The IWCA Board recently voted for the 2009-2011 Executive Officers.

Running for Vice President were Valerie Balester (Texas A&M University; profile at http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/content/view/127/215/), Steve Sherwood (Texas Christian University; profile at http://www.wrt.tcu.edu/profiles.html#sherwood), and Nathalie Singh-Corcoran (West Virginia University; profile at http://english.wvu.edu/faculty_and_staff/faculty/singh_corcoran_nathalie ).

Running unopposed for Secretary was Kerri Jordan (Mississippi College; profile at http://www.mc.edu/campus/users/jordan01/).

Incumbent Treasurer Harry Denny (St. Johns University; profile at http://www.stjohns.edu/academics/undergraduate/liberalarts/departments/english/faculty/denny/denny.stj) ran for a second term.

The Results:

Vice President for 2009-2011 (will become President after Roberta Kjesrud for the 2011-2013 term and Past President for the 2013-2015 term): Nathalie Singh-Corcoran. Secretary: Kerri Jordan. Treasurer: Harry Denny. Statements of intent, which were part of the IWCA Executive Committee ballot, are copied below:

Vice President Nathalie Singh-Corcoran

I have been involved in writing centers for the past thirteen years.  In 1996, I began working as an undergraduate peer tutor.  In graduate school, I was an assistant coordinator of a writing center, and when I attained my Ph.D., I accepted a position as a writing center director.

My professional academic career began at writing center, and it will end there.  I’m a lifer.  Because of my commitment to writing centers and my long-time involvement with the International Writing Centers Association (past board member, past Grants Committee chair, and current member of the Finance Committee) and the National Conference on Peer Tutors in Writing (board member), I have decided to run for Vice President of the IWCA.

As Vice President and future President, I would continue to support important initiatives related to diversity and anti-racism.  I would work toward encouraging more writing center research and scholarship in those areas and others.  More specifically, I would seek existing models we might adapt to facilitate our scholarship.  For example, the National Writing Project supports an on-line platform where members can submit their work and give and receive feedback.  I would also like to strengthen the connection between high school and college/university writing centers.  One way to build such connections might be through on-line forums. Finally, I would form committees to update/revise the various IWCA position statements such as the “Writing Center Concept.”

Secretary Kerri Jordan
My writing center experience began twelve years ago, when I tutored writing as a graduate student in our campus center. I have been engaged in writing center work ever since. I am a founding member and officer of the Mississippi Writing Centers Association; I served as Secretary of the Southeastern Writing Centers Association from 2006-2008; and I currently serve as Vice President of the SWCA. I have attended the IWCA Summer Institute and have consistently presented at local and regional writing center conferences, as well as at IWCA.

My desire to serve as Secretary of the IWCA stems mainly from my belief that I will be useful to the organization. Because of my experience in a variety of writing center contexts, I bring to the IWCA Board a solid grasp of the IWCA’s importance to local and regional organizations, as well as to individuals and individual centers. I also bring a desire to help the IWCA effectively and ethically negotiate our need to promote substantial, rigorous research and scholarship with our need to continue to encourage and support newcomers in our community. I am especially interested in writing center assessment, writing center research methodology, and potential connections between writing center research and writing programs.

Treasurer Harry Denny
Denny has served one term as treasurer for IWCA.   Denny has experience with budgets, finance committee meetings, online banking, and developing long range plans for budget allocations.

Congratulations to our new Executive Officers! In November 2009 at the NCTE convention, Nathalie and Kerri will take office and join Harry, incoming President Roberta Kjesrud (Western Washington University) and Past President Michele Eodice (University of Oklahoma) as the 2009-2011 Executive Officers of IWCA.

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Many thanks to Valerie Balester and Steve Sherwood, whose statements of intent are copied below.

Valerie Balester

I have always advocated advancing the status of writing centers because I understand they are an effective means of instruction as well as a prime site for advocacy of student-centered learning and a culture of writing on campus. At Texas A&M, I have had the opportunity to build a center that promotes these ideals (an ongoing project). On a recent visit to Qatar, I spoke with writing center directors in Education City, and learned that they face many of the same issues of identity within the institutional structure as we face in the States. We have a powerful and effective resource in writing centers, and although we have improved a great deal in making ourselves visible and recognized since I began tutoring at Penn State in 1986, we can do more.

Areas that I would like to advance are (1) national and international membership, (2) strengthening of regionals, and (3) access to resources that help us make arguments for funding and support (e.g., the Writing Centers Research Project). At a time when budgets are threatened, we need leadership that will guide us in protecting our resources and even expanding. We understand efficiency and quality, and we can demonstrate that.

Steve Sherwood

Last fall, I told my boss that my writing consultants do the most important work done anywhere on campus.  She smiled skeptically.  “Okay, I’m biased,” I said, “but don’t you want the person who runs the writing center to feel that way?”

The thing is, I really do believe what I told her, not only about the writing center I direct but about all the others in secondary schools, colleges, universities, and other locations around the globe.  We help writers blossom, and the International Writing Centers Association is at the heart of this vital movement to foster creative and academic growth—one person at a time.    As vice president of IWCA, I would seek to support this work wherever it occurs and advocate for both the creation of new writing centers and for an awareness on the part of sometimes skeptical administrators of writing consultants’ contributions to the intellectual life of their institutions.   I would also serve an apprenticeship under Clint, Michele, and Roberta in order to gain the knowledge and skills needed to eventually step into the presidency.

If elected, I’ll gladly serve as vice president.  Otherwise, I’ll gladly continue to serve as an at-large member of the board.

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The election process for IWCA Executive Officers is included in the IWCA Constitution, Article III.B, at http://writingcenters.org/about/constitution/ . Descriptions of the duties of President, Vice President, Past President, Secretary, and Treasurer are included on the IWCA Governance page at http://writingcenters.org/governance/ (scroll down to “Duties of Executive Board Members”).