Praxis: A Writing Center Journal • Vol. 19, No. 1 (2022)

About the Authors

Varshini Balaji, B.A. is an anthropology graduate student at The New School for Social Research and an Impact Entrepreneurship Fellow at the Parsons School of Design. She graduated with a B.A. in anthropology from Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, where she worked at the University Writing Center for nearly three years. Much of her research focuses on themes of postcolonialism, migration, transnationalism, and the decolonial project. Growing up in six different countries, she has always been deeply curious about the human experience and the cultural forces that shape it. Her anthropological training coupled with her commitment to decolonization inform her thinking and approach. Beyond her professional life, Varshini enjoys running, writing, and spending time with her friends and family.

Hadi Banat, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of English and the ESL Program Director at University of Massachusetts Boston. His published works appear in World Englishes, TESOL Journal, Communication Design Quarterly and in edited collections published by MLA, Utah State University Press, and Routledge. His scholarship focuses on L2 writing assessment and pedagogy, tutor identity in writing centers, the internationalization of writing and ESL programs, and grant writing and constructive distributed work in collaborative research teams.

Hidy Basta, Ph.D. is the Director of the Writing Center and an instructor of English at Seattle University. She holds a PhD in Language and Rhetoric and a MAT ESOL from the University of Washington. Her research and teaching interests include language ideology and policy, multilingual identity narratives, genre theory, and writing in the disciplines. Her current research and teaching focus on linguistic justice and writing consultants’ education toward an antiracist pedagogy.  

Catalina Benavides, M.A. is a first-generation Costa Rican American writer and educator who grew up in Brentwood, NY. She has worked at the Long Island University Writing Center since 2018. She also has an M.A. in English Literature from Long Island University and is currently pursuing her M.A.T. in Secondary Education of English from Stony Brook University. Catalina is very passionate about education that incorporates diverse literature to broaden her students’ world view and increases awareness of social justice issues. If she isn’t reading a good book with her favorite iced coffee accompanying her, she is capturing moments of beauty with her camera. 

Katherine Bridgman, Ph.D. is an associate professor of English at Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she directs the Writing Center. Her research focuses on embodiment across digital interfaces. Her scholarship has appeared in venues including Kairos, South Atlantic Review, College English, Computers and Composition, and various edited collections.  

Marilee Brooks-Gillies, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English and the Director of the University Writing Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She currently serves as President of the East Central Writing Centers Association and on the International Writing Centers Association Social Justice & Inclusion Task Force. Her scholarship is situated within cultural rhetorics and writing center studies with an emphasis on place-making in communities of practice. Her work has been published in the Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, The Peer Review, and enculturation. She is an editor of the collection Graduate Writing Across the Disciplines as well as special issues of Across the Disciplines and Harlot.

Galen Bunting, M.A. is a doctoral candidate in English at Northeastern University. In his research, he analyzes war writing and Modernist literature, tracing textual representations of trauma and gender in the aftermath of the First World War. He has contributed to the Women Writers Project, worked as an editorial assistant for Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and currently teaches at Northeastern University in both the Department of English and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. He holds a master’s degree in English from Oklahoma State University.

Sarah Burchett, M.A. is a native of Eastern Kentucky but has resided in South San Antonio for the majority of her life. After graduating with her Master of Arts in English degree, Sarah has continued to pursue her passion for writing through her career as a Communications Coordinator at her alma mater. She enjoys bringing creativity into all of her writing and hopes to continue working in higher education.

Eric Camarillo, M.A. is the Director of the Learning Commons at Harrisburg Area Community College where he oversees testing, the library, user support, and tutoring services for over 17,000 students at five campuses. His research agenda is currently focused on writing centers and best practices within these spaces, antiracism as it applies to writing center practices, and how these practices change in asynchronous and synchronous online modalities. He has published in The Peer Review, Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, and The Journal of Academic Support Programs. He has presented his research at numerous conferences including the International Writing Center Association, the Mid-Atlantic Writing Center Association, and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He's currently the President of the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing and the Book Review Editor for The Writing Center Journal. He is also a doctoral student at Texas Tech University. 

KC Chan-Brose, M.A. is the Assistant Director of the Marian University Writing Center and the Flanner Community Writing Center. She is the co-developer of Marian University’s “Write Here, Write Now! Social Action Writing Camp” and served for two years as the East Central Writing Centers Association’s graduate representative. Her passions include cooking, eating, and gardening with her three daughters. 

Frankie Condon, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Waterloo. Her books include I Hope I Join the Band: Narrative, Affiliation, and Antiracist Rhetoric; Performing Anti-Racist Pedagogy in Rhetoric, Writing and Communication, co-edited with Vershawn Ashanti Young; The Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice(co-authored with Geller et al); and her recent co-edited collection, CounterStories from the Writing Center (with Wonderful Faison). Her current projects include a new monograph: The Road To Hell: Radical Precedents of Post-Racial Rhetoric in the 21st Century, a genealogical history of the metaphor of colourblindness for racial justice. Dr. Condon received the Faculty of Arts Excellence in Teaching Award from the University of Waterloo in 2021. In 2017, Dr. Condon was the recipient of the Federation of Students Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance).

Sonya Barrera Eddy, Ph.D. is an Assistant Instructional Professor at Texas A&M University-San Antonio and the Integrated Reading and Writing Program Director. Born in San Antonio and raised in Arizona, Sonya is a fifth-generation Tejana and a first-generation college graduate. Her work centers around the intersection of art, rhetoric, and writing, focusing on how marginalized communities employ art and community education in deliberative contexts. Her scholarship has appeared in Composition Forum, Open Words, and the WPA Journal Symposium on Black Lives Matter and Anti-Racist Projects in Writing Program Administration 

Juan Escobedo is an Artist, Art Educator, and Writing tutor who is invested in dissecting and dismantling archaic colonist practices in academia. 

Kennedy Essmiller, B.A. has worked as a Writing Consultant at Oklahoma State University (OSU) while working on her MFA in Creative Writing. She assisted in the development of a Multimodal Composition Contest through the OSU Writing Center. Her research includes exploration of multimodality as writing that does not privilege alphabetical text.

M. Melissa Elston, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Palo Alto College, where she teaches composition and English courses. Previously, she served as a writing center director at Northwest Missouri State University, and a graduate assistant director at Texas A&M University. Her essays have appeared in venues including Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, George Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studies, and Atenea.

Wonderful Faison, Ph.D. (Dr. Wonderful), is the chair of the English department at Langston University. Her research focuses on race and antiracist praxis in the writing center. Her book, Counterstories from the Writing Center presents antiracist theory and practices for writing center administrators, staff, and tutors.

Romeo García, Ph.D.  is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Writing & Rhetoric at the University of Utah.

Marissa Galvin, M.A.  is a retired United States Airforce Veteran and a graduate of Texas A&M University-San Antonio where she also earned bother her BA and MA. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in African American Literature and Studies. Marissa’s scholarship focuses on Black, Women, and Queer studies. Marissa is the author of a performance review entitled “The African Company Presents Richard III” which was recently published in Shakespeare Bulletin, The Journal of Early Modern Drama in Performance (vol.39, 2, 2021).

Neisha-Anne Green, M.A. is Director of the Academic Student Support Services & The Writing Center at American University in D.C. She has given keynotes at the International Writing Center Association, the International Writing Across the Curriculum Conference and the Canadian Writing Centers Association, etc. Her first conference presentation was as a tutor at the National Conference of Peer Tutoring in Writing; she has since presented at the Conference on College Composition and Communication and the Modern Language Association, etc. Neisha-Anne is a multidialectical orator, author and an accomplice who welcomes invitations to collaborate on workshops and publications on linguistic justice and anti-racist pedagogy.

Nicole E. Green, Ph.D. is the Assistant Director of the Writing Fellows Program and a Lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she has been a part of the Writing Center for the past decade. Along with further investigating the intersections among disability and writing center theory, practice, and administration, Nicole is also interested in exploring the ways writing centers can support and partner with faculty teaching writing in the disciplines and the outcomes of these partnerships for students, faculty, and writing center staff. Additionally, she is interested in conversations around community and high school writing centers. Nicole's work has appeared in College English and English Journal. 

Kelin Hull, M.A. is a Visiting Lecturer of English and Assistant Director of the University Writing Center at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Her scholarship is positioned within cultural rhetorics and writing center studies with an emphasis on the rhetoric of community. Her work is featured in the forthcoming collection Emotions and Affect in Writing Centers and in The Peer Review. Her current projects focus on emotion, digital rhetoric, community, and social justice. Outside of her professional life, Kelin is an avid cook, hiker, gardener, cat lover, and traveler who loves adventuring with her husband and two children. 

Ada/Adam Hubrig, Ph.D. (they/them) is a multiply disabled caretaker of cats. They live in Huntsville, Texas, where they work as an assistant professor of English at Sam Houston State University. Their research centers on disability justice, queer rhetoric, and writing studies. Their work has appeared in College Composition and Communication, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, The Community Literacy Journal, and The Routledge Handbook of Queer Rhetoric. Ada is currently guest editing a special issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College on disability. 

Karen Keaton Jackson, Ph.D. earned a B.S. in English Secondary Education with Summa Cum Laude distinction from Hampton University. She then earned her Master’s and Ph.D. in English/ Composition Studies from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. In May 2015, she received a University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Teaching Excellence.  Her current research interests include the importance of the HBCU context when considering issues surrounding literacy, race, and identity for African-American students. She has served on the executive boards of the Southeastern Writing Center Association and the Council of Writing Program Administrators. Presently, she serves a as a trustee on the NCTE Foundation Board, as an executive member of the Southern Regional Honors Council and is a Professor of English and Director of the University Honors Program at North Carolina Central University. 

Randall W. Monty, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Composition, & Literacy Studies in the Department of Writing & Language Studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Research interests include critical discourse studies, writing centers, technical and scientific writing, and border studies. He is currently collaborating on community projects with La Posada Providencia and the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & World Birding Center.

Talisha Haltiwanger Morrison, Ph.D. (she/her) is Director of the OU Writing Center and Expository Writing Program at the University of Oklahoma, where she is also an Assistant Professor of Writing. Haltiwanger Morrison’s work incorporates antiracism and Black feminist approaches as writing center administration and often elevates the voices of student-tutors. Her work has appeared in publication such as The Peer Review, Writing Center Journal, and the edited collection, Out in the Center.  

Karen Moroski-Rigney, Ph.D. is an Associate Director of the Writing Center at Michigan State University, where she also serves as affiliate graduate faculty in Rhetoric and Writing and is a Center for Gender in Global Context Fellow. Karen serves as the Managing Editor of The Peer Review Journal and was an Associate Editor for WAC Clearinghouse's Practices and Possibilities Series from 2017-2021. Her work has been featured in WPA Journal, Pre/Text, The Peer Review, WLN Blog, and several edited collections—but in her life, she is proudest of her abilities to solve a Rubik's cube, to parent two poorly behaved cats, and to be a loving wife to Stacia. To learn more about Karen, visit her website at https://karenmoroski.com. 

Beatrice Mendez Newman, Ph.D., Professor in Writing and Language Studies, has served as Writing Center Director where she explored intersectionalities between WC and classroom pedagogies. Back in the classroom, she has retooled her advocacy of student writers through evolving means of writing support in online learning venues. Seeing classrooms as sites where writing ecologies can be shaped and supported, she has expanded her study of spaces as online learning has thrived in recent years. At the 2022 Global Society of Online Literacy Educators Conference, her presentation “Leaving Room for Learning: Exploring Student-Created Makerspace Ecologies in OWI” illustrated how students create prolific learning spaces to meet the exigencies of online learning. “When the Classroom Becomes a Screen: Finding Talent Zones for Teaching,” published in 2020 in The English Journal, shows how pedagogies inspired by WC theory and pedagogy can help student writers compose confidently and proudly, even in online settings. Dr. Newman’s scholarly and pedagogical work focuses on recognizing how student writers embody the spaces in which they write, integrating distinct social, rhetorical, linguistic, and writer identities in seizing agency as writ

Randee Schmidt, B.A. was born and raised in San Antonio, Texas. While attending Texas A&M University-San Antonio as an undergraduate student, she began working in the writing center on campus in 2018. After graduating with her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, she continues her work in the center, remaining involved in tutoring, workshops, and the social committee. She is currently preparing for graduate school, working as a research assistant on projects focused on moral injury and PTSD, with the goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. 

Anna Sicari is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Oklahoma State University, where she also directs the university writing center.

Alexandra Smith, Ph.D. is the Assistant Director of the writing center and an instructor of English at Seattle University. She holds a PhD in English literature and culture, with an emphasis on twentieth-century multi-ethnic literatures of the United States. Her research focuses on antiracist writing pedagogy and assessment, and representations of the street and urban space in literature.

Rachel Stark, B.A. is a second year MA Literature student at Oklahoma State University. She is an Assistant Director for the OSU Writing Center, officer for the local Rhetoric Society of America, and teaches composition courses. Her interests include environmental composition, ecology, and community engagement.  

Jasmine Kar Tang, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) works at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities as Co-Director of the Center for Writing, Assistant Director of the Minnesota Writing Project, and Affiliate Graduate Faculty member in Literacy and Rhetorical Studies.

Lizbett Tinoco, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of English at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Her research interests include writing program administration, two-year college writing studies, and writing assessment. Her most recent publications appear in the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Writing Assessment, and The Peer Review, among other journals and edited collections. 

Anna Treviño, Ph.D. is currently an assistant professor of Gateway to Belonging at OU and of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma (OU). She has previously taught First-Year Seminar courses, First-Year Composition, and Expository Writing. She also worked at the OU Writing Center as a graduate consultant and graduate assistant director. 

Kathryn Valentine, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies and Writing Center Director at San Diego State University. Her research and scholarship often focus on aspects of social interactions in the context of the tutoring and teaching of writing.  

Isaac K. Wang is a writing center practitioner and researcher from Kona, Hawai‘i. His scholarship has primarily attended to how composition practitioners can incorporate place-based and Indigenous methodologies into practice to support students from minority and Indigenous backgrounds. His current research aims to map writing centers at Indigenous-serving institutions to develop recommendations for culturally relevant writing center pedagogy. Outside of his academic pursuits, Isaac enjoys roasting coffee, playing Hawaiian music on the guitar or ‘ukulele, and seeing God show up unexpectedly.