Holly Kreidler, PhD

Holly Kreidler is a passionate, dedicated, and skilled educator, academic and non-profit administrator and strategist, project manager, and collaborative thought partner and leader with nearly 30 years of experience. She has served Naropa University as Director of our Title III Grant Project: Leveraging Educational Technology for Student Success, since October 2021. A deeply mission-driven person who began incorporating contemplative learning practices in her classes several years ago, Holly has witnessed first-hand how they inspire safe vulnerability and open spaces for creativity and expression, healing, wellness, and good. Her senior-level experience at social service organizations and higher learning institutions also includes fundraising and resource development, strategic planning, employee development and recruitment, and her successful track record in program development, management and assessment will greatly enhance her service to NCGC and Naropa.

Holly was born in Kansas and raised in Oklahoma before moving to the metro Denver area in 2013. She is a first-generation college graduate from a low-income, single parent family. She earned a BA and MA in English from the University of Central Oklahoma, a Master of Liberal Arts from the University of Oklahoma, and a PhD from Swansea University in Wales, United Kingdom. Her doctoral thesis, titled “John Milton’s Poetry: A Textual Cure for Melancholy,” explores the history of emotions, medical humanities, and philosophy and their influence on Early Modern, Renaissance, and seventeenth century British history and literature including Milton’s poetry; methodologies include assemblage theory and queer theory.

Dedicated to student success and welfare and an advocate for faculty life and professional development, Holly is experienced as a fully functional faculty member and has taught residential, hybrid, and online English Composition, Literature, and World Religions courses at many universities and community colleges in Oklahoma and Colorado, including Metropolitan State University of Denver and, most recently, at Front Range Community College (FRCC). Nominated by a former student, Holly received a Teaching Excellence Award from FRCC in 2021. Throughout her professional career, she has served on numerous boards and organizations, focused primarily on education, leadership, civic service, nonpartisan state policy, advocacy for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and youth mentorship and development.