Experience and Awards

Assistant Director, Mentor, Project Leader, Program Manager

Pongo Poetry, Seattle, August 2008 – January 2017

· Worked under experienced team leaders facilitating therapeutic poetry with traumatized youth in Juvenile Detention, King County, WA and Child Study and Treatment Center, Western State Hospital, Lakewood, WA 

· Conducted community trainings on Pongo methodology and theory for clinicians, teachers, counselors, etc., in a variety of settings in several states

· Planned, developed, facilitated and participated in Pongo performances in the community, including at Northwest Folklife Festival, Richard Hugo House and Youth Theater Northwest, including clinical psycho-education regarding Pongo methods 

· Lead and supervised a team of five trained mentors in the project at King County Juvenile Detention

· Produced and co-edited five anthologies of youth poetry published by Pongo Poetry

· Responded editorially to over 500 youth poems submitted on our website, worked editorially with authors, judged and awarded the annual Pongo Poetry writing prize 

· Maintained, revised and produced website copy for Pongo regularly 

· Wrote, edited and managed all grant proposals for Pongo Poetry 2014-2016

Advocate and Creative Writing Instructor

Eastside Domestic Violence Program (now Lifewire), Bellevue/Sammamish, WA, August 2008 – January 2009

· Facilitated a several-month long creative nonfiction workshop focused on past traumas of residents

· Edited and produced anthology of residents’ work, Surviving Thoughts

Grant Writer

Pongo Poetry, Artist Grants (self and peers), Social Justice Fund, Black & Tan Hall, 2008-present

· Researched, composed, revised and navigated grant applications to a variety of funders, private and public

Resident Teaching Artist

Seattle Arts and Lectures, Writers in the Schools, 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2013-2014

· Taught creative writing with emphasis on drafting, revision, one on one consultation, workshopping, and developing and producing modest anthologies of each class’s work

Creative Nonfiction Instructor  

South Seattle Community College, 2011

· Taught creative writing with emphasis on drafting, revision, one on one consultation, workshopping, and developing and producing a modest anthology of the class’s work

Creative Writing Instructor

Richard Hugo House, Seattle, 2008-2010

· Taught creative writing with emphasis on drafting, revision, one on one consultation, workshopping, and developing and producing modest anthologies of each class’s work

Graduate Teaching Assistant (commensurate with adjunctive professorship)

University of North Carolina at Wilmington 2001 – 2004 

· Taught English 101, Introduction to Creative Writing, and Creative Nonfiction courses with emphasis on drafting, revision, one on one consultation, workshopping, and development of final drafts

Copy Editor

2001 – present

· Copy edited and worked closely through revision processes for dozens of memoirs and novels by professional level writing peers, many of which were published 

Author

Falling Room (2006) and Clearly Now, the Rain: A Memoir of Love and Other Trips (2013), dozens of publications, 

· My second book evolved through seventeen copyedited revisions by three agents and five editors over eight years

Creative Writing Mentor

Richard Hugo House, 2014-2015

· Worked one on one with a teen writer on the creation and production of a collection of personal essays

MFA Student

Creative Writing, 2001-2004

· Participated in a dozen semester-long graduate level creative writing courses, with a notoriety for wholistic and in-depth copy editing of all peers’ manuscripts, emphasis on drafting, revision,  and one on one consultation