|
|
|
|
NWA Staff
The Neighborhood Writing Alliance (NWA) is run by a small but dedicated and energetic staff of three with diverse backgrounds and wide-ranging interests. The staff is committed to individual empowerment and community building through the written word.
NWA often works with interns. At this time, we have filled our available positions. If you are interested in a possible internship for Winter 2012, please check back in mid-November for new opportunities.
Carrie Spitler
Executive Director
Publisher, Journal of Ordinary Thought
View Bio >>
|
Carrie Spitler joined NWA in September 2002.
During her time at NWA, Carrie has led the organization through a strategic planning process,
increased its budget by 20%, and expanded its outreach initiatives. During her tenure, new workshops have been
developed in Albany Park, Chicago Lawn, Humboldt Park, West Englewood, and with Project Hope and St. Leonard's House.
Carrie serves on the Englewood Community Cultural Council and the Chicago Lawn Working Group. Prior to joining the
NWA staff, Carrie was the Director of Development at Access Living from 1997 to 2002, where she
increased government support, organized record-setting annual galas, and facilitated the creation of a major gift
program and Access Living's first endowment effort. She holds a BS in Political Science from Central Michigan University. |
Hollen Reischer
Assistant Director
Editor, Journal of Ordinary Thought
View Bio >>
|
Hollen Reischer joined the NWA staff in February 2010. Before joining NWA, Hollen edited and wrote curriculum and communications for Orion’s Mind, an education company serving low-income students. At Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ), a national organization that engages people of faith in issues of workplace justice, she coauthored a book on immigration policy and ran the summer internship program for undergraduate students. She is an alumna of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, an organization engaging young people in direct service work that addresses the causes and effects of poverty in the United States. Hollen is a member of Duke University’s Center for Race Relations Alumni Association, through which she seeks to continue meaningful dialogue around issues of diversity and personal identity. In 2009, she organized an environmental awareness retreat for young adults in the Chicago area, and she is the winner of the 2008 Shinjo Ito Young Adult Art Contest. Hollen holds a BA in Psychology and a Certificate in Documentary Studies from Duke University.
|
Rachael Hudak
Program Director
Associate Editor, Journal of Ordinary Thought
View Bio >>
|
Rachael Hudak joined the Neighborhood Writing Alliance in February of 2011. A committed advocate for community arts, she came to the Neighborhood Writing Alliance with over seven years of experience facilitating creative arts workshops with underserved populations in prisons, juvenile facilities, high schools, and community centers. She has worked with Literature for All of Us, Catharsis Productions, Rape Victim Advocates, and the Prison Creative Arts Project, just to name a few. She is a published author and has received numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Hopwood Award in Poetry from the University of Michigan. Rachael is a yoga teacher and is committed to self-care and works to integrate values of wellness into all of her work. Rachael holds a BA in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. |
Workshop Leaders
NWA is grateful for the dedicated group of workshop leaders who keep each of our workshops challenging, inspiring, reflective, and fun. Our talented workshop leaders come with a wide range of backgrounds, including artists, community activists, folklorists, and teachers
Susan Eleuterio
Workshop Leader, Hall Branch Library, Group I
View Bio >>
|
Susan Eleuterio is the author of Irish American Material Culture: A Directory of Collections, Sites and Festivals in the United States and Canada (Greenwood Press: 1988). She has conducted fieldwork and developed public programs including exhibits, performances, folk arts workshops, residencies in schools, and professional development for
multiple organizations throughout the United States, and is currently working as an independent folklorist. She holds an MA in American Folk Culture from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY/Oneonta) and a BA in English/Education from the University of Delaware. |
Krista Franklin
Workshop Leader, Hall Branch Library, Group II
View Bio >>
|
Krista Franklin is a poet and visual artist whose work has been published in RATTLE, Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam, Callaloo, MiPOesias.com, and the anthology Gathering Ground. Her collages have appeared on the covers of award-winning books, and exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. She is a Cave Canem Fellow, and the co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars. |
Carlos Flores
Workshop Leader, San Lucas Church in Humboldt Park
View Bio >>
|
Carlos Flores is of Afro-Puerto Rican descent and has lived in the Lincoln Park/West Town-Humboldt Park neighborhood for more than four decades.
Flores has been a community activist in Chicago's Latino community for most of his life, and has documented the development of his community through
his photography and writings. He is also a cultural activist and has been the founder of community organizations like the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance
and the Afro-Latin@ Institute of Chicago. |
Carla Jankowski
|
Carla Gubitz Jankowski grew up on the Northwest Side. After 15 years as a
graphic designer, she turned to her first love-teaching. She taught high
school English and Journalism and now continues to lead workshops for
teachers through the Chicago Area Writing Project and Governor State
University. She holds a BA from the University of Illinois (Urbana) and MAT
from the University of Chicago. |
Rachel Javellana
Workshop Leader, Mabel Manning Branch Library
View Bio >>
|
A Michigan native, Rachel Javellana is a poet and teaching artist in Chicago.
She received a BA in English and creative writing from Kalamazoo College, and
has spent the intervening years in community work, writing, travel, rock shows,
and trying to find an apartment that won't go condo. In 2007, she received a Community
Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago. |
Cynthium Johnson Woodfolk
Workshop Leader, Chicago Lawn Branch Library
View Bio >>
|
Cynthium Johnson Woodfolk is a creative writing professor at Columbia College. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Columbia, and is currently completing both an MA and MFA. Cynthium is a Teaching Artist with a number of outreach programs: Arts Integration Mentorship (Project AIM), Saturday Scholars, Act Write, and the Story Workshop (SWI). She is an award-winning scholar, fiction writer, and playwright. |
Glodean Champion
|
Glodean Champion, writer, photographer and educator, holds a B.A. in English and an M.F.A.
in Writing. She currently teaches at Chicago State University. Her short stories and essays
have been published in Woman's Work, Hip Mama Magazine, Exposure, The Womanist, and
The Word. Her photography and graphic artwork have been featured in several Bay Area
galleries, as well as various art and film festivals. Relatively new to the Chicago area, Glodean is
redefining herself as an artist and educator and is working on completing her first novel, Salmon
Croquettes. |
Erin Moore
Workshop Leader, Albany Park Branch Library
View Bio >>
|
Erin Moore fell in love with the Neighborhood Writing Alliance as part of an overall infatuation with community-based writing organizations that developed while serving as an Americorps member. She became involved as a writer with the Albany Park group in September 2008, deepened her relationship with the community and has gone on to work at the Albany Park Community Center, the group's former location. Erin's writing has been published in the Journal of Ordinary Thought, as well as in AREA Chicago. Since receiving a degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University, she has led writing workshops in collaboration with The Chicago Freedom School, Insight Arts, and Project NIA, and has done community organizing work through Teachers for Social Justice and Growing Home. A believer in the value of storytelling as a means of transcending barriers, Erin is thrilled to be involved with NWA's community of artists, dreamers, and warriors beautifully voicing their fierce truths. |
Evin Rayford
|
Evin Rayford comes to The Neighborhood Writing Alliance with a host of experiences in the artistic and educational arenas. Having over 8 years of workshop facilitation experience with underserved populations and non-native English speakers, she approaches being a workdhop leader with perspective and enthusiasm. Evin also has extensive experience planning and coordinating artistic expositions, having worked with organizations such as the Illinois Arts Council, Literature for All of Us and After School Matters. Evin has also worked as an advocate for educational advancement as an elementary school Success Coach, building partnerships with prestigious educational institutions nationally. |
Edith Bucio
|
Edith Bucio received her BA in Fiction from Columbia College. Her poetry and prose depict a world that is very similar to what she herself has lived as an indigenous identified brown-queer-woman. She is currently working on her first novel. She is a member of the poetry collective La Dulce Palabra. |
Nannette E. Banks
|
Nannette E. Banks has worked extensively as a group facilitator with NWA,
and at organizations in Canada, New York, Minnesota, and Chicago. For the past
two years, she has also worked as a Poet in Residence with the Poetry Center
of Chicago, teaching the art of poetry to fifth through eighth graders in the
Chicago Public Schools. For the past five years, Nanette has been commissioned
by the Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago to facilitate poetry writing workshops
at the KidStart Book Club Conference. Her educational/research pursuits have taken
her to Israel; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey; and London, England. Currently, Nanette
is working on a second Masters degree in Divinity at McCormick Theological Seminary. |
Lauren Catey
|
Lauren Catey is a writer and teacher living and working in Chicago, IL. She has her BFA in Fiction Writing with a concentration in teaching from Columbia College. She grew up a Midwest farmer's daughter in the small town of Peru, Indiana, the self-proclaimed circus capital of the world. She has been an intern with 826CHI, a nonprofit writing and tutoring center, as well as working teaching creative writing workshops and after school programs in schools throughout Chicagoland. Now she works as a Reading Teacher with the Institute of Reading Development, helping students of all ages to gain the skills that will allow them to become lifelong readers and learners. When Lauren isn't writing or teaching, she is probably cooking or dancing. If she isn't doing any of those things, she probably isn't very happy. |
Wendy S. Musto
|
Wendy S. Musto was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has a Master of Administrative Science degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and high school teaching certificates in English, Spanish, English as a Second Language, Bilingual Studies, and Political Science. While at UIC she was chosen as a Congressional Hispanic Fellow, and before graduation, as a Presidential Management Intern. Wendy was the first Latino Advocate for the City of Evanston, and the first Latina to obtain a janitorial contract to clean City Hall in Evanston, while running a residential cleaning service. After selling the business, she joined an African American boutique search firm to manage the recruitment of Latinos for Fortune 500 companies. During the recession she transformed herself into a high school English teacher. She is now a Diversifying Faculty in Illinois Fellow at Northwestern University, in the Master of Creative Writing Program in Fiction. |
Daschell Phillips
|
Daschell M. Phillips is currently the education reporter at the Hyde Park Herald. She has written for numerous publications such as Crain's Pensions & Investments, The Oakland Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and N'DIGO. She has also created websites and newsletters for several nonprofit organizations including the Blue Gargoyle Adult Learning Program, where she served as the literacy coordinator. Daschell has an MS in journalism with an emphasis on new media from Medill at Northwestern University and a BA in journalism from Norfolk State University. Daschell served as an AmeriCorps Volunteer and is a certified Adult Basic Education and English Language Learner tutor. |
Suzanne Poirier
|
After a career teaching literature and creative writing to students in the health professions, Suzanne Poirier is delighted to carry the lessons she has learned into the Neighborhood Writing Alliance. Lately, after all the time she has spent with words, she has turned her creative attention to being a potter and musician, but is happy to now engage all sides of her brain! She will be substituting among the various NWA sites and looks forward to meeting writers from across Chicago. |
Valerie Wallace
|
Valerie Wallace is an associate editor with RHINO Poetry and poetry editor for the Afghan Women Writers' Program. Her most recent published poems appear in Waccamaw, Potomac, Court Green, the Santa Clara Review, and Drumvoices Revue. Valerie holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has received an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award and the second place Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, and fellowships from Writers in the Heartland and Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She has been an annual judge for the Chicago Children's Haiku Festival since 2004 and leads poetry workshops for the Hyde Park Art Center. |
|
|
