Mojgan Sherkat, UC Riverside
![Taiko drumming](/sites/default/files/styles/article_default_banner/public/taikodrumming.jpg?h=75334513&itok=M2y5CfFq)
President Barack Obama announced on Thursday his intent to nominate Deborah Wong, a professor in the Department of Music at the University of California, Riverside, to the National Council on the Humanities.
Wong has been with UC Riverside since 1996. She is former President of the Board of Directors for the Alliance for California Traditional Arts and has been a member of Satori Daiko, the performing group of the Taiko Center of Los Angeles, since 1997. She is a former member of the board of the Society for Ethnomusicology, where she served as President from 2007 to 2009 and founded the organization’s Committee on the Status of Women in 1996. Wong received a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
![](/sites/default/files/deborah-wong.jpg)
President Obama also announced his intent to nominate Thavolia Glymph and Dain Borges as members of the National Council on the Humanities.
President Obama said, “I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them.”
The appointment will not become official until the individuals are confirmed by the Senate.