Catherine Amick
Catherine (Cat) Amick is a senior editor for Erie Insurance where she works with internal and freelance writers to produce corporate publications for customers and insurance agents. She previously taught college composition courses at Gannon University where she also served as the editor for their alumni magazine.
Cat is passionate about teaching and writing, and she loves to work with computers and technology. As an editor and writer, Cat is dedicated to reaching a wide variety of audiences and finding the right words to do the job. As a teacher and writing coach, she strives to ensure that individuals enjoy growing and get the most out of the learning experience. She learns by teaching, and feels that every student has something to teach her, too.
In her spare time, Cat enjoys studying, freelance writing, baking, cooking, and, of course, reading. She believes that every moment is part of a story and that narratives are integral to the human experience, regardless of what media is used to tell them. With all of her students, she encourages them to find the story in each piece of writing they create – even the most technical.
Angela Arbogast
Angela has had a lifelong passion for language. Angela graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in Spanish. She then completed two years of graduate studies in Communication at Regent University. She also earned a certificate in TESOL and used that training for a few years, teaching English as a second language to students of all ages from around the globe. In addition, Angela has taught Pre-K, K, 1st grade, and high school English and Spanish.
In the realm of writing, Angela has been working on an autobiographical book for the past decade and hopes to have it published before she’s too old to remember who it’s about. In the meantime, Angela wards off insanity with her zany sense of humor and is happily married to her equally zany husband, Roy. Their favorite pastimes are family sing-alongs and exploring the USA, but Angela dreams of visiting Latin America again. She has studied in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, and she would like to introduce Roy and the kids to the rich culture and musical language of the land.
Lisa Barfield
Lisa Barfield is a lover of stories, plays, and words. Lisa learned how to teach through her drama troupe's interning program, which forced her, from the age of 13, to handle a bunch of hyper kids for a full hour. She soon discovered a love for writing, and, after publishing articles in Practical Homeschooling and Home Educators Magazine, began her novel, Caste of the Spider, which she is currently shopping to agents. Her short plays have been performed by various drama troupes around the St. Louis area. Currently, she teaches three writing classes for the SCCHE Learning Center in St. Charles, as well as co-directing a drama class and privately tutoring. When she's not writing or editing, you'll find Lisa taking long walks with her family, playing violin, or singing loud enough to shatter anyone's ear drums.
Rhonda Barfield
Rhonda Barfield had always planned a career in music until a substitute high school English teacher waylaid her with a side comment on a paper: "You should consider becoming a professional writer." She kept that in mind throughout college, where she graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in both speech and music education. During her first job teaching in Truman State U.'s piano prep program she supplemented her teaching duties with writing for music journals and magazines.
When Eric arrived in 1986, she set aside music for a dual career as both mom and author. To date, she's written five books: Eat Well for $50 a Week (Lilac, self-published); Eat Healthy for $50 a Week (Kensington); Feed Your Family for $12 a Day (Citadel); 15-Minute Cooking (Lilac); and Real-Life Homeschooling: The Stories of 21 Families Who Teach Their Children at Home (Fireside/Simon & Schuster). She's also penned articles for FamilyFun, Mothering, Baby Talk, Practical Homeschooling, Christian Parenting Today, Money Matters, and several dozen other magazines and newsletters.
Jennifer Beck
It all started with a foreign exchange student and a kidnapping. That was the basis of Jennifer Beck's first book, written in 4th grade. Though it was never published, Jennifer knew right then she wanted to make writing a permanent part of her life. After continuing with every writing opportunity possible through high school, Jennifer attended Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa to pursue a degree in broadcast journalism and public relations. In 1994, she started her career as a television broadcaster and spent several years as a news anchor, producer, reporter and videographer for WLIO NBC in Lima, Ohio. She retired at the end of 2001 to become a stay-at-home mom. In January of 2003 she joined Accelawriter.
Jennifer has her own company: Jennifer Keat-Beck, On-air Talent, Voice Work and Writing. She writes and appears in several local television commercials, serves as emcee of events, and does public relations work for local organizations and volunteer groups. Additionally, she teaches beginning speech/writing and competitive speech classes for the Allen County Christian Homeschoolers in Ohio.
Jennifer is a firm believer that writing can be the key to great things in life and thoroughly enjoys the opportunity to work with your children and help them grow, advance, and achieve. She finds joy in watching students of all abilities advance their abilities through classes at Accelawriter.
Andrea Bikfalvy
Andrea Bikfalvy received the first recognition for her writing in third grade when her poem about a tornado won a city-wide contest in Detroit. After that, she won a box of chocolates for her mom on mother's day with an essay in fifth grade, and a trip to a Young Author's writing conference with a children's book about a ball named Samantha. She graduated summa cum laude from Alma College in 1993 with a degree in Elementary Education and minors in English and Art. Her first book-a children's novel- was published in October 2002. She enjoys reading, writing, hiking, canoeing, camping, gardening, babysitting, and making her son laugh.
Mary Brueggemann
Mary Brueggemann has spent most of her life working with children in the education field. Even in high school, she loved writing and literature and hoped that one day she could inspire others with the same enthusiasm. Once she stepped in front of her first English class as a substitute teacher, she was hooked. Mary spent five fulfilling years teaching 5th grade at a private school in Ohio. Then she branched out into the home school realm, working with multiple families helping to organize curriculum and structure. Mary successfully taught up to seven different grade levels at a time in a variety of subjects. In recent years she has worked as a tutor for public, private, and home schooled students, primarily in reading, writing skills, and math. Teaching writing is definitely her most rewarding work.
Laura Camaione
Laura Camaione explores many different forms of writing, including novels, short stories, and plays. As a children’s writer, Laura has sold several articles to Highlights Magazine, and is currently seeking publication of her manuscript. As a playwright, her work has received honorable mention in the New Works of Merit Playwriting Competition sponsored by 13th Repertory Theatre, an off-Broadway theatre company. Recently, she received first place recognition in Spotlight Theatre’s Celebration of One Acts, and her winning play will receive a staged production in the fall of 2007. In addition to these pursuits, Laura is a newsletter editor for her local writing group and is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators.
Originally from Long Island, Laura graduated cum laude from the University of Rochester with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Studies. After graduating from college, she worked for several years in film and broadcasting in the New York City area. She now makes her home near Rochester, New York with her husband and three children.
Arden Campbell
Arden Campbell moved from Szeged, Hungary to Kansas City, Missouri in the summer of 2009. She received my BA in English Literature from Northwestern University in Evanston, IL in 1986 and my Masters in Secondary English Education from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, in 1988, where she also served a writing teacher and counselor at The Young Writer’s Workshop during two summer sessions.
She began teaching in Orange, VA at Prospect Heights Middle School where she taught 8th grade language arts and humanities. The school placed a heavy emphasis on writing across the curriculum. In 1991, she moved overseas to Szeged, Hungary where she served as an ESL teacher at a bilingual high school. She helped to develop a conversation and writing curriculum for the school and taught grades 9-12. Her role as a native English teacher was to help students perfect their language skills both conversationally and in various forms of writing, including essays, short stories, newspaper articles, plays, book reviews, formal and informal letter writing, research papers and compositions.
In 1993, she returned to Charlottesville, VA and in 1994 began teaching at The Covenant School. During her 6 years at Covenant, she worked with a team of teachers to develop the English curriculum for grades 7-12 and taught English in grades 8, 9, and 10. The majority of her time there was spent teaching 9th grade English, which included literature, writing and grammar; she also helped to launch the literary magazine.
She returned to Hungary in 2000 to teach ESL to bilingual Hungarian students in grades 9-12. In addition to teaching, she has taken part in preparing students for their written final exams in English.
She uses her 21 years of teaching experience to help students with their writing through Accelawriter!
Ann Clay
Ann Hobbs Clay taught elementary school for fifteen years before leaving the profession to educate her two boys from home. When teaching, her favorite subject was writing. She loved writing because it was all about what her students had to say, and not about learning rote facts. At home, she has encouraged her children to be expressive and expansive in what they have had to say and write.
A graduate of Brigham Young University, Mrs. Clay has also done graduate level education work at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. She was trained by the Northern Virginia Writing Project as a presenter and teacher of writing of all kinds. Her teaching career has taken her to three U.S. states and even one foreign country (Egypt, at the American International School). She has taught at every elementary level from K-6.
Mrs. Clay now resides in Manassas, Virginia, where she lives with her husband of eighteen years and her two boys, ages eleven and nine, their four cats, and eleven fish. Her interests include politics, history, geography, biography, sewing, cooking, and community service.
Lissie Cooley
Lissie Cooley’s love for words has taken her from being a Comparative Lit/Anthro Major at Dartmouth College, to running a Composition Center for the English Department there, and developing poetry and composition courses for elementary and middle school students. She tutored a Special Ed student throughout high school, TA’ed English at Dartmouth, tutored countless nail-biting writers there, and homeschooled all four of her children through high school. She now looks forward to helping your budding writers through Accelawriter.
Tonja Cox
Tonja Cox has been writing, and helping others learn to write, since the sixth grade. Selected by her junior high English instructors as a tutor for others, she worked as a tutor in the English department for three years. Her passion for writing led to a part-time career as a freelance writer and editor. She has published articles in magazines like American Woman, Good Reading, Kansas City Mazagine, and Travel Times. She edited a book for a man who built a 12-foot boat and tried to set a new world record by sailing it around the world. The book, Dream, hit the stores in 2005. Ms. Cox holds a BSed in English literature from Missouri State University, and two Masters degrees, an MSed in English Literature, and an MA in English/creative writing track, both from Missouri State University.
She worked as Editor in Chief of the Campus Ledger Newspaper at Johnson County Community College while raising three children. In 1991, she was named the Kansas Journalist of the Year for investigative reporting.
After graduating with her teaching degree in 1998, she taught high school English for two years before returning to college for her Masters. She taught two years of college composition while working on her Masters at Missouri State, and spent two years working as a writer/guest editor of OzarksWatch Magazine.
Currently, Ms. Cox is teaching composition for two online universities, University of Phoenix, and Axia College.