Barbara Bennett Peterson

Dr. Barbara Bennett Peterson is a former Fellow at the East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, an Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Hawaii, 1998-present, and a former Research Associate at Bishop Museum, 1995-1998. She was a Professor of History by Courtesy at Oregon State University, 2000-2003, a Professor of History at California State University San Bernardino, Palm Desert campus, 2004-2005, and an adjunct faculty member at Portland State University where in 2006 she was president of the Friends of History. Several of her twenty-two published books have been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in History and Biography. She is the General series editor for Nova Science Publisher's book series titled First Men, America's Presidents. She served as an Associate Editor for the American National Biography (24 volumes and online) edited by John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes which won the Dartmouth Medal from the American Library Association in 1999 for best library reference. For over ten years Dr. Peterson served as a review editor for the journal Biography published by the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In retirement, Dr. Barbara Peterson was the historian for the Tigard (Oregon) Historical Association and was a docent at the Tigard Public Library in the Local History Room from 2010 to 2015. She is a former Fulbright Scholar to Japan (1967) at Sophia University and the People's Republic of China (1988-1989) at Wuhan University. Her husband, Dr. Frank L. Peterson, is an Emeritus Professor of Geology at the University of Hawaii and served for many years as the Chairman of Geology and Geophysics. They both taught for the Semester at Sea program for Chapman University (1974), the University of Colorado at Boulder (1978), and the University of Pittsburgh (1999) on voyages around the world. Dr. Barbara Bennett Peterson was named Wuhan University's (China) Distinguished Teacher of the Year in 1989, and she won the University of Hawaii's Board of Regent's Excellence in Teaching Award in 1993. Dr. Barbara Bennett Peterson is a Distinguished Alumna of the University of Hawaii (1997). The Drs. Peterson donate all of their book royalties to children's charities worldwide.