Join our Executive Board as an At-Large board member!
Nominations (or self-nominations) due November 26, 2024
We have an unexpected opening on the Midwest Writing Centers Association (MWCA) Executive Board and are now holding a special election for an at-large board member, with a term ending in August 2026.
This is an especially exciting time to join the MWCA board, as we gear up for our 2025 conference at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park, MN.
We understand that everyone is stressed right now and it might be hard to think about adding yet another commitment to your schedule. Just know that the commitment level for an at-large member starts low and can expand as you want it to. Being on the board is also a nice way to make some new professional connections in the region.
As an at-large member of the MWCA board, you would regularly attend monthly hour-long meetings and help out with projects that come up on an as-needed basis. An at-large member can then transition into a leadership role during their term.
The MWCA Executive board especially encourages graduate students, colleagues of color, and colleagues from underrepresented parts of our region such as the UP of Michigan, Kansas and the Dakotas to apply as we work to make our equity and anti-racist commitments part of our governance and systems.
We also welcome applicants who are newer to our profession. Previous experience and/or prior membership in MWCA is not required for board service. There is no need to be a member when you apply.
We hope to see nominations from colleagues who may have been nominated in past elections. Each election is shaped by our changing membership, and new constituents vote each time. If you have run in the past and have not been elected, please consider running again!
Why serve on the MWCA executive board?
We will be accepting nominations through Tuesday, November 26. If you or someone you know would like to join the board, please share this information!
To make a nomination, please send an email expressing your interest and include a 150-word bio or statement about yourself and your interests to Vice Chair Jennifer Park (kangjenn@grinnell.edu). If you are nominating someone else, please send their name/email and I will reach out to them individually for their bio.
Not sure what to include in your bio? Check out the sample below! Please feel free to email me with any questions.
Once we have the bios, we will send them out to our membership for a voting period of about 1 week in early December.
Selected bios from our previous elections:
Sample 1
XXXXX directs the writing center at XXXXX, where she works one-on-one with student writers, teaches the writing tutor education class, and helps support and educate faculty teaching writing-intensive courses. She has presented at IWCA, MWCA, 4Cs, and the Watson conference on writing center-related topics ranging from why theory matters in tutor education courses to why students like using the word “flow” to talk about writing. Before joining XXXXX, she was the writing center director and an associate professor of English at the XXXXX. She earned her PhD at the XXXXX, where she worked as a writing center instructor and as assistant director of the Writing Fellows program. XXXXX would bring to the Board a keen interest in helping to develop and manage the MWCA and conference websites and a commitment to both maintaining the MWCA conference and exploring how MWCA can best connect and support members in non-conference years.
Sample 2
XXXXX is an innovative educator, writing center supervisor, and founder of two writing center community organizations. In her 9+ years of writing center experience, she progressed into a supervisory role, first at XXXXXX and currently at XXXXX. She holds a B.A. in English from XXXXX and an M.A. in English with a specialization in the Teaching of Writing from XXXXX. During her time at XXXXX, she has developed online tutoring services, such as synchronous tutoring, increased campus-wide participation and engagement through the extended orientation model, and cultivated the professional development of writing center tutors. XXXXX has been active in revitalizing the XXXXXX, a cohort of St. Louis writing center professionals, and recently hosted the second annual GWCA conference at her community college, where many of her tutors presented on tutoring strategies. She has presented at IWCA, MWCA, and GWCA conferences on motivation of student writers, the learning commons, and writing across the curriculum. In a recent publication, “XXXXX”, she shows how to apply writing center pedagogy into the classroom. Seeing the transformative impact of writing centers encouraged XXXXX to start a nonprofit organization, XXXXX, which integrates writing programs and writing centers in local St. Louis public schools. She continues to advance the writing center discipline through her work at XXXXX, nonprofit organizations, and her publications.
Sample 3
XXXXXX is the Assistant Director of XXXXX. She holds an M.A. in English from XXXXX and a B.A. in English and Medieval Studies from XXXXX. As a medievalist in the writing center, her research in literary studies is focused in the Middle Ages, particularly in the work of Geoffrey Chaucer and Early British literature and culture. However, at the heart of her work is the instruction of writing, the significance of how we talk about writing, and first-generation college student experiences. As the Assistant Director, XXXXX has contributed to the campus-wide efforts to help first-gens succeed by collaborating with campus partners to pilot workshops and outreach events. Since writing center publications about working-class and first-generation students are largely anecdotal and sparse, XXXXX is actively working to make concentrated efforts to research and publish on how centers play a key role in positively informing XXXXX programming and inclusion initiatives. Writing centers serve as the nexus of all things writing-related on campus. XXXXX's work in developing an embedded tutoring program at XXXXX, mentorship of undergraduate research, and innovative vision of how centers can become more inclusive spaces showcase her interest and investment in a long-term, sustainable future for the center.