EXECUTIVE BOARD

President: Kelly Webster, University of Montana

I welcome the challenge of serving as President for the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association, an organization that inspires me to reach out to and learn from colleagues across our large region. RMWCA has been an important resource for me, and volunteering for this role reflects my belief that each of us has a responsibility to help sustain the RMWCA community. I have acted as the Director of the University of Montana’s Writing Center since 2008. In addition to my role as Director, I co-administer UM’s University-wide Program-level Writing Assessment and coordinate a number of writing in the disciplines and writing across the curriculum initiatives. While I enjoy working with faculty and teaching workshops across the disciplines, I still am most satisfied when talking with student writers in the Writing Center—I always will delight in the ethical and necessary work of writing tutoring. Before directing the UM Writing Center, I co-directed the Chemeketa Community College Writing Center in Oregon. Prior to my time in Oregon, I taught as a teaching fellow in the Writing Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. I always have loved the West, but I love the Rocky Mountain West (and its writers) best. I am eager to work with the current Executive Board members to ensure RMWCA’s visibility and to cultivate support for the good writing center folks in our region.

President-Elect: Clint Gardner, Salt Lake Community College

Having worked in writing centers for nearly three decades, I have learned a great deal about writing center theory and practice, one-to-one instruction, peer tutoring, the role of writing centers at two-year colleges, as well as the uses of computers in composition classrooms and in the writing center. My role as Program Manager of College Writing and Reading Centers at Salt Lake Community College allows me to teach writing and reading to students from diverse backgrounds, as well as to teach tutors how to respond more effectively to their peers. My writing center research includes the impact of writing center work on peer tutors, two-year college writing centers, and online writing tutoring. I have also had the opportunity to serve the writing center community as a whole in the International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) as Web Editor, Community College Representative, and as President. One of my goals is to bring writing center theory and practice to a broader and more diverse audience. As such, I am committed to anti-racism and social justice work. My work in writing centers, however, is tempered by my work with two-year colleges.  I have served as Secretary and later Archivist for the Two-year College Association (TYCA) of the National Council of Teachers of English. Finally, because of my interest in peer tutoring in writing, which ties directly to social justice, I have been a long-term member of the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW), having served as the President of its Board of Trustees from 2014-2015.

My goals for the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association are to broaden access from all across our vast region, increase our membership, provide rich and sustainable resources for both writing center professionals and peer writing tutors,  and address social justice in our mutual work.  We can work together  to not only to have better connections as people committed to literacy and communication, but also in understanding how past practices have harmed others, in order to develop more fair and equitable systems that allow for more inclusivity.

Outreach Coordinator: Jamaica Ritcher, University of Idaho

As the new Associate Director of the Writing Center at University of Idaho, I am thrilled for the opportunity to participate in the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association. I look forward to meeting more of my colleagues and to encouraging connection and collaboration between us. If elected to be Outreach Coordinator, I will use existing communication lines, such as our listserv and newsletter, to continue getting the word out about conferences and other professional opportunities, and I will seek additional online platforms to open more opportunities for conversation and information sharing. I look forward to working with members of the Executive Board to invite participation in our regional conferences, and to building relationships with the State Representatives so that the concerns and priorities of the individual members and centers comprising the RMWCA continue to be heard, understood, and addressed.

Treasurer: Elizabeth Kleinfeld, Metropolitan State University of Denver

I have been involved with writing centers since 1995, as a tutor, director, researcher, and evangelist. Although words are my first love, I am comfortable with numbers, math, and spreadsheets, and I have the patience to read through IRS publications. As treasurer, I would like to tighten up oversight of our finances, including ensuring that RMWCA is in compliance with all IRS rules about non-profit organizations. I will also explore options for funding research grants and achievement awards to members.

Secretary: Michelle Miley, Montana State University

Although I have been in Writing Center work since 2005, I have only been in the Rocky Mountain region for six years. In 2012, I became the Writing Center Director for Montana State University after serving as the Assistant Director of Writing in the Disciplines (through the Writing Center) at the University of Houston. My family and I love this region; we are so happy to call it home. Since I came to Montana, the RMWCA has opened its arms to me, and I would be honored to serve the organization in the role of secretary. My current research threads include theorizing the importance of undergraduate peer tutor research in Writing Centers, using institutional ethnography as a means by which to understand perceptions of Writing Center work across our institutions, and theorizing care in Writing Centers through the lens of feminist mothering. Such research threads speak to my understanding of the importance of relationships in our work. My vision for our local Writing Center is to create dynamic, collaborative environments that foster and maintain a community of writers. As secretary, I focus on community and relationship building within our own organization through maintaining our contact lists and records, and producing our newsletter twice a year, and keeping in contact with the President-elect for timely website updates.

Tutor Representative: Jessica McDermott, Community College of Aurora

I became involved in writing center work as an undergraduate tutor at Utah State University. I was lucky enough to continue tutoring during graduate school at the University of Idaho where I also facilitated a newly developed relationship between the Writing Center and an English plus course that required writing center visits. Currently, I coordinate writing tutoring at the Community College of Aurora where I also tutor and teach. I recently became a visiting writer for Our Positive Planet, a publication that highlights positive environmental changes and movements. Along with writing, I enjoy exploring the outdoors. I’ve always loved the rich landscapes of the Mountain West, and I feel privileged to act as Tutor Representative for the RMWCA. In this position, I plan to continue to develop the Tutor Talk Series, which gives tutors across our region a chance to exchange ideas and discuss writing tutoring topics. My ultimate goal is to better connect tutors and be a resource and voice for our region’s wonderful tutors.

IWCA Affiliate Representative: Lisa Bell, Brigham Young University

Web Editor: Robyn Rohde, College of Southern Nevada

STATE REPRESENTATIVES

Arizona: Nathan Cushing, Arizona State--Downtown Phoenix Campus

I dreaded the thought of beginning work at the Writing Center. It was 2011 and, as part of my scholarship package for my MA English degree, I was required to work 10 hours a week at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Writing Center where I (as I had erroneously thought since I didn’t know what went on in a writing center) would play, I assumed, the role of touchy-feely hippie politely explaining to the worst-of-the-worst writers the difference between a noun and a verb. That’s what writing tutors did, right?

Was I wrong.

Skip ahead two years. It’s my last week of my graduate program. The last week to write the course papers, pore over dense texts, and polish my creative thesis project. I wasn’t going to miss it. At all. But I would miss the Writing Center.

In the two years of being a writing tutor, I learned first-hand the value of peer-to-peer tutoring and its fulfilling work. Yes, I worked with students who struggled with writing, some of whom struggled for reasons beyond their own perceived lack of innate talent (cough poor writing instruction they received in middle and high school cough). But I also worked with writers who oozed talent, and needed a peer to point out those strengths and how to polish them, but also how to refine other areas of their work. I read essays, resumes, and papers with fascinating topics that I would have otherwise not read. Had I not worked as a writing tutor, a fulfilling period in my life would simply not exist for me.

After deciding in 2015 that East Coast weather was overrated, I moved to Arizona for the ample year-round sunshine. Having served as an editor and reporter for a local online news organization in Richmond, VA since graduating with my MA, I wanted with a job in writing, just not with the diminishing job security and pressure associated with journalism. It so happened that Arizona State University needed a coordinator for their Downtown Phoenix campus writing center. I applied. They gave me the job.

In that time, the work that my tutors and I do at the center is founded on working with writers at any stage of the writing process, no matter where students are in their writing. We are not copyeditors. We are coaches and collaborators. We do not raze a writer’s confidence. We build it up. We don’t wrest control of the student’s writing to mark up their papers, but rather empower students to re-engage with their writing (and their thinking) and hone it.

I feel fortunate that I’m continuing the work I started years ago when I showed up for my first shift as a naive writing tutor, soon discovering the great work that our centers actually do.

Colorado: Michelle Medeiros, Front Range Community College-Westminster

I have a diverse writing center background, and I am passionately committed to the work we do at our centers. As an undergraduate and graduate student, I tutored student athletes and developed and ran writing workshops at the University of Oregon and Indiana University. I then served as an English professor at East Los Angeles Community College, and I volunteered in the Writing Center; I also worked with our director in training student tutors and developing workshops. Currently, I am a professor in the English department at Front Range Community College in Westminster, Colorado. In addition to the consulting work in our writing center, I have also completed research to improve faculty and student communication in the peer review process. I recently presented these findings with Aaron Leff, our Writing Center Director, at the IWCA conference in Pittsburgh. I see my position as Colorado representative as an opportunity to grow my own experience and understanding of writing center culture. More importantly, I would like to be your advocate in the issues that matter to your centers, your tutors, and your students. I would like to find ways to improve our communication so that we can continue to learn and grow.

Idaho: Melissa Keith, Boise State University

One of the greatest strengths (and joys) of writing center work is our sense of community. Attending IWCA and NCPTW, and also coordinating the IWCA Summer Institute for two years, I experienced that sense of community in real time, forming lasting friendships and fruitful professional relationships. I hope to: 1) create a network of Idaho writing centers (both college and high school), and 2) forge connections between Idaho writing centers and regional and national organizations. By sharing our expertise and participating in regional and national conversations, we can be a rich resource to each other.

Montana: Rachel Dunleavy, University of Great Falls

Rachel moved to Montana in Fall 2014 after being hired to found and direct the Writing & Critical Thinking Center at the University of Great Falls. Rachel and her team of six peer tutors provide in-person and online one-on-one consultations, in addition to group workshops, to the UGF community. During the Spring 2016 semester, the Writing & Critical Thinking Center also is collaborating with several other faculty members to pilot an embedded tutor program in freshman Humanities classes. Rachel finds the most rewarding parts of her job to be training her wonderful tutors and working with her colleagues on assignment design and in-class workshops for their courses.

Rachel's involvement with writing centers began ten years ago with a stint as an undergraduate peer tutor. She then sought out opportunities to continue tutoring at both Georgetown University, where she earned a M.A. in English, and the University of Denver, where she is currently a doctoral candidate in English. She also helped to coordinate a center at a Washington D.C. public high school. Rachel has presented twice at the International Writing Centers Association conference, once on the findings of a cross-institutional study on transfer and the writing center, and once on perceptions of "collaboration" in the reflective writing of veteran tutors. When she's not reading, writing or thinking about writing centers, Rachel can usually be found engrossed in her other favorite field: Renaissance English drama.

Nevada: Robyn Rohde,College of Southern Nevada

Writing Center work has been an important part of my life since 2001, when I became one of Black Hills State University's first peer Writing Consultants in Spearfish, South Dakota. Since then, I have worked within Writing Centers in both Montana and Nevada as a consultant, coordinator, and manager. I have directed the Writing Center at College of Southern Nevada since 2011, where I also teach composition and chair the Writing Center Advisory Committee. I have served as the Nevada State Representative for RMWCA since 2013. I am a member of the International Writing Center Association and the National Council of Teachers of English. I have presented my work at The National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing and was able to bring a team to present  for NCPTW 2015 in Salt Lake City. I also had the honor of serving as Local Arrangements Chair for the Conference on College Composition and Communication 2013 held in Las Vegas, NV.  I enjoy collaborating with directors, coordinators, and writing assistants from all over the country and am interested in supporting ongoing opportunities for this kind of networking between the directors and staff throughout the Rocky Mountain region. 

New Mexico: Katie Denton, University of New Mexico

Writing center work, for me, is both a profession and a calling. One of the greatest pleasures of working as a writing center professional at University of New Mexico has been supporting student writers as they enter and navigate the world of higher education. Through my position, I have become familiar with the diverse students that make up New Mexico’s population, and supporting these students through their higher education journey is my passion. As an active researcher and scholar in writing center work, I am interested and engaged in the national conversation among writing center professionals. Serving as New Mexico state representative for RMWCA allows me to engage at the local level as well, discovering the work of my peers throughout the state and representing their voices and contributions at the regional level. I’m equally excited to hear about the work of other institutions within the RMWCA, and to collaborate with fellow RMWCA representatives. In a state where institutions of higher education are widely dispersed, and where administrators strive each day to support diverse student writers, a sense of community can sustain work that otherwise takes place in isolation. As state representative, it is my mission to strengthen the community among my fellow New Mexico writing center administrators.

Utah: Leigh Ann Copas, Utah Valley University

As the Utah state representative for RMWCA, I hope to become better acquainted with the local writing center directors and their programs. I would like to assist in unifying our expertise and resources, and to develop a solid network among programs. Recently, I attended the IWCA Summer Institute, and I’ve been involved with NCLCA and attended the state and national CRLA conferences. I’ve enjoyed the sense of community and the continuing dialogues and friendships, and hope to share similar experiences in Utah and throughout the Rocky Mountain region.

Wyoming: Matthew Drollette

As the Interim Writing Center Director at the University of Wyoming, one of my major goals over the next two years is to coordinate among the various writing centers in the state to strengthen our writing communities and foster collaborative intellectual growth. The Writing Center at UW, though historically on the margins both in terms of funding and administrative support, is receiving renewed recognition along with resources that will allow us to better serve both our student and faculty populations. This recognition comes with increased funding and a plan, supported by all levels of the administration, to expand the scope of the writing center as it takes a more central role in the conversations about how written communication in its various forms is taught and supported across campus. If elected as the Wyoming State Representative, I will be able to use this increase in administrative support to better serve Wyoming’s writing center communities, many of whom are feeling the direct impact of the state-wide financial crisis.

As the Wyoming State Representative, my efforts will be focused on three major goals:

• To strengthen the bonds between existing Wyoming writing centers by opening and maintaining lines of communication and by assisting writing center administrators in planning and facilitating local and regional conferences and professional development opportunities;
• To provide support and guidance to other institutions who are also seeking to either grow an existing writing center or to create a new writing center at their institutions;
• To represent the needs of Wyoming writing centers at regional and national levels by advocating for more resources, by working to address our shared concerns as historically marginal components of higher education, and by contributing to intellectual discourses that help us all to focus our efforts on meeting the needs of the diverse writers in our communities.