Heather Brody is a full-time faculty member at Grand Canyon University. She earned her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English with a double emphasis in rhetoric/composition and literature from Loyola Marymount University Los Angeles. She has taught composition and literature courses for more than 10 years. Her passion is helping students reach their full potential as critical thinkers and communicators. She is committed to finding innovative, challenging, and engaging ways to lead developmental writers to be comfortable and successful with written communication.

Jennifer E. Chinn, is an online full-time faculty member at Grand Canyon University. She earned her Master of Arts in English from Arizona State University. She has worked in higher education for 14 years. Her diverse experience as a composition instructor and student support associate has provided her with a valuable and unique perspective. She has participated in presentations for other faculty members and frequently creates Classroom Assessment Techniques designed to stimulate conversation and thought. Chinn enjoys interacting with students in an online modality while maintaining a personal touch and empathy for students.

Dr. Reneé Cooperman is an instructor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Grand Canyon University where she teaches college English composition and rhetoric courses. Cooperman completed her PhD at the University of Arizona and her undergraduate at the State University of New York and at Arizona State University. Her research interests lie in the areas of teaching online, teaching writing, curriculum development, and public discourses including the rhetorical situation in court ordered community mediation. Cooperman was the recipient of a grant in which she studied online writing assessment. She has presented her work in these areas at conferences and as a contributor to academic journals.

Dr. Meredith DeCosta is a faculty manager, instructor, researcher, and writer at Grand Canyon University. Her work focuses on writing education, Web 2.0 literacies, and educational equity in urban and multicultural contexts. She has written several peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and co-authored a book with Columbia University's Teachers College Press titled Real World Writing for Secondary Students.

Rebecca A. Foy, is a faculty member and former English content lead at Grand Canyon University. She earned of Master of Arts in Secondary Education in 2005 from University of Phoenix and a Master of Arts in English in 2012 from Northern Arizona University. She is involved with curriculum development in the areas of composition and literacy. In addition to promoting the usage of multimedia and online resources in the classroom, she also actively creates presentations for conferences and Classroom Assessment Techniques with the latest technology. Her participation in committee work, research, mentoring, and training supports her goal to further the quality of online education in the composition classroom. She is currently working toward her PhD in General Psychology: Cognition and Instruction.

Mary Beth Nipp is an Assistant Online Professor at Grand Canyon University. She has served as Content Lead for the online English department and enjoys sharing best practices with other faculty members. Her background includes teaching in the K-12 public school system and teaching English in Szeged, Hungary.

Stephanie Maher Palenque is a full-time faculty member in the English Department of Grand Canyon University. She is a self-described, “word nerd” and created and maintains the website, thewordnerd.com. Stephanie is the author of hundreds of both fiction and nonfiction articles that have been published in local, regional, and national magazines and newspapers. Her book, Crack + Cocaine = Busted was published in 2005. She is currently working on her PhD at Grand Canyon University. She lives in Anthem, Arizona, with her husband, Jaime, and their three daughters Sophia, Alexandra, and Charlotte.

Brian Raftery is a cum laude graduate of St. John’s University and the recipient of a teaching fellowship to Syracuse University, where he earned a Master of English and American Literature while teaching composition and literature classes. Since 2010, he has taught composition and literature classes at Grand Canyon University. He has supervised the full-time online English faculty and is currently serving as domain lead for the ground English faculty. He has published articles for Current Biography on the poets James Merrill, Galway Kinnell, and Seamus Heaney. Most recently, he co-authored a presentation on grammar instruction for GCU’s Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching.

Dr. Jennifer M. Santos is an Assistant Professor at Grand Canyon University, where she teaches developmental writing, first-year composition, honors classes, and graduate classes. She has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on visual rhetoric, audience studies, and best practices for writing pedagogy. In 2010, she was awarded a research grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. Santos was recently elected by her peers to the executive committee of the Modern Language Association’s Present-Day English, where she currently serves as president.

Maria Zafonte is an Assistant Professor of English in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Grand Canyon University, where she has taught since 2012. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Instruction and Cognition; her area of interest is effective teaching of writing, critical thinking, and research at the post-secondary level.