MEET THE CLC STAFF
DIRECTOR
Tobi Jacobi is a composition and literacy specialist in the CSU English Department and the current director of the Community Literacy Center. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in public writing, composition and literacy theory, critical pedagogy, and prison writing.
Her passion for writing, teaching, and learning is driven by a deep respect for the role of community in our lives and a commitment to understanding and advancing the role of writing and literacy in the world. Her research explores the relationship between literacy, representation, and social change and has included projects ranging from interviews with incarcerated women writers to pop-up museums featuring archival materials from an early twentieth century training school for girls. Recent scholarship on prison literacy and community writing appears in journals such as Reflections, Community Literacy Journal, The Journal of Correctional Education, Feminist Formations, and Radical Teacher and in edited collections. Her co-edited book Women, Writing, and Prison came out in 2014, and she is currently working on a collaborative literacy remix project that blends contemporary pedagogy with archival prison texts.
For her, work with the Community Literacy Center interns and community writers represents literacy in action, a concrete way to enact a commitment to challenging the uneven power relations that attempt to “fix” the life experiences of some people through limited access to education. Like Bell Hooks, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Anzaldua before her, she believes that language has the power to cause ruptures, pain, joy, and hope-and that our work at the Center can contribute to moving literacy beyond pages with red marks.
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
Mary Ellen Sanger is the Associate Director of the Community Literacy Center since 2015. She has been leading creative writing workshops since 2005 in New York City and Fort Collins, with a focus on under-represented communities. She lived in Mexico for 17 years, and has published short stories, creative nonfiction and poetry in Spanish and English in Mexico, the US and online. Mary Ellen has been a member of the fiction and poetry committees for the PEN Prison Writing Program, and was a post-production coordinator for the Emmy award-winning Mexican documentary “Presunto Culpable” (Presumed Guilty). Her book “Blackbirds in the Pomegranate Tree: Stories from Ixcotel State Prison” relates stories of the women she met when she was unjustly incarcerated in Mexico. That experience has led her to work closely with confined populations.
2024-2025 INTERN PHOTOS AND BIOS!
Cailee Chapman
Cailee is a senior at Colorado State University studying English literature with a minor in legal studies. After graduation, she plans on going to law school to become a civil liberties lawyer; with a focus on advocating for people and their rights.
Education acts as the backbone for her success, whether it be in a traditional academic setting or simply interacting with members of her community. Breaking down barriers to education is a core value for her, and she strides to do this any way she can, especially through the CLC.
Outside of academia, Cailee loves to write free verse poetry, attend rock n’ roll concerts, and go antique/vintage shopping with friends.
Maddy King
Maddy King is a fourth-year undergraduate at CSU majoring in English, Literature and minoring in Media Studies. In her free time Maddy loves to ride her bike around Fort Collins, spend time with her friends and family, and enjoy the sunshine in any way she can! She is absolutely ecstatic to be working with the Community Literacy Center for the 24-25 school year.
Maddy has always had a deep love for literature and learning, and she understands just how important that can be in the healing/recovery process. She also greatly appreciates community outreach and is so impressed with the work the CLC has done. She cannot wait to continue the amazing work and reach every community she can! Maddy sees how providing people with a creative outlet where they will actually be listened to and heard is so important, and she feels so grateful to be working with such devoted people.
Danny Saldana
Danny Saldana is a second year Master's student pursuing a M.A. in English Education. Their focus is on teaching English Literature with an emphasis on accessibility, compassionate classroom community, and social justice. They have experience working with queer and disenfranchised students, and their ultimate goal is to teach self-determination, self-advocacy, and identity through English composition and Literature.
Danny is currently teaching Compostion-150 at CSU, and is absolutely loving the opportunity to work in classrooms. "Spare time" is a foreign concept to them, but they also love writing speculative fiction and would love to write Y.A. Science fiction and fantasy novels. They also love D&D, the Lord of the Rings, and photography!
Cade Zehner
Cade Zehner will be entering his Senior year at CSU and will be graduating with a degree in English, with a concentration in Writing, Rhetoric, and Literacy. After graduating, he plans to continue to work with literacy, whether that is through further education or professionally. Cade Zehner recognizes the importance of literacy in his own life and is extremely excited to be working with the Community Literacy Center and the greater local Fort Collins community.
In his free time, Cade loves to read books from a wide range of authors, with notable favorites being Annie Jacobson, George R. R. Martin, and Octavia E. Butler. Being with friends is also important to Cade, as he is an out-of-state student and finds his Fort Collins Community very important to him.
Kylynn White
Kylynn is a senior English Creative Writing major at CSU. In her free time, she enjoys writing her young adult novels that she plans to publish after graduation, during grad school. She also enjoys reading romance and mystery novels like the A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series by Holly Jackson. Whe loves spending time with her friends and family and enjoys offering support to them. She relates that "interning for the Community Literacy Center is going to be a great experience for me to explore leading brave spaces for all. Writing and giving back have always been a passion of mine and I am very excited to be on this journey!"
