[The University of the South, Sewanee] Luisa Elena Bonillas, adjunct professor in the department of social science at Mesa Community College, Arizona, and the Rev. Robyn M. Neville, assistant professor of ecclesiastical history at the General Theological Seminary in New York, have been appointed to the board of directors of The Historical Society of The Episcopal Church.

The appointments were made at the Historical Society’s annual meeting on July 3, 2012, in Indianapolis, Ind., reported the Rev. Benjamin King, assistant professor of church history and director of the Advanced Degrees Program at The School of Theology at the University of the South. King serves on the Board’s promotion and finance committee.

The Historical Society is a voluntary society composed of scholars, writers, teachers, ministers (both lay and ordained), and others whose mission is to preserve and disseminate information about the history of the Episcopal Church in the United States. The Society publishes a quarterly journal called Anglican and Episcopal History, awards fellowships to scholars working in the area of church history, sponsors historical conferences, and underwrites occasional publications.

Bonillas holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University, where her dissertation was entitled “Pushing for Change: Women of Color at Wellesley College, 1966-2001.” As well as teaching, she has worked as archivist in the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona and in various capacities in English and Spanish speaking churches.

The Rev. Neville is a Ph.D. candidate at Emory University, Atlanta, where she anticipates submitting her dissertation this October, entitled “Miraculous Bodies: Gender, Power, and Tropes of Embodiment in Early Medieval Hagiographies from Ireland, Anglo-Saxon England, and Merovingian Gaul.” Since her ordination as an Episcopal priest in 2003, she has assisted at parishes in Virginia, Massachusetts, and Georgia.

The Rev. Robert W. Prichard, the president of the Historical Society, said: “I am delighted to have these two young scholars join the board of directors of the Historical Society. They possess knowledge of the discipline of history and acquaintance with the life of the Episcopal Church that will be very helpful to the Historical Society in pursuing its goal of promoting the preservation of the history of the Episcopal Church and its antecedents.”