Dr. Russell Wyland

Russell Wyland joined the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) in 1990. In early 2024, Chair Shelly Lowe (Navajo) appointed Russ to his current position as the inaugural Director of the NEH Office of Outreach. In that capacity, he leads the agency’s efforts to expand access to historically underserved institutions and communities. Russ is the principal author of “Research Fellowships: An Evaluation of 2002-2004 Awards” (GPO, 2012), and he has worked closely with NEH partners, including the Library of Congress, National Science Foundation, Japan-US Friendship Commission, the Mellon Foundation, and the Trans-Atlantic Platform for Social Sciences and Humanities. 

Russ received his BA in English literature from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and MA and PhD in English literature from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. His scholarship focuses on late Romantic and early Victorian literature, the history of classical rhetoric in England, and the development of the periodical press during the 19th century.

He has published his work in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Rhetorica, and the Victorian Periodicals Review, and his research has been supported by the American Philosophical Society and the English-Speaking Union.