‘A Wonderful Vote of Confidence’

March 6, 2025

Max Owre, executive director of Carolina Public Humanities (CPH), introduces special guest Kamara Thomas at a CPH event at Flyleaf Books. (Photo courtesy of CPH)

Former employee’s gift provides new opportunities for Carolina Public Humanities.

Susan Landstrom holds the title of longest-serving staff member at Carolina Public Humanities. She was hired as a graduate assistant in 1985, went on to become the program’s business manager, and remained on staff until her retirement in 2021.

When Landstrom describes the beginning of her career, she laughs and admits, “It was time for me to wrap up graduate school, but one day the then-chair of the English department saw me in the halls of Greenlaw and said, ‘Susan, I have the perfect job for you!’ I told him that I couldn’t because I just needed to focus on finishing my dissertation, but then I did one lap around the open square of Greenlaw Hall and told him, ‘Okay, who do I call about this job?’”

During her 36 years on staff, Landstrom saw Carolina Public Humanities grow, evolve and introduce new programming. Carolina Public Humanities was established in 1979, under the name Program in the Humanities and Human Values, and seeks to bridge the divide between the University and the public. This is done in many ways, including:

• A robust offering of public programs that are open to all interested North Carolinians – including community book clubs led by faculty, lectures and panel discussions.
• The Carolina K-12 program in which Carolina faculty offer workshops with continuing education opportunities and curriculum development services to public school teachers throughout the state and beyond.
• A variety of statewide outreach activities that include collaborations with the state’s community colleges in which faculty present on topics tailored to the needs of each specific community college.

Landstrom and her husband, Peter, were also among the most dedicated attendees of Carolina Public Humanities programming – attending events, participating in book clubs and more.

Since retiring, Landstrom has continued to attend Carolina Public Humanities programs and even continued working with the program as a contractor. She trained her successor and, as the brain trust and person with full institutional knowledge, has remained a resource to the staff.

Landstrom also wanted to do something “a little bit bigger,” and make a gift that would have a lasting impact on the program. With this gift, Landstrom seeks to honor her husband, who passed away in July 2022, and to provide lasting support for the program through the creation of an endowment fund. The Peter and Susan Landstrom New Initiatives Fund will be used to provide seed funding for new projects that the Carolina Public Humanities staff would like to pilot.

“As the one who paid the bills, I was often the person in staff meetings who had to say, ‘We don’t have the funds for that,’” said Landstrom. “So now that I’m in a position to give, I love the idea of being able to empower the staff to bounce ideas off each other and try new things, without having to worry about the money.”

Carolina Public Humanities, which is housed in the College of Arts and Sciences, is unique in that it’s fully outward-facing. Unlike most University programs that are geared toward students, Carolina Public Humanities is focused on connecting University scholarship and faculty with the rest of the state. Since the program doesn’t have alumni, it lacks the natural donor base that exists for most departments.

Even as the program has faced unique challenges in growing a donor base, it has been sustained through a few vital endowment funds. Landstrom saw the significance of these funds firsthand.

“It was important to me that this gift be set up as an endowment,” said Landstrom. “Private money is what ensures the survival of a program, and I recognized that the growth of the Roger M. and May Belle Penn Jones Fund is probably what allowed Carolina Public Humanities to survive and grow into a wiser and more resolutely focused program over time.”

That focus, of course, is on showing the people of North Carolina what the University, and the College, does and why it matters.

“Making the University’s work and faculty more relevant to North Carolinians is increasingly important, because an increasing number of people feel the University is inaccessible and we owe it to the public to share insights into the wide array of research that happens here,” said Victoria Rovine, director of Carolina Public Humanities and professor of art history. “Our mission is to welcome all people in and show them both what the University does and why it matters.”

Rovine and her team are excited to see what the future holds for Carolina Public Humanities. One of the team’s goals is to expand the program’s patron base to a wider and more diverse group of people. Another is to improve their capacity to create meaningful networks among participants and develop more programs with long-term future trajectories for participants throughout the state, versus simply inviting them to one-off events. With this gift, the staff of Carolina Public Humanities will have the flexibility to pilot some of their best ideas and see what works.

“This gift is especially meaningful coming from Susan Landstrom, because she knows Carolina Public Humanities better than anyone,” said Rovine. “This gift is a wonderful vote of confidence from her and feels like it brings the past, present and future of the program together. Every time we use this fund, we’ll think of Susan and Peter.”

Written by Audrey Smith, University Development