Meet the Editors

Charles E. Rankin

Associate Director/Editor-in-Chief

Charles E. Rankin is Associate Director/Editor-in-Chief and Acquisitions Editor for American West and military history for the University of Oklahoma Press. He works in association with series editors for the Campaigns and Commanders military history series and the Oklahoma Western Biographies series.

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma Press, Chuck was Director of Publications for the Montana Historical Society for eleven years, a position that included being Editor of Montana The Magazine of Western History and Director of the Montana Historical Society Press. Before that, he was associate editor of the New Mexico Historical Review and taught journalism at the University of New Mexico and Colorado State University following a career as a newspaper editor and radio news director. Chuck holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of New Mexico and is editor or co-editor of three books, including Trails: Toward a New Western History (1991); Wallace Stegner: Man and Writer (1996); and Legacy: New Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn (1996).

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Chuck is a member of several historical organizations, including the Western History Association for which he has held numerous offices. He and his wife Diane and their two sons live in Norman, Oklahoma.

Robert A. Clark

Assistant Director and Publisher of The Arthur H. Clark Company

Robert A. Clark is Assistant Director of the University of Oklahoma Press and Publisher of the Arthur H. Clark Company, an imprint of the press. He has devoted his career to the development, editing, and publishing of research and documentary materials on the history of America, and particularly the West, since 1970.

Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma Press in 2006, Bob was president and editor-in-chief of the Clark Company, founded by his grandfather in 1902. A graduate of Humboldt State University, Arcata, California, he is author of The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: three eye-witness views and The Arthur H. Clark Company, a Bibliography and History.

Over the course of his career he has served as editor, designer, and publisher of several hundred books and journals, including the multi-volume series Covered Wagon Women (with editor Kenneth L. Holmes), Kingdom in the West (with editor Will Bagley), and Before Gold (with editors Rose Marie Beebe and Robert Senkewicz).

Bob is an active member of a number of historical organizations, including the Western History Association, the Oregon-California Trails Association, the Mormon History Association, Western Writers of America, and Westerners International.

Bob and his wife, Sheila, also share a long history in the collectible book world, specializing in the history of the American West. They make their home in Norman, Oklahoma.

Alessandra Jacobi Tamulevich

Acquisitions Editor for American Indian, Latin American, and Classical Studies

Alessandra Jacobi Tamulevich is Acquisitions Editor for American Indian, Latin American, and Classical studies for the University of Oklahoma Press. Alessandra works directly with authors as well as with series editors for the New Directions in Native American Studies Series, the American Indian Law and Policy Series, the American Indian Literature and Critical Studies Series, the Civilization of the American Indian Series, and the Oklahoma Series in Classical Culture.

Alessandra was raised in Germany and earned her M.A. from the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. A full scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) allowed her to study at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where she pursued her interest in American Indian studies. Before joining the University of Oklahoma Press, Alessandra participated in exchange programs with Ireland and France, worked elsewhere in university press publishing, and held positions at the library for the Center of North American Studies, J. W. Goethe University, and at the Santa Barbara Independent in Santa Barbara, California.

Alessandra is member of several scholarly associations, including the Society for American Ethnohistory, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the Western History Association, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Philological Association. She attends conferences for these, and selected other, organizations to contact potential new authors. Alessandra lived in Norman, Oklahoma, for six years and now telecommutes from her new home outside of San Francisco. She frequently travels to Germany and Italy to visit family.

Jay Dew

Acquisitions Editor for the American West, Environmental History, and  Politics

Jay Dew works closely with authors to develop books on the American West, Texas history, environmental history, and politics and political history. Jay also collaborates with authors and editors to oversee several Press book series, including Race and Culture in the American West, International and Security Affairs, and the Julian J. Rothbaum Distinguished Lecture Series.

Jay regularly attends a number of scholarly conferences, including the Western History Association, the Texas State Historical Association, the American Society for Environmental History, Western Writers of America, and Westerners International.

A native Texan and graduate of Austin College in Sherman, Texas, Jay crossed the Red River to receive the M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from the University of Oklahoma. He and his wife, Sara, an artist and elementary schoolteacher, make their home in Norman.

Kathleen Kelly

Acquisitions Editor  for Women’s History and Literature

Kathleen A. Kelly is Acquisitions Editor for Women’s History and Literature. Kathleen also collaborates with authors and editors to oversee several Press book series including Chicana and Chicano Visions of the Americas and Chinese Literature Today Book Series.

Kathleen earned her M.A. in history from the University of Northern Iowa and studied Ph.D coursework in literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she pursued her interest in Latino literature and literature of exile and diaspora.  Before joining the University of Oklahoma Press, she participated in exchange programs with England and Spain, taught community college and university courses in the humanities and languages, worked in both higher education and university publishing, and higher education fundraising.

Kathleen’s essays, poems, and reviews are published in Al Jadid: A Review of Arab Culture and Arts, CALYX: A Journal of Art and Literature by Women, North American Review, and other literary journals.

A Californian, Kathleen and her husband Afshin Marashi now make their home in Norman.

Steven Baker

Managing Editor

As Managing Editor, Steven Baker oversees the Manuscript Editorial Department, whose staff shepherd manuscripts, after they have been contracted, through development (if necessary), copyediting, and (after design-typesetting) proofreading. Aside from supervising, Steven works with authors and freelance copyeditors as a manuscript editor. Among the books he is most happy to have helped produce are The Story of Oklahoma, Second Edition; Historical Atlas of Oklahoma; and Texas: A Historical Atlas.

A native of Oklahoma, Steven went west to California in 1988, after earning a bachelor’s in business administration at Washington University in St. Louis and a teaching certificate at OU. He taught history and American government for three years at a public high school in Corona, California, before returning to school to earn a master’s in American History at the University of California, San Diego. After teaching history as an adjunct instructor at several San Diego-area community colleges while also freelancing as a copyeditor for several publishers, Steven joined the Press’s Editorial Department in September 2004.

Alice Stanton

Special Projects Editor

Alice Stanton is Special Projects Editor for the University of Oklahoma Press. As a member of the Manuscript Editorial Department, she works closely with authors on the development, editing, and proofreading of their books. She also serves as a grant writer for the Press.

A native of New York City, Alice is a graduate of the Brearley School, Vassar College, and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. After moving to Oklahoma, she taught English composition and literature at the University of Oklahoma before embarking on her career as an editor. She is a member of the board of directors for the Friends for the Oklahoma Center for the Book.

Alice lives with her husband and three children in Norman, Oklahoma.

Emily Jerman

Manuscript Editor

Emily Jerman is a Manuscript Editor for the University of Oklahoma Press. As part of the Manuscript Editorial Department, she evaluates manuscripts when they arrive from the Acquisitions Department and collaborates with authors and freelancers in guiding the works through copyediting and proofreading.

A Norman native and graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Emily pursued a career in journalism before joining the Press. She’s written for Oklahoma Gazette (Oklahoma City’s alternative weekly newspaper), where she served as the copyeditor for three years; Oklahoma Today magazine; and the Woodward News. She coordinates a conversation program for English-language learners in her spare time.