Originally from southern West Virginia, Ron Eller has spent the last thirty years writing and teaching about the Appalachian region. A descendent of eight generations of families from Appalachia, Dr. Eller currently serves as an Associate Professor of History at the University of Kentucky. A former Rockefeller Foundation Scholar, Dr. Eller holds the Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is widely known as a scholar of Appalachian history and the study of rural economic development and social change.