Coastal Carolina University's Kearns Palmetto Professor Sara L. Sanders has been named the new chair of the board of directors of The Humanities CouncilSC.

Sanders, of Conway, professor of linguistics and director of the Jackson Family Center for Ethics and Values at CCU, joined the statewide board in 2008. She is currently vice chair and will assume the position of chair on Nov. 1.

Sanders earned a bachelor's degree in English from Baptist College of Charleston (now Charleston Southern University) and a master's degree and Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. She has served as chair of CCU's Department of English and director of the University's Honors Program. Sanders was named Kearns Palmetto Professor in 2007.

Sanders was a senior Fulbright lecturer at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland and a visiting professor at St. Michaels College in Vermont. Through grants from the U.S. Information Agency, she has conducted teacher-training seminars in Russia, Italy and Uruguay. She and her husband, retired CCU professor Steve Nagel, co-authored the book "English in the Southern United States," and they were recipients of the Governor’s Awards in the Humanities in 2003.

The council, which is governed by a 24-member volunteer board of directors, will begin its 39th year as the affiliate state program of the National Endowment of the Humanities.