Dr. Patty Limerick is the Faculty Director and Chair of the board of the Center of the American West at CU, where she is also a Professor of History. Limerick has dedicated her career to bridging the gap between academics and the general public and to demonstrating the benefits of applying historical perspective to contemporary dilemmas and conflicts.

Limerick has received a number of awards and honors recognizing the impact of her scholarship and her commitment to teaching, including the MacArthur Fellowship and the Hazel Barnes Prize, CU’s highest award for teaching and research. She has served as president of several professional organizations, advised documentary and film projects, and done two tours as a Pulitzer Non-Fiction jurist. She regularly engages the public on the op-ed pages of local and national newspapers, and in the summer of 2005 she served as a guest columnist for the New York Times.