Alumni

BA English (Liberal Arts), 2003

I am a Writer and Instructional Designer for Maestro, a creative learning agency. I have the pleasure of writing and editing a variety of content, including blog posts, eLearning courses, scripts, and more. Prior to Maestro, I directed communications, events, and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Throughout all of my positions, my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English were invaluable. The ability to intentionally select the right words, meaningfully arrange them, and create connections through writing has served me in my professional and personal life a thousand times over.

BA English (Liberal Arts), 2017

MA English, 2019

I am a Writer and Instructional Designer for Maestro, a creative learning agency. I have the pleasure of writing and editing a variety of content, including blog posts, eLearning courses, scripts, and more. Prior to Maestro, I directed communications, events, and fundraising for nonprofit organizations. Throughout all of my positions, my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in English were invaluable. The ability to intentionally select the right words, meaningfully arrange them, and create connections through writing has served me in my professional and personal life a thousand times over.

BA English (Creative Writing), 2002

I’m Site Head of Quality for a facility that turns human plasma into life-saving therapies.My degrees in Biomedical Science and Chemistry were my membership card into the industry, but it’s my time in the English Department that made me successful. I’m essentially a teacher or a coach.I don’t teach people how to make vaccines or plasma products, but I do ensure that many different departments – engineering and production, finance and quality control, research and commercial – work together and move in the right direction. I help them listen to each other and see the common goal. As an English major, I discovered that reading everything – especially the things I wouldn’t ever choose on my own – did something I never expected. It builds the amount of empathy that would take a hundred lifetimes to build in non-readers.  It also shows you how your own mind works as you fill in the details left off the written page. Introspection and humility, as practiced in the English Department, are what my leadership roles have been built on.

BA English (Liberal Arts), 2007

I’m the Community and Public Relations Manager for San Antonio Public Library (SAPL), a municipal library system serving over 2,000,000 people. I manage all of SAPL's marketing, public relations, graphic design, advertising, and outreach for a network of 30 library locations. As a career professional communicator, I believe that great communication starts with excellent writing. Communicating an idea, whether through advertising, video, or a Facebook post, always begins with the ability to clearly convey a thought through writing. Of everything I learned studying English at Western Michigan, a keen appreciation for language and effective writing skills have been the single greatest assets in my fulfilling and successful career as a communications professional.

BA English (Secondary Education), 2003

I began my career as a middle school language arts and social studies teacher and have since worked in talent, strategy, policy, and philanthropy roles across the education sector. I now guide CEOs, superintendents, state leaders, and school board presidents as they make high-stakes decisions that affect millions of students. My English degree from WMU taught me to dig beneath the surface of an issue and examine it from multiple angles to formulate a more complete understanding.