Foundation Faculty Fellowship Program

Melissa Estes Blair is professor of history and department chair at Auburn University. She received her PhD from the University of Virginia and her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky. Her research focuses on women and politics in the 20th-century United States. She is the author of two books, “Revolutionizing Expectations: Women’s Organizations, Feminism, and American Politics, 1965–1980” and “Bringing Home the White House: The Hidden History of Women Who Shaped the Presidency in the Twentieth Century,” both published by the University of Georgia Press. She is also the co-author, with Vanessa Holden and Maeve Kane, of the textbook “American Women’s History: A New Narrative History.” As a Foundation Fellow, Blair will use her longstanding interest in American political history and her training as a social historian to help guide conversations about the nation’s past and the ways in which that past informs the current moment.

Mitchell Brown, PhD, is the Curtis O. Liles III Professor of Political Science at Auburn University, and director of the Institute for Election Administration Research and Practice, a collaboration of Auburn University and the National Association of Election Officials, and a founding editor of the "Journal of Election Administration Research and Practice." She is widely published, and her work as a researcher, evaluator, trainer and consultant focuses on applied projects around the country centering on election administration, community-based problem solving and democratic engagement. One of the privileges of being at a university is taking the time to develop community around books and ideas, and Brown is honored to be part of the Foundation Faculty Fellows program to do this with faculty and students together. Her goals are to make connections between and apply normative theory about the purpose, structure and rules of government in a democracy to contemporary discussions about voting and elections.

Steven P. Brown is the Morris Savage Endowed Chair in the Department of Political Science and program director for the Law and Justice major. He received his PhD from the University of Virginia and has taught constitutional law courses at Auburn since 1998. His most recent book, “Alabama Justice: The Cases and Faces That Changed a Nation,” details landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases from Alabama and was the companion volume to his traveling exhibit of the same name, which toured the state during Alabama’s statehood bicentennial. Brown is excited to share his knowledge of the Constitution and the structure of government it created, as well as the rights and liberties it protects, with the 2026 Fellows. He also looks forward to their responses to many of the same questions debated by the founders: What constitutes good government? Why and how should governmental power be decentralized? What fundamental rights and liberties should be protected against governmental incursion?

Isaac Cohen, assistant professor of landscape architecture, holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in studio art from Vassar College and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from the University of Virginia, where he was named a University Olmsted Scholar. He comes to Auburn from professional practice, where he worked with communities around the country on the design of and advocacy for public parks. His practice includes public engagement and research into critical issues impacting why, when and where these vital public spaces are built. He hopes to contribute a critical understanding of the importance of place to discussions around civic life at Auburn and explore how changing ideas of landscape have helped shape values and democratic ideals in America. He is excited to join this important conversation and to learn from his colleagues in other fields while positioning design as an integral part of civic discourse and public life.

James “Jim” L. Noles Jr. is professor of practice in Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses and is responsible for the college’s environmental law minor and graduate certificate programs. He received his J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and his bachelor's degree in international history from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He is the former chairman of the boards of the Alabama Humanities Foundation and the Alabama School of Fine Arts and is the author of several books, including “Twenty-Three Minutes to Eternity: The Final Voyage of the Escort Carrier USS Liscome Bay” and “Mighty by Sacrifice: The Destruction of an American Bomber Squadron,” both published by the University of Alabama Press. As a Foundation Fellow, Noles hopes to encourage Foundation Fellows to consider whether select documents related to environmental law and policy should, in fact, be considered foundational texts in our shared “American Experiment.”

Jesús A. Tirado is associate professor of social studies education in Auburn University’s College of Education, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on social studies methods, curriculum and assessment. He received his PhD from the University of Georgia. He is widely published in the field of education and recently co-edited an essay collection, “Hollywood or History?: An Inquiry-Based Strategy for Teaching Latinx History,” which seeks to help teachers include more Latino stories in their classrooms in different and engaging ways. He is excited to be a Foundation Fellow and hopes to engage in thoughtful conversations about the ideas and ideals of the United States’ founding and the nature of our democracy.