Eberly Roundtable

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Discussion Panelists

Discussion Panelists

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Elaine McMillion Sheldon

American Documentary Filmmaker

Elaine McMillion Sheldon is an Academy Award-nominated, Peabody-winning, and two-time Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker. She has been nominated for six Emmy awards, three Peabody awards, is a 2021 Creative Capital Awardee, a 2021 Livingston Award Finalist, and a 2020 John Simon Guggenheim Fellow. She premiered her latest feature-length documentary, “King Coal,” at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The New York Times named it a Critics’ Pick, Esquire and Marie Claire named it one of the best documentaries of the year (so far). The film is screening in select theaters across the U.S. throughout the fall of 2023.

Sheldon is the director of two Netflix Original Documentaries - "Heroin(e)" and "Recovery Boys" - that explore America's opioid crisis. "Heroin(e)" was nominated for a 2018 Academy Award and won the 2018 News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Documentary. The short film premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival and went on to screen hundreds of times across America as part of a community-driven impact campaign.

Visit Elaine's Website

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Bradley Wilson

Associate Professor of Geography Director, Center for Resilient Communities

Professor Bradley Wilson is a broadly trained human geographer. His research is rooted in fields such as community economies, agrarian studies, political ecology, post-colonial theory, and rural development. For 20 years he has focused on the response of communities to regional economic crises - in coffee and coal country - and the central role of solidarity, mutual aid, grassroots initiatives and social movements in forging alternative rural development pathways in those regions.

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John Temple

Professor, Reed College of Media

Professor John Temple is a nonfiction author, investigative journalist and screenwriter. His books and television writing chronicle dramatic true stories of American life and illuminate critical current events and issues. Temple has spoken across the country about the roots of both the opioid epidemic and the patriot movement and has written for the Washington Post, Daily Beast, HuffPo, and other major media outlets. He has appeared many times as an expert on national television, radio, and podcasts.

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Beth Nardella

Associate Professor, WVU School of Medicine

Dr. Beth Nardella is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at West Virginia University. Her research focuses on power and resistance dynamics in Appalachia, investigating why people stay in West Virginia. She serves as Director of Global Education and Service Learning for the Department of Human Performance, facilitating programs involving community-driven service and engagement in rural West Virginia and abroad.

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Brooke Durham

Assistant Professor of History

Dr. Durham is a historian of France and the French Empire. Her research approaches the end of the French Empire through local, interpersonal interactions in France and Africa after 1945. Dr. Durham examines how students, social workers, teachers, and international volunteers negotiated the politics of the Cold War, development, and decolonization. Dr. Durham teaches courses on the French Empire and Modern European history. She advises graduate students working on Modern France, Europe, and North and West African history.

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Riley Coulter

Junior Biomedical Engineering Student

Riley is a third-year student here at WVU, involved in a variety of on-campus organizations such as oSTEM, Student Government, Appalachian Advocacy Network, and MURR. As a native West Virginian, she is passionate about issues that impact Appalachia and serves as the Vice President of a student-run advocacy group, AAN. Additionally, she is heavily involved in undergraduate research and hopes to pursue a Ph.D. to continue her research career.