{"id":195,"date":"2023-01-20T00:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T08:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/?page_id=195"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:12:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T21:12:30","slug":"meet-our-staff","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/meet-our-staff\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Our Staff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n \n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n Amelia “Amy” Cruz, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Amelia \u201cAmy\u201d Cruz (she\/they) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at USC Dornsife. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and Women\u2019s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Amy\u2019s work sits at the crossroads of literary, disability, neurodivergence, and queer studies. Her dissertation interrogates the \u201cleaky\u201d boundaries of the human\/inhuman binary, and the subversive potential of the autistic way of being. Amy served as an Assistant Lecturer in the Writing Program, so she has lots of experience with the ins and outs of Writing 150. Feel free to ask for tips on how to thrive in college or graduate school while neurodivergent (i.e., a person with one or more learning and\/or cognitive disabilities, such as autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.)! Amy\u2019s favorite part of teaching is working with students to find solutions that work with their brain, rather than against it. In her free time, Amy enjoys seeing Ghibli movies at the New Beverly Cinema, rewatching Criminal Minds for the fourteenth time, and cross stitching with a fuzzy orange cat on her lap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Ariel Chu, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Ariel Chu (she\/they) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in the Creative Writing and Literature program at USC. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at Syracuse University and her BA in English at Williams College, and her work has been supported by the P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the Luce Scholars Program, the Steinbeck Fellowship, and the Kundiman Fellowship, among others. Ariel’s academic work encompasses experimental Asian American literature, small press literary production, and queer Sinophone works in translation. Ariel is also working on a short fiction collection about queer suburban imaginaries, the fraught relationships between young women, and moments where social scripts rupture. As a consultant at the Writing Center, Ariel is happy to aid with academic writing projects, creative writing manuscripts, and personal statements for grants, fellowships, internships, and other professional opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Briana Maytee Garc\u00eda, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Briana Maytee Garc\u00eda (she\/her) is a Ph.D. student in the English department. She received both her Bachelor\u2019s and Master\u2019s degrees in English from Stanford University. Within her broad focus of Latinx Literature, Briana is interested in concepts of forgiveness and verg\u00fcenza in addition to representations of hair texture and skin tone. Aside from literature, she is also passionate about college access for first-gen\/ low-income students of color like herself. Briana enjoys watching Disney movies and crafting for fun. Her experience tutoring at the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking at Stanford has underscored Briana\u2019s passion for building writers\u2019 confidence and making the writing process feel more accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Carolina Munoz, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Carolina Mu\u00f1oz (she\/her) is a second-year Ph.D. student studying English Literature at USC Dornsife. She earned her BA in English and minor in Education at the University of California, Riverside. Carolina has served as the Assistant Editor-in-Chief for the UC Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal, where she aided in publishing student research articles from various disciplines. Additionally, she has tutored community college students and taught undergraduate students, helping scholars’s develop reading and writing skills and providing mentorship on topics related to navigating higher education. Through her mentorship, she also has experience building and editing resumes. Carolina’s research lies in the field of Chicanx and Latinx studies. Her interests include hiking, cooking and baking, crocheting, and exploring taco trucks around Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Devony Hof, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Devony Hof (she\/her) is a first-year Master\u2019s student in the Screenwriting division at USC\u2019s School of Film and Television. She earned her BA in English Literature and Theatre from Northwestern University, where she received the Edward Shuman Award for her thesis on W. B. Yeats\u2019s and Eavan Boland\u2019s doll poems. Her poetry has appeared in Fahmidan<\/em>, Right Hand Pointing <\/em>and RockPaperPoem<\/em>, among others. She can assist with creative writing, literary analysis and application materials. Though she grew up in the Bay Area, she has spent two years in Chicago, acting, writing and complaining about the weather. Outside of work, she enjoys embroidery and dissecting the ending of Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Jaden Morales, Consultant\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Jaden Morales (they\/them) is a second-year Ph.D. student and Teaching Assistant in the Department of American Studies & Ethnicity. Prior to USC, Jaden received their B.A. in Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University. Their graduate research considers the social and political intimacies that link the geographies of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean to the Pacific vis-\u00e1-vis transnational circuits of bodies, capital, commodities, and knowledges to examine the formation of U.S. empire and global colonial-capitalism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Jaden\u2019s area of writing experience spans the humanities\u2014history, ethnic studies, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies\u2014as well as application materials such as r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, cover letters, and personal statements. Before graduate school, Jaden worked for two years as a litigation paralegal for an employment and labor law firm in Washington D.C; thus, they\u2019re also apt to assist with legal and business writing. Outside the classroom, Jaden enjoys curating playlists, exploring L.A.\u2019s food scene, and teaching themselves to rollerskate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Janet Song, Consultant\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Janet Song (she\/they) is a Ph.D. student in the English department. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and Media Studies at Vassar College in 2019. Her research interests are centered around American literature, focusing on the 19th century and on Asian American literature. She can assist in academic essays, graduate school applications, and works of creative writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Josh Oliver, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Josh Olivier is a second-year Ph.D. student in Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Southern California. He earned his MFA in fiction from the University of Michigan, where he also worked as an assistant editor for Michigan Quarterly Review. A native of California\u2019s Inland Empire, he often draws on the region\u2019s cultural and economic landscape in his writing. His novel-in-progress, Goodness, explores themes of class, masculinity, memory, and survival, following a young writer as he navigates poverty, artistic ambition, and the fractures of family and friendship. The work confronts underrepresented narratives of male vulnerability and abuse, while also capturing the textures of Southern California life: its driving culture and freeways, the constant negotiation between ambition and precarity. When he isn\u2019t writing fiction, he works on twee anthems and heartbreak songs for his band, No Better. He also loves running, reading, and Lakers basketball. At the Writing Center, Josh enjoys working with students at every stage of the writing process. He especially values the chance to talk through structure, clarity, and voice, and to help writers discover the questions and patterns driving their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Matthew Aaron Hernandez, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Matthew Aaron Hernandez (He\/Him) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at USC Dornsife. He earned his B.A. in English Literature with a Certificate in Creative and Professional Writing from CSU Dominguez Hills. During his Undergrad, he won first place in the CSU Statewide Research Competition in Arts and Letters and worked as a Writing Center Consultant. Matthew\u2019s current work explores the position of tabletop roleplaying games in fostering transmedia storytelling and the cross-mediatic movement of narrative. His dissertation examines game and narrative world-building, adaptation, narrative architecture, and using play to engage with the positive and negative legacies of Fantasy and Speculative Fiction. Matthew\u2019s previous work includes examinations of Comics and Graphic Novels, the intersections of Beer, Spirits, and Witchcraft, Children’s and YA Literature, Game Play as Pedagogy, and the impact of Generative AI (LLMs) on Academic writing. Outside of Academia, he is a tinkerer, an avid player of analog and video games, a musician, camper, and a voracious reader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Morgan Lynch, Consultant \n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Morgan Lynch (she\/her) is a PhD candidate in the Clinical Science area of the Psychology Department in Dornsife. Her research explores the various factors that contribute to why and how people age differently, spanning from the cellular level to the individual and broader community levels.\u00a0She is passionate about the strength of social connections in preventing or delaying neurodegeneration. Morgan has worked in psychology, neuroscience, and biology research for\u00a0about 10 years. During that time, she has built expertise in reviewing essays for academic courses and manuscripts for journals, as well as r\u00e9sum\u00e9s\/CVs, cover letters, graduate school personal statements, and conference\/fellowship applications. Outside of work, Morgan enjoys taking her dog to the park, hiking, and trying new ice cream flavors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Robert Waller, Director\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Robert Waller (he\/him) is Director of the Writing Center and an Associate Professor (Teaching) in the Writing Program. Professor Waller received his bachelor\u2019s degree from Duke University, where he studied oral history and music, and has a degree in creative writing from USC. \u00a0 Robert has over 20 years of experience teaching writing with a particular focus on using writing as a tool to explore and reveal the creative process. At USC, he developed the popular Special Topics WRIT 340 course, Writing for Visual and Performing Artists, that aims to help students articulate their own aesthetics and through this process expand their understanding both of writing and the meanings and purposes driving their work.\u00a0 In addition to his work at USC, Waller is also an active performing songwriter and musician who has toured internationally and had his songs appear in TV and film. Robert lives in Highland Park with his wife, three children, and two cats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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\n Roger Anderson, Assistant Director\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Roger Anderson (he\/him) earned his Bachelor\u2019s degree from Vanderbilt University, where he studied English Literature and Art History, and his Master\u2019s degree from the English Department at USC in the Film, Literature and Culture program. Prior to joining the Writing Center, Roger taught freshman writing courses in USC\u2019s Writing Program, where he also served as an Instructional Coordinator. Roger has a passion for working with international students, helping them master not only the grammatical and syntactical aspects of writing in English but also the rhetorical and stylistic expectations of the academic discourse community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\n Stephanie Mullings, Consultant\n <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Stephanie Mullings (she\/her) is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing and Literature. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University. Her main areas of writing expertise include creative writing, social sciences and humanities, history, and academic writing. Stephanie\u2019s fiction writing has appeared in various literary magazines, including\u00a0Boulevard<\/em>,\u00a0Catapult<\/em>, the\u00a0Los Angeles Review,\u00a0<\/em>and elsewhere. She is originally from Chicago, an avid WNBA and N.B.A. fan, and a proud sneakerhead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n \n \n \n

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THH 216<\/strong>
\n213-740-3691<\/strong>
\nwriting@usc.edu<\/strong><\/p>\n

May 26 – Aug 11<\/strong>
\nM – Th, 10am – 7pm
\nOnline\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n

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\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n \n \n \n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-195","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMeet Our Staff - USC Dornsife Writing Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/meet-our-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Meet Our Staff - USC Dornsife Writing Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/meet-our-staff\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"USC Dornsife Writing Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-05-26T21:12:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/meet-our-staff\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/writingcenter\/meet-our-staff\/\",\"name\":\"Meet Our Staff - 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