Helen S. Schaefer, Chair
Randall Rodman Holdridge, Co-Chair
Winifred Bundy
Colleen Burns
Alison Hawthorne Deming
Marshall Fealk
Norma Feldman
Jimmye Hillman
Susan Lowell Humphreys
Tony Luebbermann
Lois Shelton
Richard Shelton
Harris Sobin
James P. Walsh
Gail Browne, Poetry Center Executive Director
Mary Wildner-Bassett, Dean, College of Humanities
Consultants
Denise Barnes, web design and graphic design, dabfab.com
Jonathan VanBallenberghe, videography, openlensproductions.com
 Renee Angle, the Poetry Center’s Program Coordinator, oversees administrative and logistical details of the Reading Series and educational outreach programs. She holds an MFA from George Mason University, where she was editor of the journal So to Speak . She has taught for Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and for a growing charter school in South Tucson where she helped design curriculum. Her life's ambitions, to build a robot to write her poems and a cart for her dog to pull, are now underway.
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 Laynie Browne, Elementary Education Coordinator, is developing a poetry-in-the-schools program focusing on K-5 schools. She is the author of seven collections of poetry and one novel. Her most recent publications include The Scented Fox, recipient of the 2007 National Poetry Series Award, selected by Alice Notley (Wave Books), Daily
Sonnets (Counterpath Books, 2007) and Drawing of a Swan Before Memory,
Winner of the Contemporary Poetry Series (University of Georgia Press, 2005). She served as reading series assistant at St. Marks Poetry Project in NYC and has been curator of several reading series including the Ear Inn in NYC, and as a member of the Subtext Collective in Seattle. She is currently on the board of directors for the POG reading series and Chax Press. She has taught creative writing at University of Washington, Bothell, at Mills College in Oakland, as a visiting poet for Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York and in several programs in Washington, including Seattle Arts and Lectures. email |
 Gail Browne has been Executive Director of the University of Arizona Poetry Center since 2002. A California native, she holds an undergraduate degree in Creative Writing and a master’s degree in Literature from UCLA. She worked in the field of arts marketing for 25 years, most recently as senior partner of Browne Zukow Associates, based in San Francisco. email |
 Wendy Burk, the Poetry Center's Library Specialist, works with Rodney Phillips to maintain the library and assist patrons in accessing the collection. She is a poet with an MFA from The University of Arizona, and is also a translator of Spanish. email |
 Jamison Crabtree, Senior Media Technician, received his BA from VCU and is currently a MFA candidate at the University of Arizona. He's filled a variety of jobs, doing everything from reading submissions for literary journals to programming for defense contractors. He plans on pursuing a PhD in American Literature. email |
 Kristina Erny, the library intern, is a second year poet in the MFA program. She grew up in Seoul, South Korea and has lived in Kentucky; Indiana; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Seoul; and most recently Tucson. July 10th she and her husband welcomed a baby boy, Ephraim, into the world. Hooray!
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 Annie Guthrie is the Associate Marketing Specialist for the Poetry Center. She received her MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson and is currently working on her third manuscript. She lived between Tucson and Italy for many years and continues to pursue her love of language and translation. She is also a jeweler and co-owner of “The Jewel Smithery” on South Park. email |
 Cybele Knowles, Events Coordinator, makes sure that the Poetry Center’s readings, classes, contests, and parties go off without a hitch. She holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona, and a BA and an MA in Literature from U.C. Berkeley. Before she came to the Poetry Center she did a lot of other things, including editing how-to books for children (there’s so much they need to learn), and writing software manuals for animators (so they could figure out how to make superheroes fly), and typesetting articles about stuff in space (like stardust). email |
 Allie Leach, Events Intern, is a first-year MFA Non-fiction Candidate at the University of Arizona. She received her BA in English from Butler University, and for the past two years has been teaching in both Mexico and Denver. In addition to reading and writing, she loves eating enchiladas, cleaning, and tap dancing! She dreams of being of a writer for Sesame Street one day.
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 Tony Luebbermann, Volunteer Coordinator, holds degrees in Anthropology from Columbia University and the University of Arizona. Upon receiving his MS at the UA he went to work with the City of Tucson in its Budget and Research Department and retired from that position 28 years later. He has been studying and writing poetry for the past six years. In addition to serving as the Poetry Center’s Volunteer Coordinator, he’s a member of the Center’s Development Committee and the College of Humanities Advisory Board. email |
 Bonnie Jean Michalski is the Poetry Center’s Associate Editor. Her main focuses are the monthly e-newsletter, the Center's website, and grants. She holds an MFA from the University of Arizona. She is a founding member of MacawMacaw Press, a small press that publishes collaborative, experimental poetry in the form of handmade books. email |
 Rodney Phillips is the Poetry Center’s Senior Librarian. He was formerly curator of the Berg Collection and Director of Humanities and Social Sciences at the New York Public Library. He is the author of A Secret Location on the Lower East Side: Adventures in Writing: 1960-1980 (with Steven Clay) and The Hand of the Poet: Poems and Papers in Manuscript. email |
 Elizabeth Smucker, Education Intern, is a poetry student in the creative writing MFA program at the University of Arizona. She aspires to help children fall in love with poetry as a teaching artist in the public school system and pursue her own writing post graduation.
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 Jennie Ziegler, Marketing Intern, is a 2008 graduate of The Ohio State University and current MFA Nonfiction candidate here at the UA. She has worked previously at The Morning Call and has had her photography printed in Schmap Philadelphia Sixth Edition. Her writing has been published in OnCampus and she is currently the editor of the local OSU alumni newsletter. She loves to swim, hike, play volleyball, eat tacos, and spends the majority of her time reading and writing. |
Volunteer Receptionists
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Library Volunteers
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