Over the years, many of our lecturers and fellows have moved on from PWR, embracing new opportunities and taking on new roles beyond the Farm. We reached out to some of our former colleagues who have left over the last three years to see what they're up to now. Read below to learn more!
Julia Bleakney
Hume Center Director, 2012-2016, PWR Lecturer, 2008-2012.
Julia writes: "I left PWR in July 2016 to direct the Writing Center in the Center for Writing Excellence at Elon University, North Carolina, where I am also an Assistant Professor of English. At Elon, I’ve recently also taken on a three-year position as co-chair of the 2019-2021 research seminar on Writing Beyond the University: Fostering Writers’ Lifelong Learning and Agency. Beyond Elon, I’ve been involved with the International Writing Centers Association, serving as co-chair of the 2018 and 2019 Summer Institute. I’ve published articles in Southern Discourse (2018) and WLN: A Journal of Writing Center Scholarship (2019), and have two articles forthcoming this fall: one in Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, and another in Writing Center Journal, co-authored with Sarah Pittock. I miss my PWR colleagues but am enjoying North Carolina seasons, gardening and home ownership, and easy commutes."
Jakeya Caruthers
PWR Fellow, 2016-2017
Jakeya writes, "I'm currently Assistant Professor and Faculty Chair of African & African American Studies at Berea College in central Kentucky. Prior to this, I served as Interim Associate Director and Senior Research Fellow in African & African American Studies (AAAS) at Stanford. I am also reworking my dissertation into a set of scholarly articles while also developing a manuscript proposal for new work and dabbling in writing for arts publications. The transitions have been tough but rewarding, and I have found many ways to use my incredible training and experience in PWR in every teaching experience."
Maxe Crandall
PWR Lecturer, 2015-2017
Maxe writes, "In 2017 I moved to Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford where I've built 8 new classes including Transnational Sexualities, Queer Music, and Transgender Performance and Performativity. In my performance life in the Bay, I've started a Poets Theater series at the Stud in San Francisco and will be presenting new work as a commissioned artist for Signals from the West: Bay Area Artists in Conversation with Merce Cunningham at 100, Nov 8-9 at ODC Theater. My novel, The Nancy Reagan Collection, will be out winter 2020 from Futurepoem Books."
Brian Kim
PWR Fellow, 2016-2018
Brian writes, "Since leaving PWR in 2018, I have been Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania."
Angi Kortenhoven
PWR Fellow, 2016-2017
The short answer Angi provided was "I'm a freelance writer and language consultant and teach linguistics and written rhetoric to non-traditional high school students." However, we thought you might enjoy reading her longer response as well:
The past few years have brought major life changes, including an expanding list of challenges that sometimes becomes more than a little exasperating. I have life-limiting physical disabilities and I live (aka I'm stuck) in Trumplandia, Michigan due to family concerns. Given the limits of reality, I've mostly dropped out of academia. It's a bummer. And, well... That's the way it goes: We plan. We work hard. Shit happens. We find a way to press on (cuz tha's just how we do). Rinse, repeat. I should probably mention that I'm not your typical PWR alum: I'm nearly 50 years old, mother of four, and grandmother to two. So, I've been through a few cycles.
Just now, I'm doing freelance language and writing consultation (so, basically odd jobs including two jobs working with writers on authentic period representations of African American characters--a team of screen writers and a novelist). My bread and butter is (or more accurately, my crackers and margarine) is writing for an immigration lawyer in Grand Rapids, MI. I write case narratives, track down supporting research, and consult with clients, supporting them in giving shape to their own stories.
I have a few other things going on as well... I am getting serious about my poetry. After years of scribbling and sharing with my online community, I'm submitting individual poems for publication--nightmarishly slow, and I'm also putting out feelers for publishing a collection. Next, I've recently started a small book group called ALANA Reads, to encourage young women in my community (working class) to read ALANA women writers (ALANA: African-Latina-Asian-Native American). I was also just invited to write book reviews for religious publication--they're trying to get their readers (median age 65) to engage non-white authors. And I've decided to do it (for peanuts, of course, and for the love of the humans). And, lastly, I teach linguistics and written rhetoric to high school students who have not functioned well in traditional school settings (it's the peanuts and humans thing again).
All of it's pretty awesome (except for the part about under-earning!). :) I'm still keeping a toe in with linguistics as well--I'm a co-author on a paper soon to be published (Routledge) in a Festschrift for my dissertation advisor, John Rickford, and I'm finishing a paper on persona and sociolinguistic variation, building on research from my dissertation. I'd like to extend my work into black women's rhetoric, a new field for me.
Honestly, I didn't realize how much I have going on until I started writing. Not a conventional triumph story, but after writing it all down, I can't help but acknowledge the inevitability of triumph threaded through it. One way or another, I keep engaging my passions, despite the detours and roadblocks. And my experience with PWR plays no small part in this story. That's just the truth. I've always loved language (I'm a linguist by calling and by training). However, working with PWR sharpened my focus, enriched and empowered my passion for helping others understand the beauty and power in language. I know that sounds recklessly trite, but what can I say? I mean it.
I seem to be wearing many hats: a teacher, a poet, a writer, a consultant, a linguist, but in all of it the theme is fairly constant. I'm thinking I ought to write a mission statement... And maybe put up a website. :)
Lauren Oakes
PWR Fellow, 2016-2018
Lauren writes, “I learned a lot about crafting narrative and the writing process as Fellow in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric. On a daily basis, I put into practice what I absorbed from the PWR community and what I taught my students about science writing and environmental communications. I currently work with the Wildlife Conservation Society as a Conservation Scientist and Adaptation Specialist, helping local communities across the Americas respond the impacts of climate change. Recently, I published a series in Scientific American about some of the projects we support and efforts to adapt to climate change.
I wrote most of my first book, In Search of the Canary Tree (Basic Books 2018), while teaching in PWR. It was selected as the Second-Place Winner of the Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award, a Finalist for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Communication Award, and one of Science Friday’s Best Science Books of 2018. I’m currently working on a new narrative science book about local action and the potential of forests to help mitigate climate change.
As an Adjunct Professor in the Dept. of Earth System Sciences, I occasionally return to Stanford to teach workshops in science communications and environmental problem-solving. Check out www.leoakes.com for the latest on speaking events and workshops."
Alyssa O'Brien
PWR Lecturer, 2001-2016
Alyssa writes,"Greetings from Alyssa (writing in third person) who misses all of you and the warm camaraderie of PWR!
Since leaving Stanford for the Antipodes three years ago, Alyssa has launched a new career “down unda” as a professional training consultant, working for Fortune 50 corporations, ambitious female start-ups, and most recently in a permanent job at eHealth (improving healthcare through technology). Her new work offers her travel between the vibrant cities of Sydney and Melbourne as well as along picturesque roads of rural Australia on the edge of the Outback.
She didn’t even know that being a “trainer” was a career — and a very well paying one too — yet in Australia there is high demand for people who can develop content, prepare lesson plans, and deliver top-notch educational-type workshops. If it sounds familiar, that’s because it is! Training is teaching adults outside school, on subjects from personal elevator pitches to design-thinking-mvp-projects, from corporate gigs in “how to calm your busy” to community health sessions on how to respond to patients in distress.
Here she is (see photo) at a recent training session with paramedics who do the courageous work of saving lives everyday, after upskilling them in a newly developed eHealth technology system.
There have been adjustments: using single quotation marks, forsaking the Oxford comma, changing z to s for many verbs, as well as the greater life change to evenings and weekends free from grading papers or writing recommendations (sorry, had to say it).
More seriously, it has been hard at times to start over in a new country without knowing anyone and once the decision was made to seek a future outside academia. She sought out new networks by going to free workshops and events in Sydney, many in the start-up communities of WeWork, General Assembly, and Social Media conferences for purpose-driven or nonprofits. She volunteered a lot for people and organisations and did writing or facilitation for free until she got some LinkedIn cred and could land paid gigs. At that point the tide turned, and she started getting approached by people for work. She also reached out to previous PWR alums who were heart-warmingly supportive with advice and leads.
Today her message to those who serve the students & the program is this:
1. The work done by PWR lecturers is unparalleled, in the devotion to highest quality teaching, innovative scholarship, and collaboration among colleagues — please know how amazingly unique and generous you are in your life work!
2. For those who seek to explore other careers before retirement, there are indeed professions into which your skills would transfer quite easily, and where people will respect all you have to offer (including your PhD!)
Alyssa hopes to visit campus on her next return trip to California where her beloved nephews live. Until then, she sends love and best wishes for a fantastic academic year!!"
Carolyn Ross
PWR Lecturer, 1989-2018
Carolyn writes, "My first year of retirement after 30 years in PWR (and its many incarnations) has been an exceedingly mixed bag. A year ago, almost a year to the day, I set out in my new Prius to go “drive-about,” so to speak — a journey of two months and almost 9,000 miles, to mark this transition in my life. I traveled alone, following the “blue highways,” as William Least Heat Moon called them, and it was glorious, liberating, joyful wandering. I visited every national park I could and dozens of small town libraries along the way. I’d been thinking of writing a book on the changing (and in some cases, unchanging) roles libraries take on in serving their communities, so this counted as field research. I arrived home November 2, having gotten snowed in at Jackson Hole as the first storm of the season hit the Tetons and having spent Halloween at a casino in Elko, Nevada. On Thanksgiving I hosted a wonderful potluck feast with family, and on Christmas Day I hosted a wonderful Christmas feast with family. Then, the day after Christmas, I had a heart attack (I kid you not), out of the blue — although I imagine that all heart attacks feel out of the blue to the folks who suffer them. I had an angioplasty and two stents implanted in the right anterior descending artery of my heart, and for the next seven weeks earnestly set upon on healing. Then, on Valentine's Day, I received a diagnosis of breast cancer (I kid you not) and began to feel a little picked on. However, I was determined to be the very best heart/cancer patient ever. By the time the surgery and radiation treatments were done, though, I have to say I was feeling exhausted and damn pissed off. But the prognoses on both counts are very good, and I’m finally feeling my energy return and am happy not to be anyone’s prize patient any more. And I’ve started thinking... hmm, where should I go this fall?"
Susan Schuyler-Omstead
PWR Lecturer, 2007-2015
Susan writes, "I left Stanford--after six years in the PhD program and eight years teaching in PWR, when I had my first daughter in the fall of 2015. I then had my second daughter two and a half years later. Because my husband deploys for months at a time for his job, I thought it was the best decision to stay at home with them full time. I still miss Stanford and teaching at the college level, but I'm really embracing this new role. And I do take on a few students, referred to me by my amazing former colleague Ruth Starkman, for online tutorials. I'm currently leading online tutorials in creative writing, which is a nice way to keep thinking about writing.
Interestingly, my last publication (in Studies in Popular Culture) before I left Stanford was about how the reality television show Undercover Boss uses familiar 19th century melodramatic tropes to represent the American CEO as some sort of socio-economic savior. Who knew?"
Mary Stroud
PWR Lecturer, 2013-2017
Mary writes, "Since leaving PWR in 2017, I have been on a new life adventure in the tech startup world of Santa Monica, California. I have been compelled through the demands of life to be out of the classroom for the last two years (plan on returning soon!) and have instead been doing rhetorical writing and speaking consulting for the tech industry here in “Silicon Beach.” Most of my attention though has been on raising and educating our now 4-year-old son, Theo (although he definitely doesn’t need any help with his persuasive argument skills!).
This last summer, I also joined forces with two other women in the still very new creation of a women-owned, women-run, and women-designed workwear clothing company for female field workers, engineers, and scientists. We are now in a research and development phase and are excited to help empower women workers - through comfortable and sustainable workwear - in roles predominantly held by men. We hope to share more soon!"
