Deborah “Misty” Gerner was born Jan. 5, 1956, in San Jose, Calif. Gerner earned a bachelor's degree from Earlham College in 1977 with double majors in peace and conflict studies and religion. She received a master's degree in 1979 and her doctorate in political science from Northwestern University in 1982. She taught at the University of Iowa, Hamilton College, and the University of Kansas. She also taught as a visiting professor at Birzeit University on the West Bank and American University in Cairo, Egypt. She married Philip Schrodt in 1984 in Evanston, Ill. Gerner was an expert on the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian nationalism. She authored a textbook used widely in college classes on the Middle East.  She taught courses on foreign policy, mediation, conflict resolution, and the intersection between human rights, ethnicity, democratization, and gender. She was co-director of the Center for International Political Analysis at the University of Kansas. A member of the University of Kansas Women’s Hall of Fame, Misty received many awards while at the university, including a Kemper Award for teaching excellence, Byron T. Shutz Award for distinguished teaching, the International Studies Association Ladd Hollist Award for outstanding service and the ISA's Susan Northcutt Award for outstanding service to women scholars. Earlham College recognized her outstanding contributions by giving her a Distinguished Alumna Award. Misty was a member of the Oread Friends Meeting and devoted to Quaker causes of peace and social justice. Gerner fought a courageous eleven year battle with cancer before dying at home surrounded by friends in 1996. (From her website, archived at Earlham in electronic form)

Note written by Biographical statement adapted primarily from the website, archived at Earlham.