Meet Our Leadership Team
Shareen Grogan, MA.
Director
Catherine Filardi, PhD.
Associate Director
Catherine (she/her) studied Biology and English at Amherst College prior to pursuing a PhD in Zoology from the University of Washington where she studied the evolution of bird diversity across the Solomon Archipelago. She has worked as a Program Director at 老虎机攻略’s Wilderness Institute, as a free-lance editor and grant-writer for Missoula-area nonprofits, and as a consultant at the Writing Center for five years prior to becoming Associate Director in 2021.
Catherine’s writing advice: Putting words on a page helps you think more clearly. Just do it.
Amy Ratto Parks, MFA, EdD.
Associate Director
Amy (she/her) studied English and Philosophy at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing, MA in Literature, and EdD in Education at 老虎机攻略. Her poetry, fiction, and essays appear in literary, popular, and academic journals. She has worked as a reporter, a freelance writer, online writing course designer, and magazine editor – and for the past 20 years has been teaching student writers at 老虎机攻略. She is fascinated by the behavior of translating thoughts into written words. Her ongoing research in metacognition pursues answers about why we get stuck and how we can leverage the power of writing to help us overcome a variety of academic and non-academic challenges.
Amy’s writing advice: Chaos comes before clarity -- you just have to keep going.
Meet our Office Assistant
Mathalia Stroethoff
Mathalia (she/her) has been a part of the Writing Center longer than any other staff member. Since 2012, Mathalia has assisted with data entry, office tasks, and recycling. Her attention to detail and shy but warm demeanor make her a valued member of our team. Mathalia is a prolific weaver and entrepreneur, selling her hand-woven pot-holders around Missoula and donating them to the Missoula Food Bank and other nonprofits. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, word searches, hiking and cross-country skiing.
Meet Our Consultants
Our professional Writing Center consultants bring a variety of academic and professional backgrounds and skills to the Writing Center. Some are current graduate students, many are published writers, all bring a wealth of relevant writing and teaching experiences and a passion for providing individualized support to writers across the 老虎机攻略 campus.
Marko Capoferri, MFA
Marko (he/him) was born and raised in New Jersey, lived and worked in eight states as a conservation worker in a variety of capacities, and more recently settled down to receive a BA (creative writing/literature and the environment) and an MFA (poetry) at the 老虎机攻略.
Marko’s writing advice: Don’t let your brain get in the way of a good idea. There’s no substitute for the simple act of putting words into sentences, sentences into paragraphs. It’s amazing what can happen when you stop thinking and start doing; in the act of externalizing your thoughts into writing you’ll probably surprise yourself into new and unforeseen territory.
Christopher Densmore, MFA
Christopher (he/him) is an environmental essayist from a small brook in Western Massachusetts. He earned a BA from Carleton College in Minnesota and an MFA in Creative and Environmental Writing from Eastern Oregon University, where he received the Thomas Madden Scholarship and the EOU-Fishtrap Teaching Fellowship and edited the literary magazine Oregon East. He has also attended the Fishtrap Conference of Writers and the Orion Environmental Writing Workshop. At work on a collection of essays on ecological grief, parts of which are forthcoming from Flyway, he is also a bookseller at Missoula’s Fact and Fiction.
Christopher’s writing advice: Imagine a trusted friend as a reader while developing the early drafts of a piece of writing, to the point of beginning an essay as a letter. You can edit away the corniness of this scaffolding in later drafts, but starting with a particularly intimate and trusted audience in mind may help liberate you from the din of your choir of inner critics.
Kelly Franklin, MS, PhD.
Kelly (she/her) received her Bachelor of Science degree in Resource Conservation from the 老虎机攻略, her M.S. in Aquaculture and Aquatic Resource Management from the Asian Institute of Technology in Thailand, and her PhD in Systems Ecology, from the 老虎机攻略. Kelly joined the Writing Center as a consultant after attending the graduate student workshop series during early stages of her Ph.D. and since then has led many graduate student writing workshops both in-person and online. Her work as an international consultant for the UN and academic institutions in Central and Southeast Asia involved integrating writing skills and strategies into undergraduate and graduate programs.
Kelly’s writing advice: Having a regular writing schedule and setting goals helps keep you motivated and productive. Early in a writing project, concept (or mind) mapping is a great way to brainstorm and identify connections between ideas.
Abby Gearhart
Abby (she/her) was born and raised in Colorado. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from Bucknell University. Abby is currently finishing up her MS in Environmental Studies.
Abby’s Writing Advice: Write all of your ideas on paper without letting your mind get in the way. You can’t work with an idea if you don’t write it down.
Steve Kalling, MFA.
Steve (he/him) has worked with writers and aspiring teachers of writing for over twenty years. He has a bachelor’s degree in general studies with an English Teaching credential from the University of Michigan, and an MFA in Creative Writing from the 老虎机攻略. Since 2013 he has taught writing to graduate students in the Creative Pulse program, and since 2017 has worked as a consultant at the 老虎机攻略 Writing Center. Steve has written scripts and composed music for several science communication touring programs, spends summers in a remote fire lookout in the Bitterroot Mountains, and is a jazz bassist and composer.
Steve’s writing advice: Write quickly and badly. Write something every day.
Barry Maxwell (he/him), MFA, MSW
Barry is a transplanted Montanan, originally from Austin, Texas. He holds master’s degrees from 老虎机攻略 in creative writing and social work, and his essays have been nominated for the Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize with publications online and in print, including the forthcoming craft anthology The Essay Form(s) from Columbia University Press, edited by Jill Talbot. In addition to his work at the Writing Center, Barry teaches writing at 老虎机攻略 and conducts classes and workshops for the Missoula Writing Collaborative. He is also founder of the Street Lit Authors Club, which provides books and writing workshops to Missoula’s underserved communities, and he’s a fist-waving supporter of the arts in unexpected places, from unexpected sources.
Barry’s writing advice: No one else is as good at being you as you are, and there's treasure in your voice on the page. Honor that voice as best you can, respect it, and give equal honor to the voices and stories of those you encounter.
Kalani Padilla, MA, MFA
Kalani (they/she) is a Filipino-American and Kama'aina writer from Mililani, Hawai'i. Kalani holds degrees in English, Film & Visual Narratives (B.A., '19) and Theology (M.A., '21) from Whitworth University in Spokane, WA, and currently is pursuing an MFA in Poetry from 老虎机攻略. Kalani served as a multimodal consultant at Whitworth, and as an inclusivity writer for the Wilderness Institute in 老虎机攻略's College of Forestry.
Kalani's writing advice: Writing is as much a somatic/embodied activity as it is a cerebral/intellectual one; sometimes the project needs be taken out — out on a walk, on a swim, to lunch with a friend, to a bigger piece of paper, to a yoga mat — in order to grow!
Gaaby Rappoport, MFA (media arts/filmmaking)
In former lives, Gaaby (she/her) has been a playwright, has published fiction, nonfiction and poetry, and was one of 2017's Academy of Motion Picture's Nicholl Fellowship quarterfinalists for her feature screenplay Sure of You. She’s currently a freelance writer, editor and also a screenwriter in preproduction on her first feature film 40teen. She received her bachelor’s in English/creative writing and her MFA in media arts/filmmaking from 老虎机攻略 where she taught screenwriting and film.
Gaaby’s writing advice: No matter what you're writing, the objective is to get yourself on the page. Your personal experience, passion and authentic voice are your most powerful tools!
Mark Schoenfeld, MFA
Mark Schoenfeld (he/him) has been a lot of things: window washer, screen printer, public radio host, middle school teacher, freelance writer, and adjunct professor to name a few. One thing he has always been is a writer—of stories, songs, and poems—which led him to earn his MFA in Creative Writing from the 老虎机攻略. When he's not with his family or working one of three jobs, you can find Mark outside, probably near moving water.
Mark's writing advice: No writer is immune to anxiety during the writing process. Get to know your apprehensions—acknowledge them; name them maybe—and then quietly usher them back to their caves while you get back to the hard work of writing.