Board of Directors
Officers
Linda Baines
President – president@ncis.org
Linda Baines is an independent post-doctoral researcher, and a visiting researcher at Southampton Business School (SBS) at the University of Southampton, UK. Her research interests include Inclusive entrepreneurship, gender equality, and governance and leadership in the third sector.
Kevin Hans Waitkuweit
Treasurer – treasurer@ncis.org
Kevin Hans Waitkuweit received a MA in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame. His research interests entail the theoretical paradoxes of identity within sociology and how the meanings of identities are formed and change over time.
Cindy Bylander
Membership Officer – membership@ncis.org
Dr. Cindy Bylander is an American musicologist. A recipient of the Polish Composers’ Union’s Honorary Award and Poland’s Gloria Artis Bronze medal, her research focuses on twentieth-century Polish musical life.
Amanda Haste
Communications Officer – info@ncis.org
Amanda Haste is a Franco-British researcher and academic translator and was President of NCIS from 2015 to 2022. She spent 20 years as a professional musician and music educator, and holds a PhD in Musicology.
Ventra Asana
Secretary - secretary@ncis.org
Dr. Ventra Asana is an independent scholar residing in the United States and is Founder/CEO of Spiritual Kinetics . She holds the Bachelor in Humanities, Master of Theological Studies, Master of Divinity, and Doctor of Ministry. She is retired as adjunct professor of Comparative Religion at Henry Ford College where she taught from 2006 to 2015.
Board Members
Kathryn Burrows
Kate Burrows is a sociologist by training and is interested in medical and mental health sociology. She has published in a wide variety of sub-disciplines in sociology, including papers about dating and social meme theory, gender and cancer, mental health, culturally relevant teaching, and the history of medical technology. She is the Partner Group Liaison for NCIS.
Paul Parobek
Paul Parobek is currently a doctoral candidate. He holds two Master's degrees, one in history and the other in international politics. His doctoral research consists of refuting the imperial thesis within American diplomatic history at the turn of the twentieth century by reinterpreting, recontextualizing, and resituating American foreign policy towards Latin America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, using Cuba as a case study.
Shelby Shapiro
Shelby Shapiro earned an MA and PhD in American Studies, studying the Yiddish press and acculturation of women immigrants. His book, Words to the Wives: The Yiddish Press, Immigrant Women and Jewish-American Identity,. was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2024. He is the Book Review Editor and TIS General Editor for NCIS.
Helen Ross
Dr Helen Ross is a fully qualified special needs teacher and former SENCO, currently working in a mainstream school in Wiltshire. She also provides expert advice and research consultancy, as well as specialist tuition and CPD, through her own enterprise ‘Helen’s Place.’.