Leadership

Kimbra Smith, PhD

Kimbra Smith

Faculty Director/Professor of Anthropology
 

Kimbra Smith is a cultural and applied anthropologist who works across multiple disciplinary boundaries. She is the author of Practically Invisible: Coastal Ecuador, Tourism, and the Politics of Authenticity, which considers how coastal indigenous communities negotiate international recognition through embodied practice, and several related articles. She is currently working on an ecological history of two valleys in southern Manabí, Ecuador that considers the interconnections of human and more-than-human history from the Spanish colonial period through the present.

 

Kimbra is currently the director of the Heller Center for Arts & Humanities. The 34-acre campus promotes the humanities across UCCS and the Pikes Peak region through fellowships, salons, exhibits, performances, and other events. For the Center, she is currently planning an end-of-summer arts and humanities festival to be held in 2026, with a variety of interactive events hosted by Heller and community partners throughout Colorado Springs. Kimbra has created or coordinated multimedia outreach projects for indigenous communities (English version here) and the UCCS College of Letters, Arts & Sciences (The City Interactive), and is currently designing and co-creating multiple components for an interactive museum exhibition on the interconnectedness of rainforest ecologies. In her free time, she enjoys hiking with family and friends, playing with her enormous Pyr puppy, taking photos of nature, reading, and writing novels.

Rhonda Goodman-Gaghan

Portrait of Rhonda Goodman-Gaghan

Assistant Director and Curator

Rhonda Goodman-Gaghan is the Assistant Director and Curator at the UCCS Heller Center for Arts & Humanities. She holds a masters in Early American Culture from the Winterthur Program, a masters in history from Villanova University, and a bachelors from Williams College. Her current research highlights Pueblo Revival Architecture, the Indigenous People of Colorado Springs, and local, state, and regional history.