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Writing Center

West Chester University

Dr. Karen Fitts
Associate Professor of English
214 Lawrence Center
610-430-5664
kfitts@wcupa.edu


Advisory Board

The Writing Center is supported and guided by an advisory board comprising, in part, local members who are professors at West Chester University. Most of the local advisory board members are trained in the field of Rhetoric and Composition, a specialty field within the larger discipline of English. Other members are professors in other disciplines who teach writing emphasis classes in West Chester University's Writing Across the Curriculum Program. The director of the writing center is elected from the cohort of Rhetoric and Composition specialists within the Department of English, and the directorship rotates every three years.

The advisory board also comprises regional and national members who lend support and guidance and help to ensure that the West Chester University Writing Center's practice adheres to national standards.

Local Advisory Board Members

Hannah Ashley, Ph. D., is founder and project director of Writing Zones 12.5, a college access program in which undergraduates from West Chester University mentor students at Kennett High School and other high school sites. Mentors in her program are trained using the IWCA Writing Center Model. Writing Zones mentors and site managers often work in the Writing Center in addition to Writing Zones.

Jen Bacon, Ph.D. (past Writing Center director) directed the West Chester University Writing Center from 2002-2005. She was the Assistant Director of the Writing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1994-1995, during her time as a PhD student there. Dr. Bacon has worked with and trained both undergraduate and graduate Writing Center consultants, and has supervised several graduate research projects involving Writing Centers during her time here at WCU.

Margaret C. Ervin, Ph.D. (past Writing Center director) directed the West Chester University Writing Center from 2005-2012. She teaches first-year composition, teaches writing pedagogy classes in the English B.S.Ed., and supervises student teachers. This gives her an opportunity to be involved hands on in writing instruction from grade 8 through the master's level. She completed her doctorate at The University at Albany, NY and worked in the writing center at SUNY Albany as a graduate student.

Karen Fitts, Ph.D. (current Writing Center director) runs the writing center.  In addition, she has scholarly and teaching expertise in composition and rhetoric, writing pedagogy, writing center praxis, and rhetorical and critical theory. She has advised students at the undergraduate and graduate levels who plan to teach, and she is a former co-director of WCU's composition program.

Seth Kahn, Ph. D., founded the writing center at Forsyth Technical Community College in 1994. He worked in the writing centers at Florida State University (1995-1998) and Sryacuse University (1998-2002) during his graduate programs. More recently, his support for writing center work has involved supporting West Chester University researchers at the Qualitative Research Network of the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

William Lalicker, Ph.D., has supported Writing Centers as an integral part of writing instruction through over 20 years of administering writing programs, and through policy positions on the leadership boards of the Council on Basic Writing and the Philadelphia Council of Writing Program Administrators.

Deborah Mahlstedt, Ph.D. has taught writing-emphasis classes in the Psychology department and currently focuses on teaching writing in her curriculum outside the general education program. She has attended training sessions conducted by writing center directors and is a strong proponent of the importance of writing consulting as a support to the West Chester University's general education writing-across-the-curriculum program.

Cheryl Wanko, Ph.D. is a Professor of English and past Department Chair of the West Chester University English department. She specializes in early British literature and business writing, and supports the Writing Center via her classes and her work in researching entrepreneurial writing projects.

Hyoejin Yoon, Ph.D., is the Director of Basic Writing in the West Chester University Writing Center and in that role acts as a liaison between the West Chester Univeristy Academic Development Program and the Writing Center.

Regional Advisory Board Members

Denine Ellis, Director, Immaculata College Writing Center

Lori Salem, Ph.D., has been the director of the Writing Center at Temple University since 1999. She is also the president of the Mid-Atlantic Writing Centers Association. 

National Advisory Board Members

Steven Joseph Lamos, Ph.D., is Writing Center Director at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

James C. McDonald, Ph.D., is Head of the Department of English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He was Director of the Writing Center at UL-Lafayette from 1988 to 1993 and an Associate Director of the Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin from 1986 to 1987. He is a founding member and past president of the South Central Writing Centers Association, and he served on the executive committee of the International Writing Centers Association for several years. He has published articles and reviews on writing centers in the Writing Center Journal, the Writing Lab Newsletter, and WPA.

Andrew J. Stout, M.A., is Writing Center Director at Pace University's Westchester campus in New York.  Andy's research focuses on composition and rhetoric, queer theory, and writing center pedagogy.