in Wide-Open Town: Kansas City in the Pendergast Era (University Press of Kansas, 2018) and on the Pendergast Years: Kansas City in the Jazz Age & Great Depression website of the Kansas City Public Library. Her work also has appeared in American Periodicals, Rhetoric Review, and Feminist Challenges or Feminist Rhetoric? Locations, Scholarship, Discourse (Cambridge Scholars, 2014). Wood won the 2012 Rhetoric Society of America Dissertation Award.

In her previous career, Dr. Wood was a reporter for The Kansas City Star, and for a newspaper and city magazine in Dallas. When she is not teaching or writing, she cooks, walks her wacky Australian shepherd, watches sports with her husband, and visits her two adult daughters.

For more information, go to www.henriettarixwood.com.

Margo Gamache, Director of Student Services, Honors Program

Margo Gamache is the Director of Student Services.  She earned her M.A. in Leadership in Human Service Administration from Bradley University.  Margo loves helping students find a career path that excites and interests them.  In her spare time Margo likes to bake, hike with her husband and two sons, and watch movies. 

Anabeth Laaker, Administrative Assistant, Honors Program

Anabeth is the office assistant for the Honors Program. She is currently in her second year in the public history master’s program here at UMKC, focusing on early American medical history. In her spare time, Anabeth likes to read, solve crossword puzzles, and do all things crafty.

Emily Lynn, Office Assistant, Honors Program

Emily Lynn is an Office Assistant for the Honors Program. As a second year Master’s student in voice at the UMKC Conservatory, she hopes to pursue an operatic career. Outside the practice room and the office, Emily loves tutoring French, distance running, and hiking.

Manuel Garcia Hernandez, Office Assistant, Honors Program

Manuel is the office assistant for the Honors Program. He is a first year the nursing path. In his free time, he likes to paint and meditate, which helps clear his head. Manuel loves the Honors Program because of all the support and resources they have given him to help ease his transition into college!