If years of experience, awards for excellence in education, papers presented, articles published, grants written and awarded are indicators of excellence, then the Oregon Writing Project at the University of Oregon is in good hands. The leadership of the project combines the skills and talents of professors, researchers, and classroom teachers to guide and direct the activities that support the vision and direction of the Advisory Board. 

Lynne Anderson, Site Director

Peggy Marconi, Associate Director

My Mom said, “You will need to write the principal a good letter.” From my position flat-bellied on the linoleum floor, with a nice fat yellow pencil firmly gripped in my sweaty palm, I began. I don’t have a single memory of what I wrote; I just remember the importance of the letter. Would the principal of Yew Lane Elementary School allow me, a five year old, to attend first grade? I’ve come to realize this: writing that letter was an act which would frame my future.

For the past fifty-six years, come September, I go shopping. I buy a new book bag, a box of #2 Ticonderoga pencils, a new outfit. Then I let the freshly polished floors, clean desks and eager faces of whatever school I happen to be attending or teaching in, welcome me back.

As the years passed, degrees, were earned, workshops attended, awards accepted, boards served on and thousands of students taught well. Now I find myself here at CATE at the College of Education at the University of Oregon, managing OWP’s Summer Institute. I feel like the caretaker of a precious gift--more precious than the letter that started me on this journey fifty-six years ago.

My Mom was an author, and her mother, a teacher and writer. I like to envision them both proudly looking over my shoulder, smiling at each other, exchanging a knowing nod--a nod that affirms what many of us have learned through our participation in the Oregon Writing Project. The Oregon Writing Project is huge, but we are like family; connected by some obscure genetic code: a chain of writers past, present and future. We are intimately connected to each other through our stories. And what we know is that summer is a time to play, to be children again, to find ourselves in our writing, to recognize ourselves in other’s writings, to keep the chain strong by passing this understanding on to our students.

You will find me, come this June, at the Summer Institute with my computer satchel, brand new laptop and a welcoming smile. Bring a story.

Barbara Giles, Co-Director for Summer Institute

Barbara began her involvement in writing projects in southern California at the Inland Area Writing Project at the University of California at Riverside.  After participating in the project in 1992, she returned on a regular basis and now refers to herself as a writing project groupie.  She got involved in working the summer institutes as a facilitator three times and as co-director several years.  With a colleague, she  initiated the twice annual writing retreats held at the Mission Inn in Riverside. The writing project with its philosophy and training supported her successful completion of National Board the pilot year.  She is delighted to be part of the Oregon Writing Project because so many of the best and most enthusiastic teachers she knows are writing project participants.

Since she is a strong believer that our professional voices need to be heard, Barbara has encouraged teachers to write for their profession.  She has created presentations on this topic, helped develop professional writing as a component for summer institutes in Riverside, and attended the National Writing Project’s Professional Writing Retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Retiring in 2003 after working in education for thirty-eight years, Barbara still remains involved in the educational community.  She has taught students grades kindergarten through college; the majority of her years were with middle school students in a language arts classroom, although her background includes work with special educations students and in reading instruction.  She concluded her formal career as a consultant in secondary literacy at the San Bernardino County Office. 

Since moving to Florence in the fall of 2005, she has joined a writing group as well as a book club, taught memoir writing classes at the community college and in other settings, and teaches composition at Lane Community College one quarter a year.  Her other interests include beach walking, photography, and yoga.  She has a daughter, Sarah, who as a third grade teacher in Port Hueneme, California,  has followed in her mom’s footsteps, teaching at the same school where Barbara began her work in education as a library clerk.  Barbara is eager to begin her work with OWP

Nathaniel Teich, State Network Coordinator

Nathaniel Teich is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Oregon, where he taught literature and writing courses for more than 32 years. As Director of Composition in the mid-1970s, he led the establishment of the Oregon Writing Project and served as the founding director of the UO site. Academically, he earned a BS in Management from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA; an MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, New York; a PhD in English from University of California, Riverside. He specialized in late 18th and early 19th century English literature and also rhetoric and teaching writing. After leaving classroom teaching, he has continued to work with OWP/UO on improving the teaching of writing and literacy in schools. His publications include articles on poets and theories of the British romantic movement, writing assessment, imagery, rhetorical theory, and non-adversarial approaches to argumentation. As a specialist in Rogerian Rhetoric, he edited and contributed essays to a volume reassessing Carl Rogers’ theory and practice: Rogerian Perspectives: Collaborative Rhetoric for Oral and Written Communication (1992).

Nan Pfiffer, Co-Director for Community and Youth

Carolyn Knox, Co-Director for School Partnerships

Eric Tuck, Technical Liaison

Angie Bunday, Technical Liaison

Judith Blair, I.T. and Communications Manager