About MAC

Montana Arts Council Members

Jean Steele

Jean Steele began teaching at Hamilton High School in 1973, and during her 36 years there taught English literature, composition and creative writing. She was the first secondary school teacher appointed to Humanities Montana (formerly the Montana Committee for the Humanities), and served as chair of that organization in 2005. She coached the Hamilton speech team for nine years, and during that time the team took four state championships. She also served as director of the state speech meet in 1976 and 1980.

As director of the school’s theatre arts program, she has helped students produce four plays a year, built participation in the program from a handful of students to 20 percent of the student body, and increased audiences from a smattering of adults to full-house crowds. Her enthusiasm for theatre also spills over to the community, where she has devised and directed basic drama activities for kids, produced and directed a musical for adults, and staged melodramas and mystery events for local service clubs

From 1990-1991, she taught English grammar, pronunciation, writing and vocabulary at the American Institute in Taipei, Taiwan, and also taught workshops and seminars and worked as a technical writer. Steele earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees in English from The University of Montana, and continues to teach as an adjunct professor at UM. She studied British history at Christ’s College, Cambridge, England; and studied medieval and renaissance art in Florence, Italy, as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow. She has received several teaching awards and a Carnegie Mellon Fellowship. A portion of her research was featured in the publication Minds Alive: Teachers as Scholars, a compilation of case studies reflecting the importance of intellectual rejuvenation for teachers.

She has served on the board of Shakespeare in the Schools for several years and fundraises annually to bring the group’s performances to Hamilton. Most recently, she coordinated the Poetry Out Loud program at Hamilton High, and says she’s thrilled to be able to bring that recitation contest to her students.

She enjoys hiking, backpacking, skiing, reading and writing, and spends much of each summer living with her husband and dog aboard their sailboat on Flathead Lake.

Term: 03/01/10 – 02/01/15