2021-2023 AADAS Board

Michael Douma, President (2023).  Michael is an Assistant Research Professor and Director of the Georgetown Institute for the Study of Markets and Ethics in the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He earned a B.A. from Hope College (2004) and a M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Florida State (2011). During his undergraduate years, he worked for the Joint Archives of Holland, studied abroad in Leiden (2002-2003), and wrote a short architectural history book called Veneklasen Brick.  Before graduate school, he spent one full year working for the Van Raalte Institute, to which he returned for many summers as a research assistant to Robert Swierenga. He wrote a dissertation about Dutch American identities while living in Amsterdam on a Fulbright grant. In addition to studying the history of Dutch Americans in the Midwest, he has published articles on slavery in the Dutch world, the Dutch translation of the U.S. Constitution, and the rise of capitalism in the Netherlands. He intends on developing more research on New Netherland and building bridges between New York and the Midwest.

Rhonda Pennings, Past-President (2023). is the Dean of Arts & Science/Business and Health at Northwest Iowa Community College. She has a bachelor’s degree from Northwestern College with majors in art and English. She has a master’s degree in English and a doctorate in education from the University of South Dakota.

As a member of the American Association of University Women, she is interested in promoting education and equity for women. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Iowa Network for Women in Higher Education and on the planning council for the annual Way Up Conference for women in higher education.

Currently, she has been working on her family genealogy and enjoys reading Dutch history. Both of her grandmothers immigrated from the Netherlands to America with their families.  Her ancestors hid Jews during the Holocaust and the Pennings family name is on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous located in Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.

David Zwart, Treasurer and Membership Secretary (2023). I grew up in Sioux County, Iowa and graduated from Dordt College in 1999. I went west to California to teach middle school social studies in Visalia, California. While in the Central Valley of California, I completed a M.A. in history at Fresno State and wrote about the Dutch community in Hanford, California. I then continued my education at Western Michigan University where I received my Ph.D. in 2012 with a dissertation on Dutch American commemorations. After teaching at Dordt College for four years, I am currently assistant professor in the history department at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan where I mostly teach future history and social studies teachers how to get the next generation excited about studying the past.

Mary Risseeuw, Newsletter (2023). Mary has researched 19^th & 20^th century Dutch immigration to Wisconsin for over 25 years.  She has lectured throughout the Midwest and the Netherlands on the subject. Some of her publications include: A Phoenix Sesquicentennial Tribute: 1847-1997 (1997); I end with my pen, but not with my heart: Dutch immigrant letters, memoirs and travel journals, Editor/Compiler, (2008).  She hosted the 2011 AADAS conference in Wisconsin.  She also organized and hosted the Dutch in Wisconsin Conference in 2008; the first Dutch studies conference to focus solely on Dutch immigration to Wisconsin. She is a past AADAS board member and previously was the Development Director at the Sheboygan County Historical Research Center.  She has a B.S. from UW-Madison and M.A. & M.F.A. degrees from Northern Illinois University.

Suzanne Sinke, at-large (2023)

Huug van den Dool, at-large (2023)

William Katerberg, at-large (2025)

Jolanda Vanderwal Taylor, at-large (2025)