Meet The Staff
Below is a list of the current PWI staff - Fellows, Coordinators, and our intrepid Director, for whom nothing is impossible! If you're looking to contact someone regarding any of our programs - if you're a speaker with an idea, a commissioner with a project, or an instructor looking to add some variety to your 202 class - please contact one of our Fellows. (Our names are links to our email addresses!) We'll have you set up and ready to go in no time.
Jon Olson, Director
Jon Olson (Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Linguistics, and Literature from the University of Southern California) has directed the Center for Excellence in Writing (CEW) since its inception in December of 1997. He teaches an undergraduate course and a graduate teaching practicum in the Department of English each year and oversees the CEW's four programs: the Undergraduate Writing Center, the Graduate Writing Center, the Writing Across the Curriculum Program, and the Public Writing Initiative. He is a Public Scholarship Associate at Penn State, and one of his projects is to find ways in which a writing center can address issues of community literacy and civic engagement through public scholarship. He was elected President of the International Writing Centers Association 2003-2005 and received the 2008 Ron Maxwell Award for Distinguished Leadership in Promoting the Collaborative Learning Practices of Peer Tutors in Writing.
Olson came to Penn State in 1997 from Oregon State University where he alternately coordinated the Writing Center and interim-directed the Writing-Intensive Curriculum Program, 1990-1997. His publication titles include "Writing Center Work at Penn State University: An Oral History," "The Fun We Have in Writing Centers: What Salvador Sings," "The Conflict between Assessment and Accreditation," "Plagiarism Might Go Away If We Don't Talk about It," "Student-Centered Assessment Research in the Writing Center," "Tutor Training," "Outreach through Inreach: Writing Centers and Extended Education," "A Question of Power: Why Frederick Douglass Stole Grammar," "Writing-Intensive Curriculum Roots," and "Bibliotherapy, Autobiography, and the Psychology of Composition."
Michelle Smith, Coordinator
Michelle is a PhD student in English, with a concentration in Rhetoric and Composition. In addition to her work with the PWI (and her time courting peacocks), Michelle has taught freshman composition, honors composition, and business writing (202D), tutored in both the Undergraduate and the Graduate Writing Center, worked as a research and conference assistant, and has begun her role as co-editor of the Proceedings of the 2008 Rhetoric Society of America conference. Michelle is currently focused on her dissertation, which aims to bridge spatial and publics theory through a study of the rhetoric of 19th century women who participated in intentional (utopian) communities.
In her free time, Michelle loves singing in her church choir, playing with her puppy (a beagle-cattle dog mix), traveling to see friends, family, and the world at large, and (at least during these Happy Valley winters) taking hot baths and making soup. She's also unhealthily obsessed with Broadway, NPR, and, most recently, allrecipes.com.
Rebecca Wilson Lundin, Coordinator
Rebecca is a graduate student in the English Department at Penn State where she writes, teaches, and works as a research assistant. Her central research interests lie in the history of rhetoric, specifically involving the development of English in sixteenth-century rhetorical treatises.
Additionally, Rebecca studies composition and technology and serves as a research assistant to both Stuart Selber and Cheryl Glenn. She teaches freshman English and technical writing and has compiled a Teaching With Technology portfolio to document personal teaching experience, specifically that related to the use of technologies. She hails from Arizona, and can usually be found outside doing things like running, biking, swimming, and kayaking. She is good at answering Kim's stupid questions via e-mail.
Matt Weiss, Fellow
Matt is a Ph.D. candidate in English, with a focus on Rhetoric and Composition. He joined PWI in 2005/2006, and has worked with a variety of guest speakers, instructors, and assignment commissioners. He has also taught ENGL 202C and 202D (Technical Writing and Business Writing, respectively).
Matt has worked as Composition Assistant for two years, and will be the Coordinator of the Graduate Writing Center for 2009-2010. His non-academic interests include soccer, Frisbee, science-fiction/fantasy novels, blogging, (very basic) Web design, and the appreciation of cheese.
Brandy Scalise, Fellow
Brandy Scalise is a doctoral candidate in English, with an emphasis in Rhetoric and Composition. Currently, she is writing her dissertation, "Heaven and Health: Rhetoric, Religion, and Wellbeing in America, 1865-1915. Brandy's scholarly interests more broadly include religious rhetorics, women’s rhetorics, and histories and historiographies of rhetoric.
She also teaches advanced composition courses and is acting Coordinator for the Graduate Writing Center. Brandy received her BA in English and History from Bucknell University in 2001 and her MA in English from Penn State in 2006.
Kim Andrews, Fellow
PWI fellow since 2008, and current webmaster (so if anything is wrong with this site, it's probably her fault), Kim Andrews is an MFA candidate in poetry, but has some pretty obvious leanings towards rhetoric, composition, and pedagogical theory. Currently, she is working on her MFA thesis, which as of yet has no title (she's a little anxious about this, but oh well) and has something to do with heritage, identity, and other vaguely poetic concepts.
Her scholarly interests include creative writing pedagogy, rhetoric and poetics, rhetoric and technologies, environmental writing and literature, and generally making the world a better place for writing, interpreting, and teaching poetry. When she's not doing this whole "school" business, she can be found wrestling with blogging software, taking pictures of her animals, and tromping around in the woods.
Erin Spanier, Fellow
One of our new 2009 Fellows, and part-time instructor of composition and technical writing, Erin Spanier (no relation) is a recent addition to the Public Writing Initiative. In her past life, Erin spent roughly ten years writing and editing hundreds of proposals, brochures, and speeches for a number of not-for-profit organizations.
Now she's working with other Penn State lecturers and students to complete commissioned writing projects for the Blair County Conservation District and the 2009 Solar Decathlon, an international competition to design, build, and operate a house powered entirely by the sun.
Lynne Feely, Fellow
Lynne in a graduate student in the English Department. She focuses on radical women's writing and experience in nineteenth century America. Her work explores theories of gender, sexuality, and democracy and early national women's experiences of the same. She also teaches rhetoric and composition to freshmen.
Outside of the classroom, Lynne tends to be found with a guitar in hand and folk music on the brain. She also enjoys writing poetry, running, biking, and obsessively reducing, reusing, and recycling.