EXECUTIVE BOARD

President: 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.

President Elect:  Lisa Bell, Brigham Young University

I have been fortunate to be a member of the RMWCA for many years, serving first as a writing tutor and then moving into administrative roles at two different institutions. This experience has allowed me to gain a better first-hand understanding of the many facets of writing center work. Beyond my work as a practitioner in this field, I have developed as a scholar of writing center studies, researching, publishing, and presenting on writing center work, as well as serving as a reviewer for publications within the field and serving on the board of IWCA. My service within RMWCA spans many years and many positions and projects, including developing regional directories, helping establish bylaws, hosting RMWCA conferences, building and maintaining the RMWCA website, serving as outreach coordinator, and participating as the RMWCA representative to the IWCA. Writing center work and community certainly is, has been, and will continue to be a vital and vibrant part of my experience as a writing center professional in the Rocky Mountain region.

Having been an active member of RMWCA for almost two decades, I see the need for both increased connection and sustainability within our vast and varied eight-state region. The current board of the RMWCA has already begun the work of strengthening the region by developing ways for writing center colleagues to engage and interact beyond the annual conference. As an organization, RMWCA is in an exciting period of change as we have implemented new membership structures and new offerings to RMWCA members. These efforts need to be sustained and refined, adapting to the needs of RMWCA members and growing along with the region. Increasing opportunities to for RMWCA members to connect with each other and helping provide a sure foundation for our collective work would be important aims of my work, if elected to this position.

If elected president-elect, I would work with other RMWCA leaders and members to continue exploring and expanding opportunities to connect and support writing center colleagues, scholars, and practitioners in their work. This would include continuing work with webinars, online book clubs, and the newsletter as well as updating our directories (secondary and post-secondary) and encouraging regional and sub-regional gatherings and conferences (online and face-to-face) to connect administrators and consultants or tutors across our eight-state region. These actions would also increase sustainability within our region by building upon existing programs and improving infrastructure and communication. Beyond working with existing leaders, given the president-elect’s responsibilities over RMWCA election, I would seek to invite and include RMWCA members to participate in elections, aiming for an increase in both voting and representation for within our diverse region.

Outreach Coordinator: Jamaica Ritcher, University of Idaho

My experience with writing center work began at the University of Idaho in 2010. At the time, I was a graduate student working toward my M.F.A. in creative writing and teaching composition. I began tutoring as a way to learn more about working with writers and, in turn, improve my teaching. I loved tutoring for the positive connection I could make with students during our sessions, and I was grateful to work with and support students without having to evaluate or grade their work. I stayed with the Writing Center throughout my graduate career, and after graduation, I lectured for the English department and tutored for the Writing Center. In 2016, I became the Writing Center’s first associate director. In this role, I have developed and now coordinate our online tutoring services, and I act as a liaison between the English department’s first-year writing program and Writing Center. I also develop workshops and other writing resources for the larger campus community, assist with tutor training, and, when I’m lucky, tutor. In addition to my position at the University of Idaho, I have served on the Rocky Mountain Writing Center Executive Board, as Outreach Coordinator, since 2016, and I am an IWCA Summer Institute Alum (2017).

It’s an exciting time for RMWCA, one in which RMWCA is taking a close look at how the organization can better support its membership with connection and resources. My goal for RMWCA involves increasing participation of our membership by ensuring the organization is relevant and responsive. To this end, I hope to see the continued support and maintenance of the organization’s traditional modes of communication, such as our newsletter and listserv, along with the revision and optimization of our website, and the development of more web-based opportunities for connection like the Tutor Talk webinar series and Summer Book Club.

I am eager to continue building my relationships with our State Reps. I look forward to facilitating regular opportunities to share news via email and video-conference, so that the Board has an informed and accurate sense of the diverse situations and needs across our very large region. I also look forward collaborating with the Tutor Representative and other Board members to continue offering webinars and virtual meetings. Our initial attempts in these areas were met so favorably, and I’m excited to build on these early successes!

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: Jess Carroll, Montana State University

I am currently Assistant Director for Tutor Education at Montana State University’s Writing Center, where I’ve been since 2004. After many years as a professional tutor, I transitioned into an administrative role in 2012. In my current position, I contribute to many aspects of the everyday operations of our writing center, but my primary job is working with our peer tutors, supporting them in their ongoing learning about writing and writers. I am an active member of IWCA and a regular attendee and sometimes-presenter at IWCA and NCPTW.

This is an exciting time for our regional organization. I hope we will continue grow, expanding our reach and our offerings, and that we will do so thoughtfully and sustainably. As a regional organization, we are well positioned to support and learn from one another without the expense of cross-continent travel and with the benefit of shared (and diverse) local contexts. I’d love to see us connecting with and collaborating with more high schools, tribal colleges, and other institutions that aren’t (yet) active in our association.

Serving as Secretary would allow me to stay current with the happenings in our region and to know who we’re reaching and who we’re not. Being responsible for producing our newsletter will give me the opportunity to think creatively about how we’re positioning ourselves and communicating the work of RMWCA.

Tutor Representative: Aubrey Juliana Baucum, Metropolitan State University of Denver

I became involved with the MSU Denver Writing Center when I transferred from the two-year college I was attending. I was interested that such a place even existed! As a student who didn't always have the direction I do now, I was never really aware of the fabulous resources that have surrounded me, such as writing centers. Now, as an undergraduate peer writing consultant, and writing center researcher, I find that this space has dug its way into my heart and will not leave. I specialize in consultations with ELL students, and students with disabilities, and I love working with anyone who walks through our door. During the 4 semesters I have worked at MSU Denver's Writing Center, I have been given the opportunity to speak on behalf of my fellow colleagues, and to be an advocate for students of color, students with disabilities, and other minority/marginalized groups. I have also been part of a great research team conducting research on how consultants feel in the space that we call The Writing Center. I have had nothing but influential experience within the walls of the writing center, and also through local and regional conferences, and now IWCA2018. I have met so many writing center professionals through these experiences who have become beacons of light to me while I conduct my primary and secondary research on all things writing center.

I would like to be part of RMWCA so that tutors from our region have an accessible outlet in which to not be able to get to know one another, but to have an outlet that facilitates collaboration, and to have a representative who cares deeply about their individual needs along with the needs of their writing centers.

If elected, I would set aside time every week to reach out to different groups of writing consultants/tutors (which ever you call yourselves) to make sure their interests are being met. I will also be working hard with my writing center director to ensure that my role within this organization helps the Rocky Mountain Region as a whole, so that we become a tighter-knit community and can grow from the individual strengths we all have as writing center professionals! I will also travel as much as I am able to in order to meet and get to know the individuals who occupy the fabulous writing centers in our region so that they will be able to put a face to the name of their representative.

IWCA Affiliate Representative: Vacant

Web Editor: Heather Graham, Salt Lake Community College

STATE REPRESENTATIVES

Arizona: Nick Cenegy, University of Arizona

I currently direct the writing center at the University of Arizona's THINK TANK and coordinate other writing initiatives across campus. I'm brand new to this position. Prior to coming to Arizona, I spent several years as a writing center administrator at the Texas A&M University Writing Center. In addition to general supervisory duties at A&M's UWC, I created and led programs tailored for grad students. I have presented research at a variety of writing center and student services conferences, including several IWCA annual conferences. My sense of the RMWCA's recent activity is that there is a new (or renewed) interest in connecting writing support organizations from a variety of academic venues. I see this reflected in the 2019 joint conference with the C&W Writing Tutors Conference, as well as reflected in the revised language of the recent web redesign--i.e. "We define writing centers broadly...". I think this is a good direction and future goals for the RMWCA should further efforts to incorporate a variety of writing support communities. Since institutional structure so intimately influences the everyday operations of a writing center, it is of real and immediate benefit to encourage a robust exchange of models, ideas, and concerns about writing support administration and practice. The conversations I've had with secondary school writing center administrators, near-peer program coordinators, community writing center practitioners, and others who operate in a different context than mine, have been among the most important in helping to articulate how and why we do what we do in our center. I have the benefit of being new in my position and at my institution. Learning about other institutions and building relationships with writing support communities in the region are among my highest priorities. I see it as my responsibility to connect these groups. I have a genuine desire to understand how others have approached writing support in their contexts, and believe that such authentic interest yields valuable conversations. It can even serve as the basis for enduring relationships. My current efforts, from a university context, have already yielded burgeoning collaborations with local high schools and community colleges. By extending these nascent efforts to the broader region, I can help connect RMWCA members as well as identify writing support communities that (from my relative outsider position) appear to have not yet been invited into the conversation.

Colorado: Jason Schleuter, Arapaho Community College

I had my first contact with writing center work as a graduate teaching assistant at Saint Cloud State University using the writing center printer from my closet office. Even though I was fumbling my way through teaching College ESL working in ABE and struggling through my own coursework, it never occurred to me that I was trespassing through what was an invaluable resource to both me and my students. Semesters of study, teaching, and travel passed until I first experienced writing center work firsthand at the Technical and Community College, where I worked as an English Instructor. It was there that I began to interact with the writing center and see first-generation and refugee students succeeding with the help of such programs. Three years later, I would find myself coordinating writing center services at Arapahoe Community College, a place I have been for the past six years.

As English faculty and coordinator, I have sought to increase programming and access to students working to make our materials accessible, collaborating with faculty and targeting students enrolled in developmental and ESL classes. I have seen our extension campus offerings grow from two to twenty-six hours per week, added Saturday services at our main campus and watched our online usage nearly quadruple. I have also pioneered tutoring at two high schools, worked together with a neighboring language center and sought relationships with local colleagues through my service as treasurer and executive committee member of our local conference, CWWTC.

Over the past fourteen years working in higher ed, I have had my hands, head, and heart invested in multiple and sometimes competing projects. I have come to be comfortable with the tension of working alongside colleagues who I may also supervise or seeing the same piece of writing as a tutor that I will later evaluate as a faculty and felt the dissonance of knowing that the Writing Center is both a central part of student success but a peripheral, institutional priority. Coming to RMWCA, I understand the demands that faculty and writing center directors face. In my state representative role, I seek to sustain and facilitate those cherished conversations, the ones often born at our local/regional and national conferences with action and responsive involvement.

Idaho: Maddie Jewell, College of Western Idaho

I am the Tutoring Supervisor for Writing and Language at the College of Western Idaho, where I run our Writing Center. I hold a bachelor's degree in English, with an emphasis in linguistics, and a minor in Spanish from Boise State University. I got my start in the Writing Center field at Boise State University under the excellent training and supervision of Clyde Moneyhun and Melissa Keith. I am a words person through and through, and working in the BSU WC provided me with an exciting, challenging platform for sharing and expanding this love of all things language and writing.

As a writing consultant at Boise State's Writing Center, I honed my skills in working with students from diverse backgrounds at any proficiency/academic level, and at all stages of the writing process across the disciplines. Some areas of particular interest and continued inquiry include multilingual learner studies, cultivating writing center best practices, and breaking down barriers to accessing and completing higher education.

During my time at Boise State, I had the opportunity to attend the 2016 National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing in Tacoma, Washington along with my colleagues in a panel entitled, “Our Inclusive Writing Center: The Challenge of Diversity.” I called my presentation “The Preservation of Self in Student Writing,” with the thesis being “A Writing Center can be a mechanism of preserving a writer’s identity, linguistically and otherwise, in the world of standardized academia.” This wonderful, invaluable experience solidified my desire to pursue a career in the writing center field.

My approach to helping students improve their writing can be summed up in a quote from writing wenter pedagogical pillar, Stephen North, which reads, "... to produce better writers, not [just] better writing." After all, if transference cannot be built from a consultation on a current assignment and applied to future tasks, then the impact of our work is greatly reduced. This approach stems from my educational philosophy, which is based on the idea that education's purpose is equipping and empowering students to engage with information, thus expanding the lens through which they experience the world.

As a newcomer to the RMWCA and the Idaho State Representative space, my intentions include getting to know as many people as possible, so that we can all share what we are working on and grow together. Some of my ideas and goals for the RMWCA include increasing connections among consultants from all Idaho writing centers, developing some “local” Writing Center hangouts and brainstorming sessions, and collaborating to develop “guest-director” trainings both virtually and in-person. I will maintain regular contact with all Idaho writing centers, and develop, organize, and facilitate connections and events to the best of my ability.

Montana: Erin Strickland, Montana State University

I moved from teaching English as a Second Language into writing center work in the fall of 2016. I was hired at Montana State University to tutor multilingual writers and graduate students for 10 hours a week. I also began teaching first-year composition classes. After the first year, it was clear that we had a found a need that wasn't being filled elsewhere. My role expanded to a half-time appointment for tutoring and program development; a quarter of my time was devoted to research and a quarter to teaching. Again my role expanded and I am now working as a graduate program coordinator and multilingual specialist 30 hours a week. I am teaching one technical writing class which informs my work in the writing center in many ways. I tutor, train tutors, develop workshops, meet with faculty and TAs, coordinate with the director of Writing Across MSU, collaborate on outreach projects and participate in graduate school events and tutor education. I would like to increase the interaction and sense of community among writing centers in Montana. I have three years of experience in writing center work and have little knowledge of what other writing centers are working on at their institutions. I am curious to know why kinds of programs have been developed and which have been successful? Which haven't? I want to know what problems other centers are solving and what needs they have identified and how that relates to our work at MSU. I would create a space at the RMWCA conference for representatives from Montana to connect. I would meet representatives from other writing centers and attempt to set up a virtual meeting space where we can start these conversation. Distances are far and time short, so I know it's unlikely to meet face-to-face, but that would go a long way towards building community as well.

Nevada: Rachel Herzl-Betz, Nevada State College

My Writing Center career began at Carleton College and continued at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I co-led the undergraduate Writing Fellows Program. Today, I’m the Assistant Director of the Writing Center and an instructor of Composition and English literature at Nevada State College. My research focuses on intersections between disability studies and Writing Center pedagogy, as well as on the ways that we can make our practices accessible for historically marginalized students and employees. At NSC and conferences, I’ve had the great fortune to work with Writing Center colleagues who care deeply about access (in all of its forms), and I’m excited to be more involved with the RMWCA.

I have both local and regional goals as the Nevada State RMWCA representative. On the local level, I hope to build a consistent structure for cross-institutional communication and collaboration. My predecessor, Robyn Finnicum, has done an excellent job of fostering that communication in Nevada, and I look forward to building on her foundation. By creating small but regular points of contact, I want to normalize the assumption that programs in Southern Nevada can help with problems in Northern Nevada and that we can all celebrate each other’s successes. On a regional level, I want to support structures that allow us to learn from one another’s strengths. As Writing Center professionals, we all have too many pots on the stove at any given moment, so it’s easy to leave exciting new projects on the back burner. Given that reality, our regional community can become a source of inspiration and a space for shared labor, so innovation becomes more feasible for already-overstretched WPAs.

I would be excited to create institutional partnerships based on shared developmental goals, so that the collaboration can continue after a single conference or meeting. For example, our institution has an unusually strong culture of tutor research, particularly given our lack of a tutor training course. Our director, Dr. Kathryn Tucker, has created a culture where Writing Center research is at the core of our practice and where tutors are active participants in that research from day one. At the same time, thanks to technological changes on the institutional level, we’re only just beginning to create an online tutoring presence. Creating a structure for institutional partnerships could allow our school to teach and be taught, just like we train our tutors do with visiting students.

New Mexico: Katie Denton, University of New Mexico

I have worked in writing centers for the past ten years, and have served as a director for the past four years. I would like to create a more active community of New Mexico writing center professionals, and to connect New Mexico writing center professionals with the greater RMWCA community. If elected, I’d like to strategize the ways we can continue to use technology to connect with each other. Especially in the Rocky Mountain region, where our centers often have great distances between them, technology can help to unify us in what can otherwise be isolating (but otherwise such rewarding!) work. I’d like to help create social media groups, online meetups, and virtual community events that foster an inclusive community of writing center professionals.

Utah: Bethany Bibb, Southern Utah University

Bethany Bibb has worked in writing centers for going on twelve years. She began her career at Salt Lake Community College as a peer writing advisor and eventually became a lab coordinator over the Academic Literacy Center and later the Student Writing and Reading Center. She earned her MA in English (emphasis in rhetoric and composition) from the University of Utah. During her graduate program, she also worked as a graduate writing fellow for the University Writing Center at the U and as the writing center assistant at The Waterford School. Bethany is now the assistant director of the writing center at Southern Utah University and will be coordinating the Graduate Writing Center this fall. She has presented research on comprehensive tutoring, the concept of peer-ness, and the rhetoric of class visits at local, regional, and national writing center conferences and has been published in the Writing Center Journal.

Wyoming: Lisa Johnson, Casper College

Hoping to gain experience with students after graduate school, I stumbled upon a writing center and began my professional career. Prior to joining the English faculty full-time in 2015, I served the Writing Center at Casper College as Assistant Director and Interim Director. This opportunity was the best I have had for learning how to teach writing, and it shaped what I do in the classroom considerably. Starting with the fall of 2019, I find myself again taking the reins as Director of the Writing Center; I am excited about this second opportunity to help students and develop tutors.

My interests include First Year Composition as introduction to disciplinary discourse and community; the promotion of under prepared students and non-traditional students; bridging students’ gaps in interest and relevance between the humanities and science through inquiry and writing.

I have other professional memberships which include NOSS (former NADE) and NCTE. I currently serve as the secretary and was a founding board member of the Wyoming English and Language Arts Council (WELAC), which is a new NCTE affiliate.

I welcome any and all to contact me with ideas or concerns for writing centers in our state. I look forward to getting to know you and serving as your representative.