Barbara Ladner earned her B.A. in English from Rice University, in Houston, Texas, and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut. She taught at the University of California at Berkeley and Marshall University before joining the Department of English at West Virginia State University in 1991. She has also worked in university public relations at Columbia University and the Marshall University Graduate College, and in editing for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and a number of publishing companies in New York City. At WVSU, she has worked as assistant dean of the Governor’s Honors Academy in 1995 and 1996, was coordinator of General Education from 1998 to 2006, chaired the Department of English from 2008 to 2010, and was dean of the College of Arts and Humanities from July 2010 to August 2013.