Staff

Dr. Elizabeth Wardle

Director
wardleea@MiamiOH.edu

Elizabeth Wardle has served as the Roger and Joyce Howe Distinguished Professor of Written Communication and the Director of the Howe Center for Writing Excellence since 2016. In the HCWE she takes primary responsibility for faculty development initiatives. She is interested in working with colleagues across the university to promote deep change around teaching and learning. With colleagues she has designed and implemented curricular innovation programs such as the Howe Faculty Writing Fellows Program (2017-present), the Miami Writing Institute (2021-present), the Leading Change Institute (2020-21), and Pathways to Expertise (2013-14).

Her books include Writing about Writing (now in its fifth edition); Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies; Composition, Rhetoric, and Disciplinarity; and (re)Considering What We Know: Learning Thresholds in Writing, Composition, and Rhetoric. With the HCWE staff and Faculty Fellows, she is co-author of Changing Conceptions, Changing Practices: Innovating Teaching Across the Disciplines. With HCWE National Advisory Board member Linda Adler-Kassner, she is co-author of Writing Expertise: A Research-Based Approach to Writing and Learning Across Disciplines. She has also published over 30 articles and chapters in the top journals of her field. 

She is the winner of Miami’s University Distinguished Scholar Award (now the Faculty Scholar Award) (2019-20) and the University of Central Florida’s Teaching Incentive Program and Scholarship of Teaching and Learning awards (2012). Under her leadership, the Howe Center for Writing Excellence was awarded a Conference on College Composition and Communication Writing Program Certificate of Excellence (2021-22) and the Howe Writing Across the Curriculum Program was awarded the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum’s Exemplary Enduring WAC Program Award (2022). Her published work has received the Council of Writing Program Administrators’ Outstanding Scholarship Award (2022) and Outstanding Contribution to the Discipline Award (2016), and NCTE’s Best Article of the Year in Teaching of Technical and Scientific Communication (2006).

She speaks and gives workshops regularly around the country on program design, threshold concepts, transfer, first-year writing, and writing across the curriculum.

Loretta Parker

Administrative Assistant
elamll@MiamiOH.edu

Loretta Parker has been at Miami University for 28 years, working in Accounts Payable and the English Department before heading to the HCWE. She is the financial contact for the HCWE department and handles budget transfers for contest prizes, student payments, and grants for students, faculty, and departments. She also coordinates student-centered events, graduate and faculty boot camps, and national and local board meetings.

Gail Stout

Budget and Data Coordinator
stoutbg@MiamiOH.edu

Gail Stout joined the Howe Center for Writing Excellence in November of 2021 and has been at Miami University since 2004. Gail is responsible for the HCWE budget and for tracking attendance at all HCWE events. She compiles and provides reports regarding financial and attendance details.

Ben Harris

Communications Coordinator
harrisbg@miamioh.edu

Ben Harris joined the Howe Center for Writing Excellence in April of 2024. His previous role at Miami University was as the Media Services Specialist for the Department of Music.

Dr. Mandy Olejnik

Assistant Director
olejnimr@miamioh.edu

Dr. Mandy Olejnik has served as the full-time Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum since January 2022. Her research centers on graduate student writing support and writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs, as well as AI and its impact on writing programs and writing pedagogy. Her scholarship has appeared in the The WAC Journal and Across the Discplines, and she is co-editor of the edited collection Changing Conceptions, Changing Practices: Innovating Teaching across Disciplines.

Rena Perez

Graduate Assistant Director
perezrn@miamioh.edu

Rena Perez is a Ph.D. student in Composition and Rhetoric. She researches how and why examples of writing are used by writers and teachers of writing across disciplines and the benefits and challenges of using examples in writing instruction.

Emma Boddy

Graduate Assistant Director
boddyee@miamioh.edu

Emma Boddy is a second-year Ph.D. student in Composition and Rhetoric. Her research interests include disciplinary writing expertise and identity as well as writing center and writing across the curriculum administration. 

Dr. Lizzie Hutton

Director
huttoneb@MiamiOH.edu

As Director of the Howe Writing Center, Lizzie trains and mentors writing consultants, and, in coordination with the Howe Center for Writing Excellence, oversees writing center programming, initiatives, and research. This work is fed by her continuing inquiries into college students’ diverse reading and writing practices, their transfer of literacy knowledge across tasks and contexts, and the most effective means for enabling peer support for critically engaged knowledge-building. Lizzie has a PhD from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education, and an MFA from the University of Michigan’s Program in Creative Writing (poetry). She joined Miami's HCWE and English department in July 2018.

Kate Francis

Manager
francik@MiamiOH.edu

Kate Francis has been the manager of the HWC since its opening in 2007. With the help of HWC graduate assistants and hourly graduate student employees, she develops and administers ongoing training initiatives for HWC consultants (mentoring, weekly workshops, research, and conference presentations). In addition to working with consultants, she oversees the welcome staff, the marketing team interns, and the graphic designers. She facilitates the daily operations of all HWC locations.

Claire Metzger

Graduate Assistant Director
metzgec5@miamioh.edu

Claire (she/her) is a second-year MA student studying Composition and Rhetoric. Her research interests include feminist rhetorics, writing center studies, and first-year writing pedagogy. At the HWC, Claire assists with overseeing consultant partnerships/seminars, co-running Junior Faculty Writing Hours, and general HWC research.

Allie Stanich

Graduate Assistant Director, 
stanica@miamioh.edu

Allie (she/they) is a first-year PhD student studying Composition and Rhetoric. Her research interests include writing center studies, disability studies, neurodiversity, folklore, popular culture, and women and gender studies. At the HWC, Allie oversees professional development through seminars and consultant partnerships, helps facilitate writing center initiatives, and conducts writing center research.

Cam Cavaliere

Graduate Assistant Director
cavalicw@miamioh.edu

Cam Cavaliere is a Ph.D. student studying Composition and Rhetoric. They research digital rhetorics, feminist rhetorics, multimodal pedagogies, and student data privacy in higher education, along with writing center studies. At the HWC, Cam assists with overseeing consultant partnerships/seminars, writing hours, and other HWC-related tasks.