Oberlin College faculty

Shane McCrae (born September 22, 1975, Portland, Oregon) is an American poet, and is currently Poetry Editor of Image.McCrae was the recipient of a 2011 Whiting Award, and in 2012 his collection Mule was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and a PEN Center USA Literary Award. In 2013, McCrae received a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He received a Lannan Literary Award in 2017, in 2018 his collection In the Language of My Captor won an Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, and in 2019 he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.His poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including Best American Poetry, American Poetry Review, African American Review, Fence, and AGNI.

David W. Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics Emeritus at Oberlin College, and presently Professor of Practice at Arizona State University.
During his tenure at the Environmental Studies Center at Oberlin College, Orr demonstrated how institutions of higher learning can teach ecological literacy while practicing sustainable design and encouraging more eco-friendly lifestyles on campus. Orr's books, Ecological Literacy: Education and the Transition to a Postmodern World (1992) and Earth in Mind (1994-2004), proposed ways in which education should evolve to emphasize sustainability, not only in the narrow parameters of ecology-based programs, but in wider curricula, from political science and economics to liberal arts.

Richard E. Spear (born 1940 in Michigan City, Indiana) is an American art historian and professor who specializes in Italian Baroque painting.

Ellen Hulda Johnson (1910–1992) was a distinguished art historian and professor of modern art at Oberlin College from 1945 to 1977, an organizer of important exhibitions, and an influential critic of contemporary American art.

Frank B. Ebersole (1919–2009) was an American philosopher who developed a unique form of ordinary language philosophy.

Louis Gardner Lane (December 25, 1923 – February 15, 2016) was an American conductor. He was born in Eagle Pass, Texas. He studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor's in music degree in 1943, and with Bohuslav Martinů at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer 1946), and with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music (master's degree in music, 1947). He also studied opera with Sarah Caldwell (1950).
He was apprentice conductor to George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1947. He became assistant conductor there 1955-1960 and associate conductor 1960-1970 and resident conductor 1970-1973. A comment made by George Szell to Lane in 1957 about the eccentric pianist Glenn Gould became quite famous: “That nut’s a genius”. Gould requested Lane to accompany his subsequent performances in Cleveland, and Lane's Canadian conducting debut was made in 1960 at the Vancouver Festival with Gould.
Lane's programming with the Cleveland Orchestra led to his receiving two major awards, the Mahler Medal and the Ditson Conductor's Award.He was music director of the Akron Symphony Orchestra 1959-1983 (later becoming their conductor emeritus) and the Lake Erie Opera Theatre 1964-1972. He was principal guest conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and held other positions with that group 1973-1978. He is given credit for developing that orchestra into a full-time group with a 52-week contract.He was co-conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 1977-1983. He was also principal guest conductor 1982-1983 and principal conductor 1984-1985 of the National Symphony Orchestra of the South African Broadcasting Corporation based in Johannesburg.
He was adjunct professor at the University of Akron 1969-1983 and a visiting professor at the University of Cincinnati 1973-1975. Lane served as artistic adviser and conductor at the Cleveland Institute of Music for over 20 years from 1982 through 2004 after which he served as faculty emeritus. He received an honorary doctorate from the same institution in 1995.He was also director of orchestra studies at Oberlin College 1995-1998 and at The University of Texas at Austin 1989-1992.