Kevin Conley Ruffner, Isabel Huber Planton
Kevin Conley Ruffner
Kevin Ruffner served in a variety of domestic and foreign assignments with the Central Intelligence Agency from 1991 until his retirement in 2017. He continued as a contractor until 2023. As a member of the CIA History Staff, he worked on major declassification projects, including the CORONA satellite system and Nazi war criminals and collaborators. The Agency subsequently declassified his publications as part of the 1998 Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act. In addition to his civilian career in the Federal Government, Ruffner served in the Regular Army, the Army National Guard, and the Army Reserve from 1982 until his retirement in 2010. Ruffner earned a Ph.D. in American Civilization at the George Washington University. He is a 2024-2025 Broadening Academic Initiative Hybrid Fellow at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Isabel Huber Planton
Isabel Huber Planton received a BA in English Literature from Ohio University in 2006 and an MLS from Indiana University in 2008. She worked in the Teaching and Research Department at the Lilly Library at IU 2011 – 2025 an d is now at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan, which collects material related to the State of Michigan and the University. During her time at the Lilly Library, she became increasingly interested in the library’s extensive manuscript collections related to Hoosier author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Since 2018, IU has hosted a summer festival known as Granfalloon: A Kurt Vonnegut Convergence. Presented by the IU Arts and Humanities Council and inspired by Vonnegut, the Granfalloon “brings together musicians, artists, thinkers, and good people from all walks of life for a celebration of art, ideas, and community.” The 2025 Granfalloon will take place in spring and summer, tying together many campus and community events with themes relating to this year’s selected Vonnegut novel, Cat’s Cradle. In conjunction with past Granfalloons, Isabel has curated three Kurt Vonnegut exhibitions and given talks on various aspects of Vonnegut’s life and writings. She hasn’t read every single one of his novels yet but she’s working on it.