Merle Graybill grew up in the Cleveland/Akron area along with her many cousins after the entire family migrated north from West Virginia during World War II. Coming from a working class family of blue collar and service workers, Merle started working at age 14 but somehow also got on the 'college-bound' track in high school. She was the first, and still only one of three, members of this ever larger family to go to college. Stepping into the higher education culture, and other worlds, during the heyday of the 1970s counter-culture movements, her life took many interesting and unusual directions including radical politics, eastern and indigenous spiritual traditions, and most recently, a re-collection of her Appalachian heritage, again, to the confusion of other family members already 'moved far away'. She is proud to carry this bundle through life - from her family's basic sense of justice and acceptance/love of people, through early years in the Pentecostal church, and on into many other eclectic exposures and fields of work. However, being older now and having parented children, she does shudder to think of the worry and consternation she caused along the way.
When Merle came to Ohio University in 1993, she began to understand that this might be the closest she was going to get to returning to the West Virginia home that seemed to be in her heart. She has made a point of being involved with local and regional community people and their struggles and celebrations. She brings many years of experience in higher education, social services and diversity education to her position as Associate Dean of Students focusing on diversity initiatives and director of the Center for Community Service. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from the Union Institute in 1979 and an M.Ed. in Educational Administration from Ohio University in 1995. She is also a Licensed Social Worker. Becoming a part of this learning community centered on the topic of teaching and learning in Appalachia brings together many experiences, both personal and professional, to focus on a critical question - does Ohio University know its 'place' and what are we teaching our students about that.