Deeply Rooted

Nigel Boyle

Professor of Political Studies

Since 1992, Nigel Boyle has engaged in the transformative power of liberation education and intercultural learning as a distinguished professor of political studies. He has held several leadership roles, including dean and vice president of academic affairs. As a teacher and mentor at Pitzer, he worked with a multitude of students applying for prestigious fellowships. He held the Peter and Gloria Gold Chair at Pitzer and was chosen as the founding director of the Institute for Global/Local Action & Study.

Boyle also folded the fellowships office into his portfolio and developed the Global Local Mentorship Project, the Junior Faculty Development Seminar, and a set of foreign language initiatives and short-term study abroad programs. Boyle focused his research on the political determinants of social inequality. His classes covered Irish politics, European social policy, comparative politics, and more. Boyle earned his BA at Liverpool University and PhD at Duke University.

In 2015, Boyle received three honors: the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board recognized him as the top Fulbright adviser; the Pitzer Class of 2015 elected him as a student marshal for Commencement; and he became president of Aston Villa Football Club in the Upper Prison in Luzira, Uganda.

Boyle’s crowning achievement is opening doors in prison education. Boyle facilitated the first Inside-Out classes, in which incarcerated “inside” students and “outside” Claremont Colleges students share a learning environment, at the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, California. Boyle eventually became the founding director of Pitzer’s Inside-Out Pathway-to-BA Program, which enables incarcerated students to earn a bachelor’s degree.
 

During Community Weekend this spring, Boyle donned a white apron and invited the Pitzer community to “Boyle’s Bar” in Benson Auditorium. Former students sat on barstools and imbibed a glass (or two) as they swapped stories.

Michael Griggs ’21, who was formerly incarcerated and is a graduate of Pitzer’s New Resources Program, hailed Boyle for helping him to believe in second chances.

“As a formerly incarcerated nontraditional student, I had questions about whether or not I belonged here,” Griggs said, “and Nigel didn’t just answer those questions, he dismantled them.”

Melinda Herrold-Menzies

Professor of Environmental Analysis

For 22 years, Melinda Herrold-Menzies has been an important part of one of Pitzer’s most popular majors—environmental analysis—and a dedicated colleague and researcher. Her research interests included conflicts over natural resources, gender and the environment, nature reserves in China and Russia, natural history, and California cultures and ecosystems. In this work, she examined economic change and the tensions and integration of conservation work with development projects. This research has included investigations and commentary on ecotourism and on social activism and citizen resistance in relation to conservation efforts. Herrold-Menzies taught a variety of classes about environmental studies, California’s landscapes, conservation, nature through film, and more.

Herrold-Menzies earned a BA in Language and Literature and Mathematics at Webster College, an MA in International Relations at Yale University, and a PhD in Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California, Berkeley. While at UC Berkeley, Herrold-Menzies received international dissertation research fellowships for her project “Economic Reform, NGOs, and Cranes in Russia and China.” She served on all of Pitzer's governance committees as well as in the role of an associate dean.
 

Faculty, staff, and students gathered in late spring to honor her contributions with tributes from then Dean of Faculty Allen M. Omoto and faculty and staff members Kebokile Dengu-Zvobgo, Paul Faulstich ’79 P’15, Kathy Yep, Susan Phillips, Muriel Poston, and others. They acknowledged her energy, inspiration as an adviser and mentor, and deep commitment to serving Pitzer. Omoto led a toast in praise of Herrold-Menzies.

“I want to raise a glass and express deep gratitude to Melinda for her more than two decades of commitment to Pitzer, our students, and faculty and staff colleagues,” he said. “Melinda, you have been an important thread in the fabric of Pitzer College, and we have all been made better for your efforts.”

Sheryl Miller

Professor of Anthropology

For 56 years, Sheryl Miller has inspired students to explore anthropology with curiosity, passion, and joy. The Pitzer community gathered outside Broad Center at the end of the spring semester to salute Miller’s foundational work. She arrived at Pitzer in 1969, just six years after the College was founded in 1963. As then Dean of Faculty Allen M. Omoto said of Miller in his opening remarks, “she is truly a Pitzer OG!”

These sentiments were echoed by other speakers, including Sheila Kemper Dietrich ’78 and Professor Emeritus Paul Faulstich ’79 P’15, who paid tribute to Miller’s influence on generations of students with her hands-on, experiential approach to learning.

“No wonder that she is ‘distinguished teaching chair,’” Faulstich said of Miller’s title as the distinguished chair in archaeology and biological anthropology.

Miller is a fellow and life member of the American Anthropological Association and a founding member of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists in America. She has done field work on the Hopi Indian Reservation in Arizona; the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium; and in many different countries in Africa, including site surveys and excavation work. Her expertise is rooted in African cultures and human evolution. Her scholarly work also extends to Native American Indian cultural traditions, arts, and crafts.

At Pitzer, Miller served on and chaired many governance committees. This includes the Academic Standards Committee, Academic Planning Committee, Budget Implementation Committee, and Faculty Executive Committee.
 

Miller earned a BA at Occidental College and an MA and PhD at UC Berkeley. Pitzer’s Sheryl F. Miller Endowed Scholarship Fund was established in 2003 in recognition of her lifetime commitment to teaching excellence.

The gift that created Miller’s endowed chair position was also given to the College, in part, to honor her passion for teaching and her contribution to the academic, intellectual, and personal development of one of the donors. With her retirement, and as part of the gift agreement, this endowed position has been renamed the Sheryl F. Miller Distinguished Chair in Archaeology and Biological Anthropology.