 While some tend to think of writing centers as supplemental to the work of a writing program, Justin’s own experience has followed a much different trajectory. Throughout his career, Justin has worked as a writing consultant, tutoring twenty hours per week in the Writing Center at California State University, Fresno—where he co-supervised the Center—and working as a writing consultant for the University College at Syracuse University, a re-entry program for adult students. As the Assistant Director of the Writing Center at Syracuse University, he constructed a comprehensive evaluation of the Writing Center—the first in its history—and administered a Vision Fund Instructional Grant examining issues of diversity in writing. As the Director of the Writing Center at Westminster, he established the College’s first writing center, designing the space, creating the mission statement, and hiring, training, and evaluating consultants and adjunct faculty. During his two years at Westminster, he expanded the Center’s mission and outreach, enabling the Center to serve 1000 students per year, and partnered with campus agencies such as the McNair Program and Career Center to provide professional writing workshops for students. In addition, Justin developed a writing lab component for Westminster’s pre-freshman writing courses, allowing students to receive college credit for working with consultants to develop their knowledge and skills in writing.
Under Justin's direction, the UC Denver Writing Center has grown to serve over 4000 students per year and has developed an advanced online consulting component in addition to regular sessions in-Center.
And in an effort to increase support for writing and writing instruction on campus, the Center now hosts workshops for both students and faculty. It is Justin's vision to have the UCD Writing Center recognized as an innovative leader in online instruction and web-based assistance to students
while continuing to expand its services to the UCD community.
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In his previous lives, Sean was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Genghis Khan, Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Socrates, and the snake in the Garden of Eden. Rampant ego-maniacal tendencies aside, Sean loves classical music (playing it and writing in its style), motorcycles, Eastern philosophy, Shia LaBeouf, and writing about himself in the 3rd person. Sean is currently obtaining a graduate degree in Political Science after having obtained undergraduate degrees in history, political science, and psychology. He enjoys Ovaltine in soy milk, kosher hot dogs, sherbet, strawberry ice cream, and sea salt and vinegar kettle crisps. Sean also has a fear of public restrooms. As a final note, Sean loves sunglasses and has the largest collection in the Western world.
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Julie is a newcomer to this land, hailing from the distant frozen tundra of Canada. She left behind her igloo, bobsled, grove of maple trees, and her dreams of making it to the NHL to come get her some American learnin'. As a true Canuck, she has retained her passive-aggressive approach to life and the penchant for adding "eh" to the end of every sentence. In addition to being an unrepenting sports fiend, Julie whiles away her hours escaping into any book that might be lying around or into any country that will have her. Julie's plans for her future include sleeping in late and going for her first run of the year. Tomorrow. Definitely tomorrow. Often embarrassingly optimistic, on principle Julie rejects your reality and prefers to substitute her own, patterning her life after her favorite Yogi Berra-ism: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."
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Mark is a dude, not in the Big Lebowski sense, but in the sense that when he is not pursuing a Master's degree, teaching, or working in the Writing Center, he coaches a swim team and plays beach volleyball (yes, there are beaches in Denver). Aside from sports and studies, Mark imagines that he is the Quentin Tarantino of YouTube. Over the last decade he has worked as a freelance producer, director, editor, and photographer for a number of different projects, including everything from feature length indie films, music videos, and documentaries, to corporate junk (all of which are certainly Z list, if there is such a thing). As far as writing goes, Mark is an adamant believer that writing is controlled by David Icke's illuminati serpents. Thus inspiration for writing is completely reliant on ancient, scaly extraterrestrials. They told him to write this.
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Theo enjoys speaking of himself in the third person, fixing/building/riding bikes, and accepting money for tasks not worthy of pecuniary exchange. In his spare time, he writes music reviews and articles for a local magazine, converts centimeters into inches, watches old episodes of "Home Movies," and cruises Ebay in search of antiquated, Italian or French bike frames. In addition to all of this, he is convinced beards make you faster (at everything), writing while drunk is cheating (but effective), and Michael Bay is the reason why terrorists hate us (think about it).
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Caitrin has been a Colorado resident since the ripe age of four. Even though she has tried to leave the state twice, she keeps crawling back.She often states that the secret to her success is coffee. Lots and lots of coffee. During her free time, Caitrin enjoys writing, ranting, hiking, cooking with excessive amounts of garlic, reading, traveling, and playing with her lovable lab, Oberon. She hopes to someday build her
own bookcase out of 2 x 4's, travel the world, and watch the Red Soxstomp the Yankees at Fenway.
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Steve is proud to say he is a product of Akron, Ohio (or “Action”), where he once saw LeBron James play high school football. He received his B. A. in English from the University of Dayton in beautiful Dayton, Ohio. For two years, he was a writing consultant at The Write Place, the writing center at UD. Now he’s a graduate student working on his Master’s in the teaching of writing. Steve is afraid of insects and heights, as well as every scary movie that has ever been made. His favorite television show is Mystery Science Theater 3000, and right now his favorite band is Ted Leo & the Pharmacists. He lives with his partner, who is getting a Master’s in chemistry from the University of Denver because she is, like, way smarter than he is. He misses playing the drums and playing hockey.
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Someone once said, "You can take the boy out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the boy." That someone was Drew, and he was mostly talking about himself, though he knows other people for whom that maxim applies. When he's not schooling all y'alls with his proverbial pithiness, Drew wears a silver Iowa belt buckle even though he's from Illinois. This seems to confuse people -- until he explains that the word Illinois has more letters and thus is more expensive in belt-buckle form. That's not true at all, but this is: No matter what the dictionary may claim, the word 'irony' does NOT mean 'unexpected coincidence;' it means 'of or like iron.' Please start using it correctly from now on. Also: In June of 2009, Drew finished writing his first book, entitled Denver's Best Dive Bars: Drinking and Diving in the Mile High City. It will be released to much fanfare -- the beating of drums, crashing of cymbals, throwing of parties, and reading of passages -- the first weekend of November. Join him. Or don't, Puritans.
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 Dori is a recent English Literature graduate of UCD, and is currently attempting to read every literary classic she ever wanted to read but couldn’t thanks to the demands of college. Her dream is to someday have a personal library complete with big comfy chairs, a fireplace, and shelves of books up to the ceiling. When Dori is not reading she enjoys riding her bike, painting, watching movies, cooking, playing chess, and indulging in her secret love of graphic novels. As a former Fine Art student she can’t help but dork out about anything that combines her love of art and her love of the written word. Dori’s favorite thing about writing is its ability to convey individual thoughts and ideas. Because of this she has always been curious about what other students write in their papers, and is excited to get to indulge her literary curiosity by helping students in the Writing Center.
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 Tiffany was born in Boulder and raised in Louisville. She moved back to Boulder to go to college, and now resides again in Louisville. After deciding she was suffering from a devastating cycle of geographical stagnation and suffocation, she is now in the process of making “The Big Move” -- a 45-minute southeastern trek to Downtown Denver. She will probably live near or on Colfax, despite her mother’s best efforts to thwart this decision by warning her that “‘Colfax’ is French for ‘mugging.’” Since her mother was not willing to shell out the dough to house her anywhere else, Tiffany plans on weighting her purse with a brick and hoping for the best.
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Virginia earned her BA in Psychology/English at Concordia College in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and finally received her MA in modern United States and British history from UCD. She is a US Army veteran from the first Gulf War and served as an intelligence analyst and sergeant at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Her specialties included the (former) Soviet Union, (former) Yugoslavia, Cambodia, and China. Because many of the governments she studied while in the Army failed and their countries broke apart, Virginia was initially fearful of studying the history of the US and Britain. As a consequence, she grabs her laptop every morning to read the news and make sure that the US, Britain, Cambodia, and China still exist. Because historians write A LOT, Virginia applied to the Writing Center, hoping to contribute in a small way. She and her husband, Michael (a mathematician of all things!), moved two years ago and hope to finish unpacking soon. However, they can now park their cars in the garage before winter sets in, so life is good.
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 In addition to being a composition instructor and writing consultant, Benjamin is a happy husband to a beautiful wife and the father of two wonderful sons. A former magician, barista, janitor, dish washer, car salesman, manager, and special-education teacher, Ben has experienced much of the wonders of life. He is also an ordained minister of the Universal Life Church and the Church of the SubGenius, as well as a Chaplain for the Paratheoanametamystichood of Eris Esoteric, and has performed three weddings and a funeral."
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 Christy doesn't know how to speak of herself in the third person and generally doesn't enjoy listing her accomplishments for others as she believes this could qualify her as immodest, arrogant, or elseways annoying. That stated, she's an interesting creature, fond of dry humor, self-deprecation, and idiosyncratic contradiction.Having escaped the depths of the Old South, she attempted a life in New England before settling in the New Old West. She loves to travel and study and hopes, one day, these affinities will afford her the privilege of obtaining a Ph.D abroad. In the meantime, she endeavors to improve upon her gifts as a master barista (experienced 15 years), a skilled (though as yet unpublished) writer, a novice consultant, an amateur instructor, and an otherwise minor pain in the ass.
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 Heather graduated from the English Writing program at UCD but is now inexplicably nostalgic for the student experience. Because she's an academia nut (far less tasty than a macadamia nut), she also studied Film and Anthropology in a vain attempt to be a more well-rounded writer. She hails from South Carolina, the home of boiled peanuts, sandy beaches, shagging (the dance, not the act of procreation), Vanna White, and a whole bunch of people who believe that Pat Conroy is the Second Coming, but--let's face it--The Prince of Tides wasn't that good. When she isn't at the Writing Center, Heather stumps as a freelance copyeditor but has been known to take on any job that involves 1) writing something and 2) getting paid. She likes to hike and bike and make silly rhymes, is working diligently toward her goal of watching every film ever made, and can probably kick your butt snowboarding.
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