Mairead Case joined NWA in December 2007. Before that, she worked at Northwestern University Press, TriQuarterly magazine, the Chicago Public Library, and Seattle's Richard Hugo House. Mairead founded the writing program at the South Bend Juvenile Justice Center, edited several independent publications and zines, and has been published in AREA, Ausgang, the Chicago Reader, Lumpen, Punk Planet, and the Stranger, among others. She has degrees in French and Liberal Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

Rupal Soni joined the NWA staff in September 2006. She has directed performances, coordinated open mic readings, and developed a wide spectrum of theme-based programming. She is always ready to provide positive encouragement and snacks. Before joining NWA, Rupal lived in India for 18 months where she started a Rural Design School on the India-Pakistan border through an Indicorps Fellowship. She is a multi-disciplinary artist who has led creative writing and performance workshops with the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, Young Asians with Power, and After School Matters. Rupal also writes and performs issue-based sketch comedy, which focuses on building awareness and inspiring necessary discussions. She has performed for shows with CAAELI (the Coalition of African, Asian, European, and Latino Immigrants), the Chinese Mutual Aid Association, the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media's Film Festival, YAWP! (Young Asians with Power!), and the Public Square at the Illinois Humanities Council. She holds a BS in Advertising from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Donna Kiser joined NWA in 2001, as a writer at the Jane Addams Resource Center writing group. During 2004 and 2005, she facilitated the Inspiration Cafe writing group (which later moved to Bezazian Branch Library). In January 2006, Donna conducted outreach for and initiated a new NWA workshop at Albany Park Community Center. In 2007, she opened the St. Leonard's House writing group. In addition to the Journal of Ordinary Thought, Donna has been published in Fictionary, Associated Content, and back2college.com, and also co-edits and designs the publication Poetry in the Round. She will graduate in May 2008 from Columbia College Chicago, with a BA in Cultural Studies and a minor in Creative Non Fiction.

Susan Eleuterio is the author of Irish American Material Culture: A Directory of Collections, Sites and Festivals in the United States and Canada (Greenwood Press: 1988). She has conducted fieldwork and developed public programs including exhibits, performances, folk arts workshops, residencies in schools, and professional development for multiple organizations throughout the United States, and is currently working as an independent folklorist. She holds an MA in American Folk Culture from the Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY/Oneonta) and a BA in English/Education from the University of Delaware.

Carlos Flores is of Afro-Puerto Rican descent and has lived in the Lincoln Park/West Town-Humboldt Park neighborhood for more than four decades. Flores has been a community activist in Chicago's Latino community for most of his life, and has documented the development of his community through his photography and writings. He is also a cultural activist and has been the founder of community organizations like the Puerto Rican Arts Alliance and the Afro-Latin@ Institute of Chicago.

Cynthium Johnson-Woodfolk is a creative writing professor at Columbia College. She received her BA from Columbia, and is currently completing both an MA and MFA. Cynthium is a Teaching Artist with a number of outreach programs: Arts Integration Mentorship (Project AIM), Saturday Scholars, Act Write, and the Story Workshop (SWI). She is an award-winning scholar, fiction writer, and playwright.

Toni Asante Lightfoot has worked with the Guild Complex, ETA Theater, Young Chicago Authors, and the Chicago Children's Museum. Her newest work, on legendary comedienne Jackie "Moms" Mabley, can be found in Warpland, the literary journal of Chicago State University.

Rebecca Nieto is from Tarimoro, GTO, Mexico and arrived in the United States in 1989. She and her husband, Arturo, have three beautiful girls: Favi, Elizabeth, and Evelyn. Rebecca is a daughter, mother, sister, and extraordinary wife who enjoys listening to music, taking walks in the afternoon, and reading with her children. She is a creative, reserved woman with a lot of dreams and goals to reach. She loves to help people, while showing a lot of respect to those she helps.

Maria Rojas is from Celaya, GTO Mexico, and has lived in the United States for 18 years. She and her husband, Jose, have three amazing children: Alejandra, Magnolia, and Leonardo. She has worked as the coordinator of Pausa for five years, and also as a group facilitator of their parenting class, La Crianza de los hijos. Maria has a BS in Social Work from Celaya, loves working with the community of Little Village, and enjoys reading, writing, and being with her family in her free time.

Nannette E. Banks has worked extensively as a group facilitator with NWA, and at organizations in Canada, New York, Minnesota, and Chicago. For the past two years, she has also worked as a Poet in Residence with the Poetry Center of Chicago, teaching the art of poetry to fifth through eighth graders in the Chicago Public Schools. For the past five years, Nanette has been commissioned by the Office of the Mayor, City of Chicago to facilitate poetry writing workshops at the KidStart Book Club Conference. Her educational/research pursuits have taken her to Israel; Cairo, Egypt; Istanbul, Turkey; and London, England. Currently, Nanette is working on a second Masters degree in Divinity at McCormick Theological Seminary.

A Michigan native, Rachel Javellana is a poet and teaching artist in Chicago. She received a BA in English and creative writing from Kalamazoo College, and has spent the intervening years in community work, writing, travel, rock shows, and trying to find an apartment that won't go condo. In 2007, she received a Community Arts Assistance Program Grant from the City of Chicago.

Daschell M. Phillips is currently an Education Reporter with the Hyde Park Herald, and an online instructor for Chicago City College's English department. She has written for numerous publications, and completed Web and newsletter design projects with the Blue Gargoyle Adult Learning Program, where she also served as the literacy coordinator. Daschell has a BA in Journalism from Norfolk State University and an MA in Journalism, emphasis on New Media, from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is the editor of the Waller/Lincoln Park High School Alumni Association Newsletter, and a certified Adult Basic Education and English as a Second Language tutor. Daschell served as an AmeriCorps Volunteer and is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc.

Valerie Martt Wallace is Editor of "Deep Dish," an online Chicago poem-a-week site and has been an annual judge for the Chicago Children's Haiku Festival since 2004. Her most recent published poems appear in Rhine, Potomac, Court Green, Woman Made Art Gallery Datebook, Convergence and Drumvoices Revue. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and in 2006, received an Illinois Arts Council Literary Award.