A draft version of the RC Writing Alumni Bios compilation is vieweable here.
In the monthly e-blast to writing alums, we have begun to include brief bios, usually culled from the web and from LinkedIn (listed here alphabetically, after year graduated):
David Greene (RC 1972) says that his creative life while at the RC “evolved from film to photography to writing.” While at the RC he wrote and directed a feature length film, Pamela and Ian, starred RC students Ian Stulberg, Pam Seamon, Douglas Lichterman, Katie Reifman, and Ruthie Rankin. After college, a collection of photographs, called Shameless, was exhibited in Berkeley, San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and Zurich. Since 2010 David has published several books, including Unmentionables, which was awarded the bronze medal for gay fiction at the Book of the Year awards at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans in 2011. More about David at davidgreenbooks.com
Pamela Seamon Guest (RC 1972) is an actress and casting director best known for Blue Velvet (1986). She has appeared in many movies, from The Last Tycoon (1976) to Turning Point (2022). She directed a student performance of Marat/Sade in the RC Theater in the summer of 1973. Pam is married to actor Nicholas Guest, brother of actor and writer Christopher Guest. Pam has two children: the actress Elizabeth Guest and the producer-executive Will Rack.
Richard Leyfeldt (RC 1972) is an attorney-adviser at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and has 30 years experience in the energy sector. He has an MPP in Public Policy and a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard. Richard starred in a summer 1973 production of Marat/Sade, held in the RC Theater. An article in the Ann Arbor Sun, December 1974, said that Richard was “particularly stunning on clavinet and keyboards” during a Radio King and His Court of Rhythm.
Scott T. Cummings (RC 1974) is Professor of Playwriting and Dramatic Literature at Boston College. He has a MFA in Playwriting from Carnegie Mellon (1977). Scott is the author of Maria Irene Fornes; Routledge Modern and Contemporary Dramatics (Routledge, 2012), among other books. Scott performed in several RC musical and theatrical productions in the early ‘70s. Star Trek fans will appreciate that “Kirk and Scotty” both worked in the RC office for a while (that’s a reference to Thelma Kirk). There’s a Youtube video of Scott giving the Maria Irene Fornés lecture at Emerson College in February 2014: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3XlBI_3v-U
Christine Gloss (RC 1974) is the owner and “creative force” behind Feel Good Crosswords LLC – Fun for the Senior Mind and Heart, which she started in 2008. She has worked as a video writer and producer, instructional designer and media producer/coordinator, as well as a manager at Henry Ford and Crittendon Hospitals and General Motors. In 1995 she started On Beyond Zebra, a training program. She has an MA in Speech and Television Production.
Richard B. Sale III (RC 1974) was a poet and actor. He appeared in the film Blue Danube, and in the tv shows “All My Children,” “Another World,” and “The Dickens World.” He won a Hopwood at U-M and published poems in several RC student publications. He died August 29, 1985. He starred in a student production of Marat Sade in the RC’s theater in summer 1972.
David Bell (RC 1976) died in 2016. David earned an MFA in creative writing from Brown (1979), and worked at Chicago Youth Centers for over 26 years.
J. Max Robins (RC 1976) is a veteran journalist, media analyst and producer. Before joining the Center for Communication in 2014, Max was the Vice President/Executive Director of the Paley Center for Media and the editor-in-chief of “TV industry Bible ” at Broadcasting & Cable. Max was also senior editor and columnist at TV Guide, and TV editor and columnist at Variety. Max’s work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and New York magazine. He has commented on media-related issues for many major news outlets, including NBC, CBS, CNN, CNBC, Fox News, MSNBC and NPR.
Judith Ezekiel (RC 1977) is professor emerita in Women’s Studies and African American Studies at Wright State in Dayton OH and was associate professor of American Studies at l’Universite de Toulouse-le-Mirail. She is the author of Feminism in the Heartland (Ohio State U Press, 2002), and has also published on the U.S. and French women’s movements, Franco-American misrepresentations, and intersectionality of race and gender in numerous journals around the world. She co-founded the French, European, and International Women’s Studies Associations, the first French women of color research group, and was a founding member of the Conseil Répresentatif des Associations Noires. A recent interview with Judith (Veteran Feminists of America, Inc., July 2022): bit.ly/3K3HXWX
Emily Barrett Tennyson (RC 1978) is a freelance editor and writer. She has worked at the Detroit Medical Center since 1996, at UD-Mercy since 2004, and at Midwest Living since 2000. She also does college essay consulting for high-school seniors through the US. Her husband, Christopher Tennyson died in 2020. He was longtime owner of Tennyson Chevrolet in Livonia (now Feldman Chevrolet).
Karen Ruelle (RC 1979) is an author, illustrator, and artist. She also teaches ESL to immigrants at a non-profit. He makes paintings of animals, some of which have been exhibited around NYC. She says she studied languages at U-M because she wanted to become a spy, but notes that she wouldn’t be a very good spy if she told whether or not she became one, would she? Her most recent book is Surprising Spies: Unexpected Heroes of World War II (Holiday House, 2020; paperback 2022). Middle grade, easy reader, and picture books include: Hidden on the Mountain: Stories of Children Sheltered from the Nazis in Le Chambon (with Deborah Durland DeSaix), Easy as Apple Pie (written and illustrated by Karen), and Peter’s War: A Boy’s True Story of Survival in World War II Europe (Holiday House, 2020), with Deborah Durland DeSaix, illustrated by DeSaix. Karen has a Master’s in Library Science from U-M (1980). More at karenruelle.com
Nancy Gildart (RC 1980) was assistant director of Career Education, Career and Professional Experience (CAPX) at the School of Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, for 20 years. She now works freelance as a trustee for the Homewood Public Library (Homewood IL) and as a board member at Terrain Exhibitions in Oak Park IL. She has a BFA and MFA from the School of Art at the Institute of Chicago (1998, 2000), and an MA in Library Science from the University of Chicago. She published “Torn and Mended: Textile Actions at Ground Zero and Beyond” in Object of Labor: Art, Cloth and Cultural Production (MIT Press, 2007).
Tony J. Hoffman (RC 1980) is a senior analyst at Ziff Davis Media in New York and a technology writer, analyst, writer and editor at PCMag.com (formerly PC Magazine). Tony is also an amateur astronomer and an astrophotographer. He belongs to the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York as well as the Custer Institute and Observatory. He writes poetry, and is a ham radio operator (callsign AA2TH). Tony is listed as co-author on numerous publications (“primarily in recognition of my service as a site moderator”), including “Planet Hunters TESS IV: a massive, compact hierarchical triple star system TIC 470710327” (March 2022).
Phillip B. Harper (RC 1981) is program director for higher learning at the Mellon Foundation, and was Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at NYU. He has sat on many advisory and editorial boards, including PMLA, Profession, American Literature, Camera Obscura, GQ, Postmodern Culture, and Social Text. He received his MFA, MA, and PhD from Cornell (1985, 1986, 1988). His most recent book is Abstractionist Aesthetics (NYU Press, 2015). He published a recent article, “Studying Humanities Can Prepare the Next Generation of Social Justice Leaders”: bit.ly/3YvdC8G
Martha E. Topol (RC 1981) is Youth and Family Services Coordinator at Suttons Bay Bingham District Library in Suttons Bay MI. She is from Mamaroneck NY. Martha and her husband, David Kirby, are bison herders in the Traverse City area. Martha met David at U-M in 1979; they were married in 1985. Their two children are both U-M grads (Maple, 2012; Cooper, 2020). David is a retired high school physics teacher. An article about the bison farm: https://bit.ly/440iGUN
Bonnie J. Emanuel (RC 1983) is president of Bonnie Emanuel Design Inc., in Scarsdale NY. Her first full-length poetry collection is forthcoming from Cornerstone Press. Poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Great Lakes Review, and Mid-American Review, among others. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from The City College of New York (2020). More about Bonnie at bonniejilleemanuel.com
Jeff Scott (RC 1983) has won many music awards, and was nominated for a Detroit Music Award for Outstanding Americana Song in 2022. CDs include Nola to New York, The Long Way Home, and Begin Again. A recent song, “The Comeback Kid,” is viewable on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59xncBjOclA Jeff performed at Ann Arbor’s Black Crystal Café (near Jewel Heart) on March 31, and will open for Bill Edwards at the Ark on October 18. More about Jeff at jeffscottmusic.com
Larry Dean (RC 1984) is an English instructor at Northeastern Illinois U and an adjunct instructor at the College of Lake County (IL). Larry has also been an instructor at McHenry County College in Crystal Lake IL, at Indiana U Northwest, and at Joliet Junior College. Since 2003 he has been poet-in-residence in the Chicago public schools through the Chicago Poetry Center. Larry has an MFA in Creative Writing-Poetry from Murray Sate (2009), and an MA in English from Northeastern Illinois (2020). His numerous books include Frequently Asked Questions (forthcoming), Muse, Um (2022), and Activities of Daily Living (2017. His latest solo album is Good Grief (2015); Product Placement, the sophomore album from his band, The Injured Parties, was released August 2019. For more info, go to larryodean.com.
Jerry W. Perrine (RC 1985) has performed piano music for more than 40 years, while also telling stories of ragtime, early jazz, blues, and boogie-woogie. He became interested as a teenager with Scott Joplin’s ragtime piano, taught himself how to play, and then studied the music and its history. Jerry has played the Michigan Jazz Festival, at Henry Ford Museum, at local venues, including Ann Arbor’s North Star Lounge last November. Jerry worked at the City of Ann Arbor’s Signs and Signals Division, and is now retired. He attended Ann Arbor’s Huron High. He is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.
Pamela K. Gossiaux (1989) is a humorist, inspirational speaker, and author. Recent books include The Things We Know in Part (2022) and Finding Hope (2020), which is part of her Horses and Hearts Inspirational Romance series. She self-published Six Steps to Successful Publication. Pamela teaches writing workshops and has edited books in a wide range of genres, including best-sellers. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and Entrepreneur, and locally in the Ann Arbor News and Ypsilanti Press. Among her awards: “40 Under 40” in Crain’s and “30 in Their Thirties” in dBusiness. She and her husband have two sons and three cats. More about Pamela at PamelaGossiaux.com
Elizabeth Inglehart (RC 1987) is a clinical associate professor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago. She developed and teaches an intensive writing course in revising articles for publication, and is editor in chief of Legal Writing: The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. She has published several legal treatises in Criminal Law Advocacy, and in other books.
Eric Weltman (RC 1989) is a writer, organizer, and educator. For over 12 years he has been senior organizer at Food & Water Watch in Brooklyn. His publications include articles in MetroWest Daily News, In These Times, and Truthout.org. He had a stint as senior lecturer at Suffolk U in Boston, where he developed and taught courses in urban politics. He has an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts (1997). Eric is featured in a post on the RC’s website: bit.ly/3JzjuqU
Sara M. Haimowitz (RC 1990) is director of development and communications at the Center for Health and Learning in Brattleboro, VT. Previously she was development consultant at Pride Youth Theater Alliance in Boston, development director at Coalition for a Prosperous America Education Fund in Sheffield, MA, and grant writer and development director at LEAD (Leadership, Education, Adventure, Direction) in Eugene, OR. She has an MSW from San Jose State (1993).
Matthew Krichbaum (RC 1990) is a principal of Soble Rowe Krichbaum LLP in Ann Arbor. He earned his JD (U-M, 1992) and practiced law with the Chicago firm Katten, Muchin and Zavis before joining Soble Rowe Krichbaum in 1998. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Nice Work Public Media, and served on various other boards between 2009 and 2017. From 2008 through 2012, Matthew served as Vice President of the board of the Ann Arbor Film Festival. Matthew is a contributor to the Institute of Legal Education’s Introducing Evidence at Trial, 3rd Edition (2007) and the 2014 Update. From 2016 through 2020, Matthew was selected by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America in the area of commercial litigation.
Nicholas Petrie (RC 1990) is the bestselling author of the award-winning Peter Ash series. The eighth book, The Healing Lift, is due out September 12. Nick lives in Milwaukee and has worked as a roofer, carpenter, remodeling contractor, and freelance building inspector. Nick was an editor and contributor to Tales around the bend, an RC student journal. He was RC writer-in-residence in January 2016, and read from the first Peter Ash book at a reading at Nicola’s. More about Nick at www.nickpetrie.com
David Zinn (RC 1990) is a third-generation U-M alum. He noted (in an article in the Daily, last March) that he started drawing chalk on a “flimsy chalkboard” hanging on his dorm door on 4th floor East Quad. He is perhaps most famous for his sidewalk chalk art, and has published several books on the subject, most recently Chance Encounters: Temporary Street Art (2022). He also produces calendars, prints, and postcards, and has done professional commissions (from theatrical posters to bar coasters). His most frequent characters are Sluggo (a bright green monster with stalk eyes) and Philomena (a phlegmatic flying pig). More about David at zinnart.com.
Jill B. Robbins (RC 1991) works part-time at WGBH’s Media Access Group (Boston), writing descriptive audio for programs such as Masterpiece, American Experience, and NOVA. She previously worked as a transcriber at National Braille Press, where she wrote picture descriptions for the “Great Expectations” children’s book series. She worked as a teacher of students with visual impairments at the Carroll Center for the Blind and the Tennessee School for the Blind. She also has served as a describer for Arts Emerson and at the Boston Opera House, and as a secondary describer at the Huntington Theatre Company. Jill has a Med in special education/visual disabilities from Vanderbilt and is a graduate of the American Repertory Theatre Institute for Advanced Theatre Training. She was recently featured in the “A Sense of Texas Podcast – Jill Robbins-Silver: Audio Description for Theater” at tsbvi.podbean.com: bit.ly/3llFTjF
Martin Sweeney (RC 1991) wrote, directed, and produced 37 episodes of “Behind the Music That Sucks,” which won a 2000 Wobbly Award. A preview of “CI: A TEDD Talkumentary,” which Martin wrote and directed, is available at bit.ly/3YgjIcc More about the talkumentary at bubblepoint.tv More about Martin at martinsweeney.com
Courtney H. Loveman (RC 1992) is an “industry mentor” (notes the ATLAS Institute at U Colorado, Boulder), self-employed as a Brand Strategy advisor, and former vice president and chief strategy officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky (a product/brand invention group). Courtney was also founder and designer at Bad Baby, Inc. from 1996-2001 an Ann Arbor-based children’s apparel line. She earned an MBA in Marketing (U-M 2003) and an MFA in Fiction (Columbia, 1994) and so is “fluent in both business and design.” She created new products for L’oreal, designed clothing for Ralph Lauren, led marketing and creative at Seventh Generation, and designed, built and sold her own line of children’s clothing. The ATLAS Institute bio notes that “on nights and weekends, she is also currently working with her husband to build the city’s first shipping container home. She occasionally gets confused about whether her life is better defined as a labor of love or a love of labor.” At U-M she taught writing for the Michigan Department of Corrections and is a Hopwood winner.
Jennifer McKee (RC 1993) is a journalist and essayist. Jenn spent more than a decade working as a staff arts reporter at The Ann Arbor News. Most recently, Jenn’s work has appeared in the Ann Arbor District Library’s online magazine Pulp (pulp.aadl.org) and in Scary Mommy, American Theatre magazine, Communication Arts magazine, Michigan Alumnus magazine, The Detroit Free Press, and Metro Parent. Her story “Under the Influence” was included in Best New American Voices 2003. Jenn earned an MFA in creative writing from Penn State (where she also taught undergraduate courses in rhetoric, business writing, and creative writing) and an MA in English from U Georgia. At U-M she played trombone in the Michigan Marching Band and wrote her first theater reviews for The Michigan Daily). She published an Ann Arbor News column in September 2013 called “Visiting the new East Quad (and the old me)”: bit.ly/3yQy9t0 More about Jenn at jennmckee.com
Damian Rogers (RC 1993) teaches creative writing at Toronto Metropolitan U and is the founding creative director of Poetry In Voice. She has published two books of poetry (Paper Radio and Dear Leader) and a memoir, An Alphabet for Joanna: A Portrait of My Mother in 26 Fragments (KnopfCanada, 2020). Damian has a MFA in poetry from BenningtonCollege and has worked as an editor at the Poetry Foundation and at The Walrus, and has been co-host and literary curator of The Basement Revue. She also practices, writes about, and teaches Tarot. A recent interview (October 2022) with Damian is at http://carouselmagazine.ca/c48-rogers/ More about Damian at damianrogers.space
Francis Lam (RC 1997) is the host of America Public Media’s The Splendid Table, and has been a regular contributor and frequent guest since 2010. He is vice-president and editor-in-chief at Clarkson Potter (Penguin Rand House), was the Eat columnist for the New York Times Magazine, and was a regular judge on Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. His writing has appeared in Gourmet, Bon Appetit, Food and Wine, among other publications, and has won several James Beard Foundation and Interantional Association of Culinary Professionals awards. After U-M, he worked as a grant writer in New York before attending the Culinary Institute of America (2003).
Kyle K. Norris (RC 1997) teaches audio storytelling at KUOW’s “RadioActive” youth media program in Seattle and was co-instructor for U Washington’s graduate course, “Audio Storytelling.” Kyle spent 10 years as host and reporter with Michigan Radio before working as host and producer at KNKX (Seattle) and KUOW. His stories have appeared on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace, Here and Now, The Splendid Table, The Environment Report, and World Vision Report. Storytelling.” A recent story for NPR was a remembrance of Betty White: https://www.npr.org/2021/12/31/202965627/betty-white-death
Kimberly A. Owczarski (RC 1997) has been assistant professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Digital Media at Texas Christian U since 2010. Her research focuses on the contemporary media industries, and she has published in the Journal of Film and Video, Spectator, the Quarterly Review of Film and Video, and several anthologies. A recent publication: “’A Guaranteed Seat’: Fandango and Changing Business Practices in Movie Exhibition,” Quarterly Review of Film and Video, 39:1, 2022. She has an MA and PhD (2001, 2008) from U Texas at Austin.
Holly Jo Sparks (RC 1997) works as a cooperative, community and housing development consultant. She is executive director of the Spartan Housing Cooperative in East Lansing and managing principal consultant at the Collective Seeds Consulting Cooperative, which she cofounded. She has a professional degree in nonprofit financial management from UC Santa Barbara (2002), PhD in City and Regional Planning from North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MCP in City Planning from MIT (2010). She has been president of the Oryana natural food co-op in Traverse City since 2014. Publications include a contribution to “Hospitals Building Healthier Communities: Embracing the Anchor Mission” (The Democracy Collaborative, 2013).
Megan Rubiner Zinn (RC 1999) is a freelance writer and copy editor. She says that her broad experience “makes me versatile and great at cocktail parties.” She cites her MA in American Studies (U Minnesota) as well as being a “folk music publicist, Smithsonian intern, university advisor and instructor, social media maven, history geek, word nerd, pie maker.” A recent article, Maize, Blue, and a Destiny for Two,” was published in Michigan Today in December 2021: https://michigantoday.umich.edu/2021/12/18/maize-blue-and-a-destiny-for-two/ Her book Our Precious Pooper was published by Knock Knock in 2016. More about Megan at her website: cherryandparsons.com
Erik S. Anderson (RC 2000) joined the faculty of Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster PA) in 2012, and from 2014-2019 directed its annual Emerging Writers Festival. He has an MFA from Naropa University, and a PhD from U Denver. He’s been published in The American Scholar, The Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Witness. He has published four books, the most recent being Bird (Bloomsbury/Object Lessons, 2020). An interview about Bird was published in the blog FourThreeThree: https://www.fourthreethree.org/blog/why-do-we-love-birds
Emily Linn (RC 2000) and Andy Linn (RC 2006) own and operate City Bird, 460 W. Canfield (and Nest next door) in Detroit, which feature Michigan-themed cards, jewelry, and things. They are also the editors (with Rob Linn) of Belle Isle to 8 Mile: An Insider’s Guide to Detroit (2012).
Joy Roye (RC 2000) is records and information manager at First Nations Summit Society in Vancouver, and was management archivist and information officer at Simon Fraser U. She has been a guest lecturer for individual archival classes at U British Columbia. Joy has an MPhil from U Cape Town (2003) and an MA in archival studies from U British Columbia. She presented a paper at the Western Regional Conference of ARMA Canada in October 2022. (ARMA was originally an acronym for Association of Records Managers and Administrators).
Roy J. Harnish (RC 2001) has been a software developer at Curia since 2017. Previously he was an image processing programmer at the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF. Roy has an MS in Physics from SF State. His contributions to scientific articles include “Automatic Labeling of Special Diagnostic Mammography View from Images and DICOM Headers,” in the Journal of Digital Imaging, 2018.
Mariah Cherem (RC 2001) works as a production librarian at the Ann Arbor District Library, spending a day or two doing “on-desk/reference” and the rest of her work time on projects and events, including A2 Synth Expo, Record Store Day, and in the summer working on the library’s annual Summer Game. She has an MA in Arts Administration and an MSI (2012) from U-M’s School of Information. She says she thought she was going to “do health informatics or work on online communities,” but enjoyed her conversations with library students and saw how her arts administration background could fit with “forward-thinking libraries.”
Roy J. Harnish (RC 2001) has been a software developer at Curia since 2017. Previously he was an image processing programmer at the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at UCSF. Roy has an MS in Physics from SF State. His contributions to scientific articles include “Automatic Labeling of Special Diagnostic Mammography View from Images and DICOM Headers,” in the Journal of Digital Imaging, 2018.
Staci Perryman-Clark (RC 2004) is Director of Intercultural and Anthropological Studies and Associate Professor of English at Western Michigan. She has an MA in English from Eastern Michigan (2006) and a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing from Michigan State (2010). She has published a book, Afrocentric Teacher-Research: Rethinking Appropriateness and Inclusion (Peter Lang Publishing (2013) and has received national honors from Michigan State, the Ford Foundation and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. She won a 2018 College of Arts and Sciences Diversity and Inclusion Award.
Haley Pierson-Cox (RC 2005) spends her days “making stuff, writing about making stuff, and getting hired by other people to write about making stuff.” She is the “creative” behind Red-Handled Scissors in Brattleboro VT, and is a knitter, sewer, and cross-stitcher, among other things. Her books include Cross Stitch the Golden Girls (2019) and Improper Cross-Stitch (2018). More about Haley at redhandedscissors.com.
Jeremy Stoll (RC 2005) is Department Head of Science and Social Science, Assistant Professor, and Director of Liberal Arts, Comics and Narrative Practice, Science and Social Science at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus OH. He has a PhD in Folklore from Indiana U. Jeremy’s most recent book is The Comics World: Comics, Graphic Novels, and Their Publics (edited with Benjamin Woo), and the blogpost/presentation Re-Worldling Comics: A Call for Reflexive Scholars (as part of the 2021 International Comic Arts Forum). Articles have appeared in the International Journal of Comic Art; Marg, A Magazine of the Arts; Cultures of Comics Work; and the Routledge Companion to Comics, and other pieces have appeared in Rainbow Reflections: Body Image Comics by Queer Men, The Columbus Scribbler, Blocked: Stories from the World of Online Dating, and DOGS! An Anthology (co-edited with Vidyun Sabhaney).
Caitlin Brown (RC 2006) is the founder of Mindful Detroit, which provides individualized yoga therapy. A Detroit native, Caitlin also has an MSW from Wayne State, where she is an adjunct social work faculty member.
Krista Lanphier (RC 2006) is a financial customer associate at Fidelity Investments (since Nov 2022) and a self-employed Ayurveda practitioner (since Feb 2020). She has worked as a customer service representative at We Energies (Milwaukee), an online instructor, editor, and Ayurveda practitioner at Narayana Ayurveda Academy, and editor, associate editor, and copy editor at DCI Marketing (Wisconsin), the United Ways of Southeastern Michigan and Racine (WI), and Trusted Media Brands, Inc. (Wisconsin). Krista has an Associates degree in occupational studies and culinary arts from the Culinary Institute of America (2000), and is the author of The Ultimate Taste of Home Chicken Cookbook and Taste of Home Best of Quick Cooking, both 2009.
Emily C. Haan (RC 2007) is an Associate at Littler (Employment and Labor Law Solutions Worldwide) in New York City, and was previously an attorney at Transgender Legal Defense and Education. Her legal publications include “Anybody’s Daughter? How Racial Stereotypes Prevent Domestic Child Prostitutes of Color from Being Perceived as Victims,” in 30 Children’s Legal Rights Journal (Loyola, 2011). She earned her JD from UCLA in 2010.
Olga Semenova (RC 2008) is supervisor of healthcare navigation at Jewish Family Service of Metropolitan Detroit. She has a MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from U-M (2010). She has been a teen programs counsel member and director of the Agree Outpost camp at Tamarack Camps, a summer camp in Bloomfield Hills MI.
Elise Kristine Aikman (RC 2012) is a licensed massage therapist (LMT) in private practice in Ann Arbor. She earned a certificate in therapeutic massage from the Ann Arbor Institute of Massage Therapy in 2015. Elise wrote a viewpoint published in the Michigan Daily, and won the J. Eldersveld Writing Contest in 2010 (named after a former Ann Arbor mayor, the father of RC writing alum Lucy Murphy). She was contributing writer at The Michigan Journal of International Affairs in 2012.
Rachel Leah Gerson (RC 2015) is a “metaphysical practitioner and psychic educator.” She created Doorway to Self, where she offers sessions to integrate counseling with psychic education and tools. She is also a clinical counselor at Brighter Hope Counseling in Ann Arbor. She has a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and Marriage and Family Therapy from Western Michigan (2020). More about Rachel and Doorway to Self at her podcast: apple.co/3yRc7pT
Erin A. Kirkland (RC 2014) is a photographer and writer. She learned to be a photojournalist at the Michigan Daily. She has worked for the Flint Journal, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, and Rolling Stone. She is a coach at the Detroit Writing Room. More about Erin at erinkirklandphotography.com
