Mini Module coaches are professional coaches from Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance (WRSA). Coaches are trained to lead the workshops in ways to actively engaged students and apply learning directly to the classroom.
Kim Austin
Kim Austin is a Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance in the Learning Commons. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in English and is TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) certified. In addition to teaching writing, speech, and literature at West Chicago High School for ten years, she also worked as a communications director, where she wrote and edited content for newsletters, a website, and social media.
Deanna Basco
Deanna Basco has been a Coach since 2008. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Communications (advertising focus) from the University of Washington, Seattle, she has experience developing and presenting information sessions covering reading and writing topics in the Learning Commons and also has created and presented at conferences hosted by the College of DuPage. Deanna has over 17 years of classroom experience as a substitute teacher, which provides a unique skill set often used during both one-on-one appointments and when presenting to groups. Resumes, cover letters, and especially personal statement essays for college applications are favorite areas.
Amy Bowden
Amy Bowden is a Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance (WRSA) in the Learning Commons. She holds a BA in English from Augustana College, an MAT from the University of Chicago, and an MA in Literature from Northwestern University. She has taught writing, literary analysis, public speaking, and humanities courses in many different educational settings, ranging from large audience presentations to one-on-one teaching partnerships.
Julie P. Center
Julie P. Center is a Coach in the Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance area. Prior to working at WRSA, Julie taught Composition and Literature courses at Elmhurst College and Harper College. Her grammar strengths stem from working as a professional editor for more than a decade in the publishing field. She received her MA in Writing from DePaul University with a strong passion for poetry, creative nonfiction, and autobiography.
Anne Hess
Anne Hess is a Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance in the Learning Commons. Before coaching in the Learning Commons, Anne taught high school English in the Houston Spring Branch School District and 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Writing Workshop in Colorado. She earned her Bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas, Austin and her Master in Education from Houston Baptist University.
Janice Lark
Janice Lark is a Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance (WRSA) where she collaborates with writers and readers and facilitates Conversation Circles. With advanced degrees in Reading Education and Literature, she has tutored students in reading and writing at Harper College and taught online education classes at the university level. During her tenure as an instructional coach and reading specialist for a large school district, she developed workshops, produced training materials, and provided modeling for classroom teachers. As a member of the reading department for an educational publishing firm, Janice worked in test development and created language arts passages and items. At Oakton Community College, she taught various levels of reading, writing, listening, and speaking for English Language Learners. In the Instructional Support Services department at Oakton, she tutored students, conducted conversation groups, and delivered study skills workshops.
Steven Mosley
Steven Mosley is a Coach in the Learning Commons Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance area. Steven holds a BA in English: Professional and Technical Writing and has several years of experience as an academic coach at Malcolm X College in Chicago and Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills. Throughout this experience, he has assisted a very diverse and wide-ranging population of students with most types of English assignments and conducted workshops and presentations for large and small groups of students, staff, and faculty.
Ixta Rosa
Ixta Rosa is a Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance at COD. She is also an adjunct lecturer teaching English composition at Waubonsee Community College. Previous professional experience has included employment at the University of Illinois at Chicago as an academic advisor and instructor teaching composition, critical reading and writing, vocabulary enrichment, literature, and study skills courses; teaching writing and rhetoric courses at Columbia College Chicago, and scriptwriting and copyediting at a Chicago educational publishing company. She also has over ten years of experience scoring AP English Composition essays for ETS and assessing personal statements for study abroad scholarships. She has published poetry and nonfiction in several literary magazines and holds BAs in anthropology, American culture, and English from the University of Michigan and an MA in English via the Program for Writers at UIC. She has used her years of instructing and advising college students in essay-writing to develop and facilitate the Mini-Module titled "Writing a Thesis Statement."
Jessica Shubert
Jessica Shubert has been a Coach at the Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance area in the Learning Commons since she was a student at COD. After graduating here, she continued on to North Central College and earned her B.A. in English with a writing focus. She has a wide range of experience with writing and presenting, from working on college literary publications, events, lectures, and essays to publishing poetry, short stories, and science fiction novels.
Andrew Smith
Andrew Smith came to the College of DuPage after being a staff writer for the DuPage County bureau of Daily Herald newspaper for eight years. In addition to being a licensed high-school teacher in English, Psychology, and History, he has also edited successfully-defended PhD dissertations for graduate students at Loyola University. He developed his expertise in grammar through his work as a journalist as well as through English-language studies in grammar, linguistics, and the history of English. Andrew is a Lead Coach in Writing, Reading, Speech Assistance in the Learning Commons.