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.
2025-2026 INTERN PHOTOS AND BIOS!
Kyla Ballard
Kyla is a senior at CSU double majoring in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and Philosophy with a concentration in Philosophy of Science. Her main area of interest is in the value of interdisciplinary collaboration, as she believes combining different ways of knowing is important for gaining a complete understanding of the world. Kyla has worked within the community to advocate for and educate on the rights and experiences of those with disabilities. After graduation, Kyla hopes to work in spaces that bring together the sciences and the humanities to develop innovative solutions for environmental, social, and health issues that better suit the rapidly changing world.
Kyla discovered her passion for creative writing during a health crisis in her life, finding that writing gave her a tool through which to better understand herself and her place in the world amidst life’s challenges and changes. She is excited to work with the CLC to bring this life changing medium of writing to others in the community.
In her free time, Kyla enjoys writing poetry, attending local concerts, enjoying nature, and training with her service dog Rami.
Bella Chiango
Bella Chiango (she/they) is a fourth-year undergraduate at CSU, majoring in English Literature and minoring in Women’s and Gender Studies. After college, she plans to get her master’s degree in English Education with a focus on how literacy and literature can impact future thinkers beyond the classroom.
In her free time, Bella enjoys reading, anything artistic, feminist vampire stories, and holding her cat like a baby.
Bella is deeply excited to work alongside the Community Literacy Center this year and understands how literacy and education can be an overlooked privilege. She hopes to continue spreading the joys of reading, writing, and the empowerment that comes with it throughout the year to anyone who will listen.
Sydney Hernandez
Sydney Hernandez is an English Literature major with a love for storytelling, education, and building community. As a first-generation college student and transfer from Front Range Community College, she’s passionate about creating spaces where people feel seen, heard, and supported, especially through reading and writing.
She currently works with Colorado’s Universal Pre-K program, where she spends her days planning fun, engaging activities for young children and helping them build confidence through play and early literacy. Whether she’s reading stories aloud, setting up a hands-on art project, or watching kids discover something new, Sydney is reminded every day why she wants to pursue a future in education.
In her free time, you can usually find her outside with a book in hand, going for walks, or thinking up creative ways to bring learning to life, both in the classroom and beyond. She plans to earn her master’s degree in English Education and one day join the Peace Corps to support education efforts around the world.
Sydney is excited to be part of the Community Literacy Center because she believes in the power of writing to create change, make people feel less alone, and give voice to stories that deserve to be heard.
Alexa Holmes
Alexa is a fourth-year undergraduate at CSU double-majoring in English (creative writing; writing, rhetoric, and literacy) and French. She loves getting to know writers’ distinct, unique voices through their work, and is deeply inspired by the impact of collaboration and conversation on community literacy. Her desire to support and encourage writers has motivated her to pursue a career in publishing. She particularly enjoys reading poetry and creative nonfiction and experimenting with form and genre in her own writing, and she can also be found frolicking outdoors or crocheting. She is very grateful for the opportunity to intern with the CLC and looks forward to working with writers in the community!
Gabby Vermiere
Gabby started her first year in the Creative Writing M.F.A. program and couldn’t be more of a happy, intellectually-spongy “newb” to the writing world. In her other life, Gabby created the Instagram humor account Whole Foods Daddy and wrote an advice column under the Whole Foods Daddy pseudonym. Both projects highlighted the absurd contradictions of Boulder, Colorado and crunchy culture. Unexpectedly, substance abuse and mental illness became frequent topics in the Instagram account and the column. Gabby’s interest in the Community Literacy Center comes from a deep belief in the ability of humor and irreverence to bring healing and light to the painful places that mental illness and substance abuse take us. She looks forward to exploring her new community of Fort Collins in this meaningful way.