Leadership

Kelsey Allen, Co-Chair

Meals on Wheels People

Kelsey Allen (she/her) has over 13 years of experience writing for magazines, marketing agencies, and mission-driven organizations. She’s put her words to work for MIZZOU magazine, Icing Smiles, University of Oregon, Recovery Campus magazine, and more. As the communications specialist at Meals on Wheels People, she is responsible for creating, organizing, editing, proofing, and publishing internal and external communications. She is also currently enrolled in the 800-hour trauma-focused somatic breathwork certification program through Breathwork for Recovery. She became a creative writing workshop facilitator with Write Around Portland in 2017 and joined the board in 2023.

Sara Guest, Co-Chair

Community Volunteer

Sara Guest (she/her) is a longtime facilitator and former Write Around Portland staffer who has taught and facilitated workshops with Literary Arts, Soapstone, PNCA and the Northwest Narrative Medicine Collaborative. She has lived in Portland since 2004 and is an avid reader, poet, editor, creative and community-builder who is a Senior Fellow with American Leadership Forum of Oregon, sits on the Write Around board and the Development Council for Literary Arts and works as Communications Advisor to Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson. 

Demetra Fields, Secretary

The Standard

Demetra brings 20 years of experience in the insurance industry, with the past six years dedicated to education and training focusing on technical literacy to enhance productivity. Passionate about empowering people to reach their fullest potential, she believes in the power of storytelling and self-expression. Demetra began volunteering with Write Around Portland in 2022 and is excited to further its mission as a board member, helping others find and share their voices through writing.

Michael Montoya, Treasurer

Skeo Solutions

Michael Montoya (he/him) has over 30 years of experience in management, community engagement and technical assistance with diverse professionals and communities. He has worked in the areas of housing, education, health and food security.  He has worked in an array of community based organizations, in city government and as a tenured professor in higher education. During his academic career, Michael provided campus and community intellectual leadership, service, teaching and scholarly productivity in the areas of community engagement, participatory and collaborative research, strategic policy development, equity, health, science, and technology innovation.  Michael holds a PhD from Stanford, a BA from Lewis & Clark College, and began his first generation academic journey at Portland Community College.  Michael currently works for Skeo Solutions, Inc. to advance Environmental Justice with communities and government agencies across the US.

Grace Badik

Oregon Law Center

Originally from Ohio, Grace Badik (she/her) has been in Portland since 2013 and worked for various nonprofits mainly focused on housing and homelessness services before attending law school. Following graduation from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2023, Grace became a staff attorney with the Oregon Law Center, providing free civil legal services to low-income Oregonians. Her professional experiences have led to advocating in Oregon’s state capital and at our nation’s capital, walking the wet and snowy roads of Alaska, sharing coffee and conversation with houseless individuals, and working in legal clinics on the Oregon coast. These experiences have honed her passion for housing, economic, and social justice.

Curtis Daniels

NW natural

Curtis Daniels (he/him) grew up in Pacific Northwest and served in the U.S. Army infantry. He attended school at Phoenix College, studied fire science, and became an EMT. After working professionally as a firefighter EMT for 8 years, he became a health and safety professional.  Curtis has been working as a health and safety professional for 24 years, and currently work for NW Natural Gas as a regional safety manager overseeing ergonomics, training, and driver safety programs. He returned to college about 10 years ago and studied professional communications at Southern New Hampshire University.   

Renee Kim

Community Volunteer

Renee Kim (she/her) is the owner of G.Y.S.T. (Get Your Self Together) Coaching and is a Life coach, educator, and activist. She has over 30 years’ experience working in government, non-profit, and higher education organizations. For much of her journey, she has been an advocate for domestic and sexual assault survivors. Renee has facilitated national and statewide affinity and employee resource groups for BIPOC communities. In addition, she was the state administrator for the federal STOP Violence Against Women Act and the Edward Byrne Memorial grant programs, faculty for the School of Social Work and the TRIO program at Portland State University and, a counselor at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility. She is also a proud APAWLI Fellow from the Center for Asian Pacific American Women. She enjoys helping people transform their lives into something they may have never imagined. She also enjoys reading People magazine, arranging flowers, admiring other people’s pets, and tidying up cluttered and disorganized spaces.

Hana Layson

Portland Art Museum

Hana Layson (she/her) is Head of Youth and Educator Programs at the Portland Art Museum. She leads the college guide and school tour programs, teacher professional development, and education partnerships and works to make the museum an inclusive, community-centered place. Hana has taught at the Newberry Library, Northern Illinois University, and the Illinois Humanities Council’s Odyssey Project. She earned a PhD in English at the University of Chicago and a BA at Kenyon College. Hana became a Write Around Portland facilitator in 2014 and has been an avid supporter and community partner ever since. She’s thrilled to join the Write Around Portland Board. Hana also serves on Portland’s Arts Education and Access Fund (aka Arts Tax) Oversight Committee. When not working or volunteering, she’s gardening, hiking, doing yoga, traveling, sometimes cooking with her family (Adam, Jacob, Sasha), or more likely lying on the sofa with a book and our dog Monk.

Johanna Magaña

Nike

Johanna (she/her) is a marketing operations expert with more than ten years of valuable experience. She has a remarkable talent for bringing people together to inspire positive change, and she is deeply committed to streamlining processes and achieving objectives. In addition to her professional achievements, she is a dedicated mentor who actively advocates for diversity within her industry. Johanna has a passion for creating a supportive community and placing a strong emphasis on mental health. Her involvement in Writing Around Portland reflects her commitment to meaningful engagement and contributing to a nurturing environment.

Julie Ramos

Community Volunteer

With more than 30 years of experience in the human services field, Julie (she/her) has dedicated her career to supporting individuals and families across the lifespan—from early childhood through older adulthood—in settings that include homes, schools, community programs, and hospital environments. Julie’s professional journey has included roles as a one‑to‑one therapist, consultant, and manager, each contributing to a broad and versatile skill set grounded in empathy, collaboration, and evidence‑informed practice. She is deeply committed to strengthening the well‑being of people and to fostering organizational cultures that value diversity, promote equity, and respond effectively to the evolving needs of both clients and employees. Her work is driven by a belief in the power of inclusive, responsive systems to create meaningful and lasting change.

Chris McDonald, Ex-Officio

Write Around Portland

Chris (he/him) has been Executive Director of Write Around Portland since 2022. Prior to joining Write Around, Chris worked at DoveLewis, Our House of Portland, the Oregon Zoo, and Ronald McDonald House Charities. He holds a Bachelors degree in English and Creative Writing from UC Davis and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Oregon State University, where he also taught English composition and creative writing. He has also taught composition courses at Chemeketa Community College. Before joining the staff, he had been a Write Around facilitator since 2014. He writes under the name Chris Yamashita and his fiction has been published in Weave, Your Impossible Voice, and Compose Journal. Learn about the rest of our staff here.

Brian Benson

Brian Benson is the author of GOING SOMEWHERE and co-author, with Richard Brown, of THIS IS NOT FOR YOU. Originally from a Wisconsin town with three bars and no stoplights, Brian now lives here in Portland, where he teaches at the Attic Institute. His essays have been published or are forthcoming in Fourth Genre, Pithead Chapel, Booth, X-R-A-Y, and Tahoma Literary Review, among many other journals.

Erica Berry

Erica Berry is a writer and teacher based in her hometown of Portland, Oregon. Her essays, which are often about the intersection of inner worlds and outer environments, appear in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Emergence, and Orion, where she is a contributing editor. She is the author of Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear, which won the 2024 Oregon Book Award, and Bodies In Heat: Love in a Changing Climate, forthcoming from Flatiron (US) and Faber (UK). A  2026 Mark and Melody Teppola Presidential Distinguished Visiting Professor at Willamette University, she is the winner of a 2025 Spark Award from the Miller Foundation and 2025 Career Achievement Award from Literary Arts. 

Omar El Akkad

Omar El Akkad is an author and journalist. His debut novel, American War, is an international bestseller and has been translated into thirteen languages. It was also selected by the BBC as one of 100 novels that changed our world. His second novel, What Strange Paradise, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Association Award, the Oregon Book Award for fiction, and was shortlisted for the Aspen Words Literary Prize. His debut nonfiction book, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, won the Palestine Book Award, The Libby Book Award, The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award, The American Booksellers Association Indies Choice Book Award, and the National Book Award. Omar lives near Portland, Oregon, where is on the faculty of the Pacific University MFA in Writing program.

Kate Gray

Kate Gray feels just plain grateful to be living on the Olympic Peninsula, tending land within the traditional territory of the Coast Salish peoples, to live with her partner and two feisty dogs, to have taught, coached writing, published two chapbooks, two full-length poetry books, and a novel.  

Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka

Joon Ae Haworth-Kaufka (she/they) is a Korean adoptee writer, educator, and community organizer who believes stories can build the world she wants to live in. She loves co-creating writing spaces that change what’s outside (the political, the structural) and help shift what’s inside: how we heal, imagine, and connect. She is a co-founder of the Constellation Reading Series and VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Community. Their work has appeared in various literary and scholarly journals, and they’ve been honored with an Oregon Humanities storytelling fellowship and an AAJA award. When not deep into a project, Joon Ae can be found dancing, wearing floral muu-muus, eating noodles, spoiling her dogs, being grateful for friends and family, and connecting with her friend-sister Tamara Abu Dayer and other loved ones in Gaza, Palestine.

April Henry

Edgar-award winning and New York Times bestselling author April Henry knows how to kill you in a two-dozen different ways. She makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters. There was one detour on April’s path to destruction:  when she was 12 she sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to noted children’s author Roald Dahl. He liked it so much he showed it to his editor, who then published it in Puffin Post, a British children’s magazine. By the time April was in her 30s, she had started writing about hit men, kidnappers, and drug dealers. She has published 32 mysteries and thrillers for teens and adults, with more to come. She is known for meticulously researching her novels to get the details right. 

Sara Jaffe

Sara Jaffe is the author, most recently, of HURRICANE ENVY, a collection of stories out on Rescue Press, as well as the novel DRYLAND. She writes, teaches, edits, parents, and plays music in Portland OR.

Sherri Levine

Sherri Levine is a poet, educator, mental health advocate, and squirrel lover who lives in Portland, Oregon. She spent her career teaching English to immigrants and refugees at colleges and universities. She is the recent recipient of the Patricia Ruth Banta Award which recognizes an individual or group who has offered a significant contribution to Oregon poetry by the Oregon Poetry Association. She has won numerous poetry awards and has written and edited three poetry books and poetry anthologies: Stealing Flowers from the Neighbors, A Joy to See, and I Remember Not Sleeping, which is dedicated to those dealing with mental illness or know someone who is suffering from one. Sherri facilitates writing groups locally and nationally for DBSA (Depression & Bipolar Support Alliance). Sherri also offers workshops in person and virtually on how writing is an important tool for mental health. She believes writing saves lives, as it has continued to save hers. She teaches creative writing and poetry classes at an arts center. She has a new anthology forthcoming by Fernwood Press: Waking in the Blue: Poetry & Essays on Mental Health. Please visit her at sherrilevine.com.

Astra Lincoln

Astra Lincoln’s work has been published in magazines, newspapers, and literary journals including LA Times, High Country News, Baffler, and dozens of other outlets. A 2024 Oregon Humanities fellow, Astra has been awarded grants from the Oregon Arts Commission, Economic Hardship Reporting Program, and American Alpine Club; and residencies at the Banff Centre, Centrum, and elsewhere. She is a contributing writer for Summit Journal and Magic Canoe.

Ami Patel

Ami Patel (she/her) is a 2023/2024 IPRC re/source resident and a 2024 Oregon Literary Fellow in Poetry. Ami’s prints and poetry were a part of the 2025 MAC Gallery exhibit “Shift Work.” Her poems can be found online and in print, including Beloit Poetry Journal, Tinderbox, and the anthology We The Gathered Heat: Asian American Pacific Islander Poetry, Performance, and Spoken Word. You can find her at amipatelwrites.com.

Paulann Petersen

Paulann Petersen, Oregon Poet Laureate Emerita, has eight full-length books of poetry, most recently My Kindred from Salmon Poetry of Ireland. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, she’s the recipient of the Holbrook Award from Literary Arts, and Willamette Writers honored her with a Distinguished Northwest Writer Award. She’s given readings and workshops in hundreds of spots, ranging from Powell’s City of Books to Osmania University in India, from Ross Ragland Theater in Klamath Falls to The Museum Hotel in Central Turkey, from Fishtrap House in Enterprise to the tiny Agness Library on the Rogue River. The Latvian composer Eriks Esenvalds chose a poem from her book The Voluptuary as the lyric for a choral composition that became part of the repertoire of the Choir at Trinity College, Cambridge. Recently, one of her poems was featured on American Public Media’s The Slowdown.

Armin Tolentino

Armin Tolentino earned his MFA at Rutgers University in Newark. He is the author of We Meant to Bring It Home Alive (Alternating Current Press, 2019), and his poetry has appeared in Hyphen Magazine, Arsenic Lobster, The Raven Chronicles, and elsewhere. Originally from Lincoln Park, New Jersey, he now lives in Vancouver, Washington with his wife and her three chinchillas. He’s an Oregon Literary Arts Fellowship recipient, an avid (albeit usually unsuccessful) fisherman, and hopes one day to earn a Guiness Record for World’s Loudest Clap.