Center for the Arts and Humanities

John Balaban

John Balaban is the author of twelve books of poetry and prose, which together have won the Academy of American Poets' Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, two nominations for the National Book Award, and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.  In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry, a past president of the American Literary Translators Association, and co-founder and president of the Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation. Balaban is Poet-in-Residence and Professor of English in the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

D. F. Brown

D. F. Brown is the author of The Other Half of Everything, Assuming Blue, and Returning Fire, winner of the San Francisco State University Poetry Book Prize. Brown served as a combat medic with the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, including Carrying the Darkness and Unaccustomed Mercy from Texas Tech University Press. He was a member of the founding faculty of Challenge Early College High School, and now teaches English in the public school system in Houston.

David V. Connolly

David V. Connolly served honorably with the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army in Vietnam. He is proud to have been, and still is proud to be, a Vietnam Veteran Against the War, a member of the Smedley D. Butler Brigade of Veterans for Peace, and a native son of South Boston. His collection of poems, Lost in America, was published by Viet Nam Generation, Inc. & Burning Cities Press in 1994, and his poetry also appears in the film Voices in Wartime. He runs workshops for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam veterans to address, through the written word, their PTSD-related hardships.

Joseph T. Cox

Joseph T. Cox is the author of The Written Wars, an anthology of early American war prose, and a volume of poetry, Garden's Close. He has published poetry in numerous journals and is a frequently published essayist. A 30-year career Army officer, Cox retired with the rank of colonel. A paratrooper and ranger, he served in Vietnam, commanded a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division, and finished his career as a tenured English professor at West Point. Cox served as Headmaster of the Haverford School for 15 years, retiring in 2013, and is currently executive director of the International Boys School Coalition.

W.D. Ehrhart

W.D. Ehrhart is the author or editor of 21 books of poetry and prose. He served in the US Marines for three years, including thirteen months in Vietnam with 1st Battalion, 1st Marines, achieving the rank of sergeant. He currently teaches English and history at the Haverford School, sponsors Haverford’s Poetry Club and coaches Winter Track. The recipient of the President’s Medal from Veterans for Peace, a Distinction in the Arts Award from Vietnam Veterans of America, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, he is the subject of the recently published The Last Time I Dreamed About the War: Essays on the Life and Writing of W.D. Ehrhart.

Dale Ritterbusch

Dale Ritterbusch served in the US Army as a hazardous munitions escort officer in Vietnam, coordinating shipments of aerial mines for dispersal along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and other infiltration routes. Ritterbusch is the author of Lessons Learned, winner of the Council for Wisconsin Writers’ Posner Award, and Far from the Temple of Heaven. He is a Professor in the Department of Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he teaches creative writing and literature. He has served as the Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of English & Fine Arts at the United States Air Force Academy, 2004-05 & 2012-13.

Daniel H. Weiss

Daniel H. Weiss was inaugurated as Haverford's 14th president in the fall of 2013.

A leading advocate for the liberal arts and the residential liberal arts college, Dr. Weiss served from 2005 to 2013 as president of Lafayette College, where his tenure was noted for a strategic plan that led to an increase in the size of its permanent faculty, revision of its Common Course of Study and the development of new interdisciplinary programs across the curriculum.

Previously, Dr. Weiss was a professor of art history at Johns Hopkins University, where he went on to serve as Dean of the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. He earned both an M.A. and Ph.D in the History of Art from Hopkins as well as an M.B.A. from the Yale School of Management.