What I’ve Been Up To

Big changes are afoot as 2023 begins!

As of February 2023, I’ve transitioned out of my role in the Writing Center to become the very first Director of Strategic Planning, Assessment, and Accessibility for the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. This will be a big role — an exciting role! — and a role that’s a fantastic fit for how I see my strengths coming together to serve my campus community and research fields.

Stay tune for more information as my projects and purview develop.

In 2022:

  • Writing, writing, writing! And some editing. I had several articles come out in 2022, including one I’m particularly proud of over at Praxis.
  • Strategic Planning. I’ve had a really fantastic experience serving on Michigan State University’s College of Arts and Letters Appreciative Inquiry Core Team doing strategic planning for the college. I’ve learned so much and have been so inspired by this good work. I could see myself moving in this direction, career-wise, in the future. The ethos and values of WC work really are helpful for strategizing bigger picture initiatives.
  • Speaking gigs. The pandemic did not slow down the speaking gig train! I’ve given about ten talks in the past year at various institutions across the country (some virtually, some in person) to talk about student success, administration, and access/anti-ableism. I also gave a keynote at the 2022 SWCA Conference!
  • University Service. Still serving as chair of the College of Arts and Letters’ College Undergraduate Committee, and still facilitating the Tier II Faculty Learning Group. Keeping busy!

In 2021:

  • The Writing Center at MSU began hosting our spring speaker series, Writing Centers and Access. The series, featuring disability scholars Jay Dolmage, Margaret Price, Julie Avril Minich, Stephanie Kerschbaum, and Christina Cedillo, was a tremendous success so far! Each event has had over two hundred attendees (all virtual, of course). We managed to secure funding to ensure ASL translators and live captioning at all events, and the videos of previous events are all available on the MSU Writing Center’s YouTube page right now. We’re very excited about the success of the series, and also about sharing these videos!
  • The MSU WC’s Accessibility Committee had a banner year full of huge projects, including but not limited to: Developing a First Year Writing pilot workshop on accessible composing and disability justice, developing the beginnings of what we’re calling The Accessible Composing Archive, developing multiple types of workshops and programs to present to our campus colleagues and beyond centering accessibility and disability justice in writing practices and writing centers, and following up on the several dozen requests we’ve received from other writing center folks this year to give talks or provide resources to their institutions on the work we’re doing!
  • Teaching! Writing! Publishing! The hustle that never ends. This semester, I’m teaching our Writing Center’s theory and training course while also working on a few different articles that have been accepted for publication. All my current writing is focused on disability justice in writing center work, and it feels good to have that work taking root / growing.
  • Speaking Gigs and Consulting: In Spring 2021 alone, I’ve given five requested guest lectures at various institutions, including Transylvania University, City University of New York, University of Nevada at Las Vegas, and John Carrol University on disability justice and writing center work. Want me to come visit your staff? Head over to my Consultation page!
  • Other Fun Stuff: I’m currently chairing MSU’s CAL College Undergraduate Council, developing a Tier II Assessment plan to submit for review at MSU, reviving the MSU WC’s Community Composing Project website, serving on IWCA’s Accessibility and Social Justice Committees, serving on the Online Writing Center Association’s Accessibility Committee, and serving on the MSU Teaching and Learning and Student Success Conference’s planning committee. Busy, busy, busy…