CHS Announces a New Dean of Students!

CHS welcomes Candace Kant as the new Dean of Students for Cherry Hill Seminary. Dr. Kant is a retired professor of history, having taught at the College of Southern Nevada for over thirty years.  Her primary teaching responsibilities at CSN were the U.S. History Survey courses and Nevada history.  In addition to these, she taught women's studies courses and helped create the Women's Studies program at CSN.  She also developed and taught courses in the history of the American West, Southwest heritage and European history, including Women in Western Culture.  As she gained seniority she was able to develop and offer such courses as "History of Witchcraft," "Goddess Traditions,"  "Introduction to Modern Western Paganism," and "Modern Pagan Thought."  She also offered "Wiccan Mysteries" and "The Goddess Path" in the non-credit division.  When she retired in 2008, her colleagues awarded her the title of Emeritus.  Dr. Kant holds a BA and MA from University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a Ph.D. from Northern Arizona University.  She has written and published two books emerging from her dissertation topic: Zane Grey's Arizona (Northland Press, 1984) and Letters from a Marriage: Dolly and Zane Grey (University of Nevada Press, 2008).   She has held several administrative positions: department chair, director, and provost.  She also served as Faculty Senate Chair twice and as state Nevada Faculty Alliance president for three terms.  She is currently completing a fourth term on the American Association for University Professors National Council representing District I (the West Coast). 

 

For Cherry Hill Seminary Dr. Kant teaches Introduction to the Goddess Path, a four week Foundations course, and also developed a graduate level "Goddess Traditions" course.  She currently serves on the Admissions Committee. 

 

Dr. Kant is a devotee of Sekhmet. She was initiated into the Goddess Path at the Temple of Goddess Spirituality dedicated to Sekhmet and was also Croned and ordained there.  In 2007, Anne Key, who was at that time the resident priestess, invited her and several others to be Temple Priestesses.  Together they developed and led rituals, organized three Sekhmet Festivals, developed Goddess Path classes and did all the other myriad things that Priestesses do.  She also worked with Pagan/Wiccan groups at both the men's and women's prisons in southern Nevada and has been active in interfaith work.  

 

Recently Kant and Anne Key founded Goddess Ink, a publishing company that specializes in "Books for the Heart and Mind."  It is dedicated to publishing high quality, affordable and accessible scholarly and creative books in the fields of Women's Spirituality and Goddess Studies.   The website is www.goddess-ink.com.  The first release, Heart of the Sun: An Anthology in Exaltation of Sekhmet is now in print.  Heart of the Sun offers poetry, academic essays, visualizations, invocations, guided meditations, and ritual by over thirty contributors.   The second release is Desert Priestess: A Memoir by Anne Key, an account of the years Anne spent as Priestess at the Temple. 

 

Dr. Kant is excited by the challenge of serving as Dean of Students for Cherry Hills and looks forward to working with the students and faculty.  

Executive Director Holli Emore expressed appreciation for outgoing Dean of Students, Maggie Beaumont. "Maggie's contributions to Cherry Hill Seminary run so broad, as well as deep," Emore said, "that it is impossible to overstate the impact she has made on the Seminary, her coworkers, our students and teachers.  It has been a genuine honor to work closely with her over the years.  Few realize that Maggie wrote the lion's share of our first student catalog, including the arduous work of establishing academic and student policies.  She has played the role of sage more times than I can remember - whatever the situation, I and our students have always been able to count on Maggie for from-the-heart wisdom."