Spartan Writing Camp Staff

Our camp instructors are experienced teachers and Red Cedar Writing Project (RCWP) Teacher Consultants (TCs).

Trixie Smith

I’m Trixie G. Smith, Director of The Writing Center and a member of the faculty in Rhetoric & Writing as well as the Center for Gender in Global Contexts at Michigan State University. After earning a BA in English and Elementary Education from Mobile College, I spent several years teaching middle and high school students in southern Alabama. I then headed to The University of South Carolina where I earned an MA in English (Renaissance Drama), an MLIS in Library and Information Science, and a PhD in Composition and Rhetoric, as well as a Graduate Certificate in Women’s and Gender Studies. My teaching and research are infused with issues of gender and activism even as they revolve around writing center theory and practice, writing across the curriculum, writing pedagogy, and teacher training. Likewise these areas often intersect with my interests in pop culture, service learning, and the idea that we’re just humans learning with/from other humans (you know, with bodies, feelings, lives outside the academy). I love it when my interests are able to intersect in faculty workshops, conference sessions, and professional development in the writing center.

Grace Pregent-Halford

Grace Pregent-Halford teaches at Michigan State University as the Associate Director of the Writing Center and co-directs the Community Writing Center at the East Lansing Public Library. She enjoys writing, researching, and talking about minor characters in stories, movies, shows, and music and she shares about this work in her forthcoming book In Praise of the Minor Character. Grace lives near Grand Rapids, MI, with her family, and they enjoy hiking, horseback riding, and traveling together. Her favorite color is black, and her favorite place on campus is the MSU Dairy Store.

Amy Huntley

Amy Huntley has been a teacher for 35 years. She’s taught every grade from 7th through community college, and most recently retired from teaching high school English at Okemos High School. Since then she’s been working with the Education Department at Michigan State University helping English Education interns refine their teaching practices. She joined the Red Cedar Writing Project at Michigan State during its first year in 1993.

Amy has had a life long love of story. She’s published one young adult novel through Harper Collins, titled The Everafter. More importantly, she dates her beginnings as an author to her experience as a four year old—before she could write. That’s when she began been composing stories by going on wonderful fantasy adventures in her own imagination—often with iconic characters like Babar and Snoopy. These became the basis for her love of writing and reading.

Annette Kelly

Annette Kelly is an eighth grade English/Spanish teacher at Beagle Middle School in Grand Ledge, Michigan. She began teaching 32 years ago, and has taught several different grade levels ranging from third grade to high school. Fourth graders are her favorite! In 2012 she became a Red Cedar Writing Consultant. Writing is her passion, and she enjoys working in the summer at Spartan Writing Camp. Seeing young writers take a idea and create a piece of writing that is uniquely theirs is such a rewarding experience for her. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and of course, writing. She lives in Grand Ledge with her husband and 4 children.

Maureen Chagnon

Maureen Chagnon is an MSU graduate with a passion for teaching and writing. She completed her undergraduate education in 2007, with a major in Language Arts and a concentration in Elementary Education, as well as her Masters in Teaching and Curriculum in 2012, both from MSU. She has 3 kids, who have all been sufficiently brainwashed to be Spartan fans, ages 8, 6, and 2. Most of her classroom experience has been with 4th grade and writing has always been her favorite subject to teach. Seeing young writers get excited about writing and inspired by what is around them is one of the highlights of teaching. Maureen is currently running a business from home, while teaching her little learners, before they are all in school full-time and she can return to her own classroom. She loves reading, skiing, coffee, Pilates, and going on adventures with her husband and children.

Tracy Grennell

Tracy Grennell is currently a S.T.E.M. teacher at Bath Elementary School. During her teaching career of twenty years, she has taught students at all grade levels K-5 in general education as well as S.T.E.M. One of her favorite things about teaching writing is seeing students take risks and try new things. This is her second year working with the Red Cedar Writing project. She is excited to work with elementary age students to share her love of writing and enhance students’ writing skills. In her free time, Tracy enjoys traveling, spending time with family and reading.

Ben Woodcock

Ben Woodcock is a teacher, writer, reader, and researcher.

Ben is an English teacher at Okemos High School. As a lifelong learner, he is always looking into new ideas and ways to bring English to life in his classroom.

He has been a teacher consultant for the Red Cedar Writing Project since 2015. Ben is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Michigan Council of Teachers of English.

Ben is an avid sports fan! He enjoys watching the MSU Spartans on the football field and basketball court! He also enjoys running and hiking.

Savannah Harris

Savannah Harris is a first year teacher from Michigan State University, entering her 2nd year with Spartan Writing Camp. Her emphasis is in English Education, and she has three years of experience working at the Writing Center at MSU. During this experience, she has focused on community engagement as well as centering multilingual writers. Specifically, she has co-facilitated child programming through the East Lansing Public Library and Capital Area District Library, emphasizing imagination and literacy amongst elementary and middle school aged students. In her spare time, she plays trombone and knits sweaters!

Jill Hoort

Jill Hoort currently works an instructional coach with East Lansing Public Schools. She has over 20 years of teaching experience at the elementary level in Grand Ledge, Okemos, and East Lansing Public Schools. In 2015, she became the elementary co-director of the Red Cedar Writing Project. In 2017, Jill took over leadership of Spartan Writing Camp after a decade of teaching camp. Bringing exciting and engaging writing opportunities led by passionate teachers to our local community is her mission as camp leader. In her free time, Jill enjoys spending time with her three kids and two dogs, reading, running, and exploring the great state of Michigan.

Annette Kelly

Annette Kelly is an eighth Spanish teacher at Beagle Middle School in Grand Ledge, Michigan. She began teaching 31 years ago, and has taught several different grade levels ranging from third grade to high school. Fourth graders are her favorite! In 2012 she became a Red Cedar Writing Consultant. Writing is her passion, and she enjoys working in the summer at Spartan Writing Camp. Seeing young writers take a idea and create a piece of writing that is uniquely theirs is such a rewarding experience for her. In her spare time she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, traveling, and of course, writing. She lives in Grand Ledge with her husband and 4 children.

Bethany Meadows

Bethany Meadows loves the open-ended ways that writing can look and dreaming of new potentials for seeing the world. They love video games, board games, card games, and role-playing in Dungeons and Dragons. For board and card games, she loves both competitive games (like Euchre, Risk, Lords of Waterdeep) and cooperative games (like the Crew, Pandemic, Horrified). Some of their favorite video games include Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, and the Sims.

In their professional life, they have worked as an Assistant Director in multiple writing centers, including the Writing Center at Michigan State. They have taught in a wide variety of contexts from middle school and high school to college students. She graduated from MSU with her PhD in Writing and Rhetoric in April 2023. They also have degrees in Integrated Language Education and English.

Dawn Reed

Dawn Reed believes that stories and words matter. She celebrates the joy of imagination and creativity through written expression.

Dawn is an English teacher at Okemos High School and a co-director of the Red Cedar Writing Project. Through this work, Dawn has collaborated with writers and teachers from coast to coast. She enjoys working with writers of all ages. Dawn also enjoys spending time with family, reading, writing, exploring new places, and staring at the stars.

Dawn is looking forward to spending time being creative with witches and wizards in Spartan Writing Camp’s Wizarding World of Writing and embracing the connection of images and texts in Spartan Writing Camp’s Graphic Novel Writing.

Nicholas Meadows

Nicholas Meadows is an avid game enthusiast. He is compassionate about competitive gaming and board game design. Nicholas is a former Twitch streamer and YouTuber who has competed twice in the Pro Tour for Magic the Gathering and has achieved high ranks in games such as Hearthstone, Risk: Global Domination, and Marvel Snap. In his free time, he always loves playing board games, card games, and tabletop games (like Dungeons and Dragons) with friends.

In his professional life, Nicholas received his PhD in Mathematics from Ohio State University. He spent many years teaching mathematics at the high school and college level during graduate school. He currently works as an Actuarial Associate in the homeowners department and is also the head of the Interdepartmental Efficiency and Automation committee at Auto-Owners Insurance in Lansing.

Elana Waugh

Elana Waugh currently teaches K-1 STEAM at Wilkshire Early Childhood Center in Haslett. During her 26 year teaching career, she has taught students at all grade levels K-5. She has been involved with the Red Cedar Writing Project since 2015 and has been teaching Spartan Writing Camp since 2016. Elana loves all things art and tries to incorporate as much as she can into her sessions. She enjoys reading, exploring nature, and being creative with her husband and three children.

Mary Wilkinson

Mary Wilkinson lives with her husband and two cats in East Lansing, Michigan, She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Michigan State University. Mary is a retired teacher and has taught children from preschool to 6th grade. She’s been a National Writing Project Consultant since 2012 and loves writing each summer with Spartan Writing Campers. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, reading, photography, painting, riding her bike and especially writing about her sassy cats.

Jen Garmon

Jen Garmon is an MSU graduate who was part of the Red Cedar Writing Project Summer Institute in 2009, and she loves any opportunity to be back on campus! She is currently a librarian at Ralya Elementary School in Haslett, and prior to that, she was an English Teacher at Okemos High School for over a decade. She has also taught English as a Second Language Classes for international scholars and their spouses at Friendship House MSU.

This summer, Jen is looking forward to teaching the Library Lovers Writing Camp. She is married with two children, and the whole family loves visiting libraries!

Lindsey Ryan

Lindsey Ryan has fifteen years of teaching experience. She currently teaches English Language Arts at the middle school level. Prior to teaching Middle School English, she also taught 5th grade for many years. Lindsey loves to be creative and share her love of creativity with her students. This will be her first year participating in Spartan Writing Camp, and she is incredibly excited to embark on this journey.

Monica DeGarmo

Monica is a proud English teacher at Academy of the Americas, a DPSCD Prek – 12 campus located in the heart of southwest Detroit. She is passionate about reading, writing, weaving in visual arts, experiential learning, and being outside whenever possible! She is in her fifth year teaching and has held various roles during her time with Detroit Public Schools.

Her roots are in the Pacific Northwest, having grown up in Portland, Oregon but the midwest has been a second home for the past 10+ years. She received a Bachelor’s in English and Community Leadership from Aquinas College, a Masters in Community Development and Social Justice from Loyola University Chicago, and a Doctorate in Education Leadership from MSU. She lives in Detroit with her husband and likely has dirt in her fingernails from gardening.

Monica is thrilled to be part of the Spartan Writing Camp, facilitating: Writing for Social Change and Connection and It’s All About the Shorts.