Involved at the campus level, Dr. Brooks provides regular campus faculty training and development opportunities as the long-standing campus copyright compliance representative, chair of the Faculty Women’s Association, member of the university’s Faculty Development Committee for Online and Multimedia Instruction, and new member of the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Program for the Eastern Region.  Ongoing service initiatives consist of faculty governance as the 2007-09 faculty representative for the Institutional Board of Governors, founding board member for the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia and the newly established Oral History Project, 2008 conference organizer and regular presenter for the Appalachian Studies Association, and 2007-08 vice-chair of the WV-Western Pennsylvania Chapter of the Association of College and Research Libraries.

Research interests include higher education personnel administration, library science-- especially curriculum development, race, gender, & ethnicity issues in Appalachia, the migration of Mexicans to WV, and online course delivery methods, design, and instruction. Personal projects encompass some unique areas such as family circus, La Carpa Garcia: Mexican-American Tent Show, 1914-1947, previously exhibited at the Witte, Hertzberg, and Bullock Museums in San Antonio, Texas from 1998 to 2006 and the history of the Good Housekeeping Stran-Steel Home from the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair Homes of Tomorrow exposition; research and photographs pertaining to the Stran-Steel House  will be included in an exhibit entitled Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling at the Museum of Modern Art (July - October, 2008).

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