The OPW Legacy
Elise Taylor, Membership Officer
Elise Taylor is a Multimedia Journalism major with a minor in Writing. Additionally, she works as a consultant for the Speech Lab at GVSU. Elise is passionate about deepening her relationship with writing. She is also looking to get acquainted with it in its many forms including professional writing.
Randee Gage, Vice President
Randee Gage is senior at Grand Valley, majoring in Writing and minoring in Digital Studies. She works part-time for the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as consultant for the Fred Meijer Center for Writing & Michigan Authors. Her passions lie in digital & media literacy, and understanding how writing and other forms of communication influence our daily lives and wider culture. She hopes to work as an acquisitions editor after graduation, and maybe even publish work of her own. Outside of writing, her hobbies include reading, watching old films, making hyper specific Spotify playlists and spending time with her beloved cat, Seymour.
Greg Carlson, Financial Officer
Greg is a writing major and an African American studies minor, previously majoring in Fine Arts and Art History. He is certified in screenwriting and film production with various credits and has experience writing and editing stage plays and full-length novels as well. He has written pieces for InWriting, as well as other publications during his various travels. He has lived on Mackinac Island, as well as in Chicago and Florida while working for Disney. Greg finds most of his inspiration through music and plays the cello, piano, and harp! Halloween is his favorite day of the year, and he is a professional tarot reader and astrologer on the side. He mainly aspires to write dark allegorical fiction through various Celtic lenses. Be careful not to mention Shirley Jackson or Kate Bush around him, unless you have several hours to spare!
Audrey Kelly, President
Audrey Kelly is a storyteller with a passion for web design and user experience; she was also a Writing major and Digital Studies minor. Outside of OPW, she worked at Grand Valley State University Libraries as a User Experience Student. Audrey was involved in the writing community on campus, and even had two pieces published in the 2022 edition of fishladder. Audrey also loves writing Science Fiction short stories and hopes to someday write a novel if she can ever overcome the blinking cursor. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading or going on adventures with her best friends.
Jessica Barnard, President
Jessica Barnard was a Writing major with a minor in anthropology. Outside of OPW, she did copy editing and proofreading for InWriting, a Writing Department newsletter at GVSU, and completed an editorial internship with literary fiction publishing house Dzanc Books. She enjoys reading and writing science fantasy in her spare time and is pursuing a career in the field of publishing.
Jacob Kirn, Treasurer
Jacob was a senior Writing major with a minor in Digital Studies. In addition to OPW, he worked in Grand Rapids as a Technical Writing Intern for Dematic. With a background in web development, user experience design, and professional writing, he hoped to gain a broader understanding of emerging trends and technologies throughout the industry. In his free time, Jacob enjoys playing music, writing literary nonfiction, and traveling.
Hannah Kelly, President
Hannah Kelly was a Writing major, minoring in Spanish and Digital Studies. In addition to her role in OPW, Hannah was part of the e-board for In the Margins, a Poetry and Creative Writing Club at GVSU. She was also employed as a Writing Consultant at the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors, and as a Marketing and Design Intern with GVSU Benefits & Wellness. Hannah enjoys writing creatively and professionally, and she seeks to fall in love with every angle of writing every day.
Dawson Heath, President
Dawson Heath majored in Writing, with minors in Political Science and Digital Studies. In addition to being the Co-President of OPW, he was a writing consultant at the GVSU Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors. Dawson is pursuing a career in technical writing.
Amanda Pszczolkowski
Amanda was a Writing major with a minor in Digital Studies and was a member of the Honors College. She worked in the Fred Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors as a writing consultant and as a design intern with the Making Waves Initiative. Besides being a part of OPW, she was the assistant editor for GVSU’s journal of art and writing, Fishladder. She enjoys exploring the creative and professional sides of writing and hopes to continue working with both in the future.
Julianna Schrier
Julianna Schrier is a senior at Grand Valley who will be graduating in April 2020. Besides being a member of OPW, she is a co-director of the Student Reading Series, co-Vice President of In the Margins, reader for fishladder., and occasional student. She is currently interning for the Jewish Federation of Grand Rapids. Upon graduating, she hopes to find a job in the Grand Rapids area, and plans on continuing to write in both professional and creative ways.
Rachel Kornoelje, Membership Officer
Rachel Kornoelje was a transfer student from Grand Rapids Community College. She graduated in December 2019 with a B.A in Writing, and a minor in Advertising and Public Relations. Not only was she the secretary and membership officer of OPW, but she was also involved in GVSU Writers’ Club. Rachel enjoys writing both creative prose and professional documents.
Chelsea Best, Financial Officer
Chelsea Best graduated in December 2019 with a major in Writing and minors in Psychology and Digital Studies. In her time at GVSU, she worked as a marketing and design intern for GVSU Benefits & Wellness within HR. During her academic career, Chelsea enjoyed her document design and web writing courses. In her free time, she enjoys reading John Greene novels and spending time at Lake Michigan.
Emily Zerrenner, President
Emily Z. graduated in April 2019 with a major in Writing and a minor in LGBT studies. In addition to being the president of OPW, Emily was the fiction editor of fishladder, an e-board member of In the Margins poetry club, and a co-director of the Student Reading Series. She was also a writing consultant at the Fred Meijer Writing Center and had hopes to earn a M.F.A. after graduation.
Kelly Tekiela, Vice President
Kelly graduated in April 2019 with a major in Cell & Molecular Biology and minors in Writing and Chemistry. Outside of OPW, Kelly was an e-board member of the Pre-MD/PhD club and worked with fruit flies in Dr. Martin Burg’s BMS/CMB research lab. To pursue her goal of becoming a medical writer, she planned to apply to a Masters program in Technical/Scientific Writing after leaving GVSU.