Meet the current Officers of the OWCA Executive Board. You can contact the Board at board@onlinewritingcenters.org.
Oluwayinka Arawomo, President
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026, followed by 1-year term as Immediate Past President
Oluwayinka Arawomo is the President of the OWCA. In August 2024, she began her professional career at Millikin University as an Assistant Professor of Writing and Director of the Writing Center, following the completion of her PhD in English (Composition and Rhetoric) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in July 2024. Currently at Millikin, she teaches first-year writing and advanced writing courses. Both in her roles as instructor and director, she is passionate about excellent teaching and enhancing a vibrant writing culture through collaborations and meaningful dialogues. Her research interests include online writing support groups for female graduate students, digital writing and rhetoric, Nigerian women’s discourses in digital spaces, and African Feminism. Dr. Arawomo’s approach to writing is holistic, combining writing theory and practice with wellness, time management, and strategic productivity. She pays attention to the whole writer, recognizing the importance of both skills and personal well-being in the writing process. She offers writing support to individuals, groups, and at the institutional level.
Nikki Caswell, Vice President
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026, followed by 2 years as President
Nikki Caswell (she/her) is Vice President of the OWCA. She serves as the Director of the University Writing Center and Professor of English at East Carolina University. She researches socially-just approaches to writing assessment, emotion, and writing centers, and is co-author of two award winnings books The Working Lives of New Writing Center Directors and Failing Sideways: Queer Possibilities for Writing Assessment.
Megan Boeshart Burelle, Immediate Past President
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2025
Megan Boeshart Burelle is the Immediate Past President of the OWCA. She currently directs the Old Dominion University Writing Center. She began working in writing centers as an undergraduate writing consultant at Ohio State University-Newark in 2010. She is currently working on her PhD in English and working on a dissertation about tutor training for asynchronous screencast tutoring. Her research interests include online tutoring, tutor training, and graduate writing support.
Madeline Crozier Sutton, Secretary
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026
Madeline Crozier Sutton is Assistant Secretary of the OWCA. In July 2025, she joined Duke University as Assistant Professor of the Practice of Writing Studies and Assistant Director of the Thompson Writing Program Writing Studio. She earned her PhD in English (Rhetoric, Writing, and Linguistics) from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) in May 2025. At UTK, Madeline worked as an Assistant Director of First-Year Composition and a Graduate Assistant Director of the Judith Anderson Herbert Writing Center. Her research interests include composition pedagogy, equitable assessment, writing center administration, and writing pedagogy education. She began working in writing centers as an undergraduate writing consultant at DePaul University in 2017.
Vacant, Assistant Secretary
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026, followed by 1-year term as Secretary
Nicholas Valley, Treasurer
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026
Ezinne Okonkwo, Assistant Treasurer
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026, followed by 1-year term as Treasurer
Whitney Jordan Adams, Diversity & Social Justice Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026
Dr. Whitney Jordan Adams is an Assistant Professor of English, Rhetoric, and Writing at Berry College. She studies the rhetorical construction of white supremacy, focusing on the rhetorics of the alt-right, far-right, accelerationism, and techno-authoritarianism. She also researches violence in digital spaces. Additionally, she is interested in discourse production and teaching students the importance of critical
thinking and community building. Her interests and expertise also span writing centers, writing across the curriculum, and communication across the curriculum.
Her work has appeared in numerous edited collections, including the recent Confronting Toxic Rhetoric: Writing Teachers’ Experiences of Rupture, Resistance, and Resilience and the forthcoming Rhetorics of Southern Place: Contemporary Memoirs and Analyses. She has also been published in The Journal of the Kenneth Burke Society, Papers in Arts and Humanities, and Govor.
Dr. Adams is also a member of the advisory board for the International Rhetoric Workshop and serves as an associate editor for CompPile, part of the WAC Clearinghouse. She recently earned her MBA from Berry College and aspires to open a local business one day.
Jacqueline Borchert, Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026, followed by 1-year term as Diversity & Social Justice Chair
Jacqueline Borchert (she/her) is the Diversity & Social Justice Co-Chair of the OWCA. She is a full-time Professional Writing Specialist at the Purdue OWL, where her research focuses on linguistic justice, ELL composition, multiracial identity, identity-affirming centers, and scholar activism. She holds an MS in Higher Education, BA in Linguistics, and a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English Language Learners. Her own identities, grounded in passing privilege, permeate her approach to all her work.
Patrick Greene, Accessibility Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026
Vacant, Accessibility Co-Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026, followed by 1-year as Accessibility Chair
Saurabh Anand, Student Representative
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Saurabh Anand is a multilingual scholar, poet, and writing center administrator. He is a Ph.D. candidate in English (Rhetoric and Composition Studies) at the University of Georgia and has served as the Graduate Assistant Director of the Willis Center for Writing. He teaches first-year writing and has co-taught writing center theory and practice. In 2024, he was a guest writing consultant at the Language Center, TU Darmstadt, Germany, where he studied global comparative approaches to writing support. His research focuses on multilingual labor in writing centers, transnational literacy practices, queer and decolonial writing center administration, and global rhetorical traditions. His work appears in the Writing Center Journal, Praxis, Journal of Writing Analytics, FORUM, and the MLA’s ADE Bulletin.
Anand’s scholarship has been recognized with awards from NCTE, the American Consortium for Equity in Education, CCCC, the Writing Innovation Symposium, and the International Writing Center Association. As a poet and essayist, he writes on queerness, migration, and multilingual belonging, with publications in English Journal, Community Literacy Journal, Peitho, and Washington Square Review. Currently based in Athens, Georgia, he writes and translates in English, German, and Hindi and is committed to fostering writing centers as inclusive, multilingual, and globally engaged spaces.
Yuan Gu, Student Representative
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Yuan Gu is the 2026 Student Representative for the OWCA. She is a first-year PhD student in Writing and Rhetoric Studies at the University of Utah, where she also teaches first-year writing as a graduate instructor. Her research focuses on second language writing, digital rhetoric, and writing agency within ecological and sociocultural frameworks. Before beginning her doctoral work, Yuan taught English as a foreign language in secondary schools in China, where she developed a deep understanding of the writing challenges multilingual learners face. As Student Representative, Yuan looks forward to supporting OWCA’s initiatives, contributing to virtual events, and helping foster stronger connections among student members across institutions.
Jennifer Torres, Conference Chair
Length of term: January 2025 to May 2026
Jennifer (Jenny) Torres is the OWCA 2025 Conference Chair. Jenny is currently a third year PhD Rhetoric and Composition student at the University of Illinois Chicago. She primarily teaches in the first year writing program and is a supervisor at the UIC Writing Center. Her research interests focus on methods of argumentation stemming from the sophistic practice of antilogic from Ancient Greece. She’s currently a teaching assistant for UIC’s Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence and assists in designing, promoting, and facilitating training workshops and webinars on teaching strategies and techniques for UIC instructors. Jenny received her Bachelor’s degree in English and Psychology and her Master’s degree in English with a focus on Rhetoric and Composition, both from UIC.
Bri Lafond, Conference Co-Chair
Length of term: June 2025 to May 2026, followed by 1-year term as Conference Chair
Bri Lafond (she/her) is the Conference Co-Chair for OWCA. She is currently an Educational Development Specialist in Writing Pedagogy for Boise State University’s Center for Teaching and Learning. She has worked in writing centers as both an administrator and tutor periodically since 2006, and she remains committed to collaborating with writing centers in her current role. Bri earned her PhD in English with a concentration in Writing Studies and a graduate minor in Queer Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2024. Prior to her time at Illinois, she earned her MA in Composition with dual emphases in Literature and Applied Linguistics/TESL from California State University San Bernardino. She has previously served as OWCA’s Virtual Events Chair.
Alanna Bitzel, Virtual Events Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026
Alanna Bitzel has worked in writing centers since 2003. She currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Writing Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to joining UNLV in summer 2024, she oversaw the writing program in Athletics Student Services at The University of Texas at Austin for 13 years. Alanna is the Tutor Talks Representative for the South Central Writing Centers Association and Secretary of the Rocky Mountain Writing Centers Association. She is also a member of the Editorial Review Board for Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, and she has served on both OWCA’s Virtual Events Committee as well as the Accessibility Committee. Alanna’s writing center areas of interests include outreach initiatives, campus and community collaborations, and tutor professional development.
Vacant, Virtual Events Co-Chair
Length of term: January 2026 to December 2026, followed by 1-year term as Virtual Events Chair
Heather Touet, Website Coordinator
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Heather Touet (she/her) is a Learning Services instructor on Treaty 4 Territory in Regina, Saskatchewan. She teaches supplemental writing, computer, and study skills to Saskatchewan Polytechnic (Sask Polytech) students across the world. Her introduction to writing support work began as a grad student at the University of Saskatchewan where she completed her MA in English. Prior to working with Learning Services, she taught a variety of subjects as an Arts & Sciences instructor for seven years at Sask Polytech. Currently, in addition to her day-to-day work, she is a member of the Saskatchewan Academic Integrity Community of Practice and chairs the Sask Polytech Universal Design for Learning committee.
Meredith Fedewa, Website Coordinator
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Meredith Fedewa (she/her) is a Website Coordinator for OWCA. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and Secondary Education and master’s degree in English both from Grand Valley State University. Her current research topics include graduate writing methods and support services, and unique online consultation practices. Meredith is currently the Assistant Director at the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors, where she develops graduate writing support programming, promotes and facilitates staff professional development, as well as maintains the writing center’s online presence.
Sarah Ceja, Grant Coordinator
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Sarah serves as the Grant Coordinator for the Online Writing Centers Association (OWCA) and the Graduate Writing Tutor Coordinator at UC San Diego’s Teaching and Learning Commons. She is committed to fostering accessibility and equity in writing support spaces, empowering graduate tutors, and securing funding for writing center initiatives. Sarah has worked extensively with university students to develop their writing skills both in the United States and in Mexico and hopes to continue this work in the future. As a first-generation Latina and Fulbright alumna, her experiences in writing centers and international education have shaped her dedication to inclusive learning environments. Some of her research interests include Writing Studies, Graduate Writing Support, Asset-Based Theoretical Frameworks, and Critical Literacies.
Brian Harrell, Outreach Coordinator
Length of term: January 2025 to December 2026 (term can be renewed)
Brian Harrell is the Outreach Coordinator for OWCA and is the Writing Center Specialist at Northeast Ohio Medical University (NEOMED). Brian established the NEOMED Writing Center as a campus initiatives pilot program in February of 2022. Brian is active in IWCA, NCTE, CCCC, and TYCA. Brian has worked in online education as a FYC instructor at several universities, including the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay where he currently teaches asynchronous composition and professional writing courses. Brian has worked in higher education since 2011. Brian is interested in asynchronous, online writing center work as it pertains to medical, pharmacy, and dental students and the high stakes writing they must complete for residency, as well as supporting graduate students in writing their theses and dissertations.