Who We Are
Meet the Center for Environmental Literacy Team!
Robert Hass
Chair
River of Words judge, advisor, and co-founder, Bob is the author of several books of poems, including Field Guide (1973), Praise (1979), Human Wishes (1989), and Sun Under Wood: New Poems (1996); and a collection of essays, Twentieth Century Pleasures: Prose on Poetry (1984). His poetry collection Time and Materials (2007) won the National Book Award for poetry and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. His awards include the Yale Younger Poets Award, the William Carlos Williams Award, the National Book Critics’ Circle Award for criticism in 1984, an Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship. Bob served from 1995 to 1997 as Poet Laureate of the United States and as consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress and as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets from 2001 to 2007. He is a graduate of Saint Mary’s College, and is a Distinguished Professor in Poetry and Poetics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Chris Sindt
Co-Director of Center for Environmental Literacy
Christopher Sindt is Vice Provost for Graduate and Professional Programs and Dean of Kalmanovitz School of Education at Saint Mary's. He was also the director of the college’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program for seven years. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and he served from 2002-09 on the advisory board of WritersCorps, a national organization that places writers in urban classrooms and communities. Sindt has a doctorate in English and a master's degree in creative writing from UC Davis. His book The Bodies was published by Parlor Press in 2011, and his poetry chapbook, The Land of Give and Take, was published in 2002. His poetry has recently appeared in nocturnes, Pool, Swerve and Xantippe.
Luz Casquejo Johnston
Co-Director of the Center for Environmental Literacy
Luz Casquejo Johnston is an Assistant Professor in the Kalmanovitz School of Education (KSOE). She teaches in the Montessori Teacher Education Program and serves as the Elementary Coordinator. Her current research focuses on human motivation and self-determination supports in Montessori learning environments. She has published in the Journal of Montessori research. Previous to her move to Saint Mary's College, Luz taught lower elementary grades, was a founding faculty member of two charter Montessori schools and served as a principal of two learning centers for a large independent study charter school in Riverside County for eight years which included a Montessori academy. She has been involved with Montessori education in every capacity starting as a preschool student and continuing on to parent, teacher, board memmber, principal and currently as an educator in the Montessori Teacher Education Program.
David Wood
David Wood has worked for more than 25 years as an English teacher at Northgate High School in Walnut Creek, currently serving as department chair. He received a Distinguished Teacher award from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington in 2002. He was a member of the board of the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley from 1998 to 2007, and served as Board President from 1999 to 2001. Wood is also a director of the Wood Foundation of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and a Master of Arts in teaching (MAT) in English education from the University of Chicago.
Maureen Esty
River of Words Coordinator
Maureen Esty received a Master’s in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Saint Mary’s in May 2017 as well as the Writing Across the Curriculum Fellowship in 2014. For the last two years, Maureen has been facilitating peer collaboration and critical thinking in undergraduate and graduate students. Before coming to California, she worked in Philadelphia for four years with subscribers and donors to such resident companies as the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pennsylvania Ballet, and Opera Philadelphia. She is a speculative fiction writer and an eco-poet. Her work has appeared in the Wittenberg University Art and Poetry Review. An INFJ, Maureen loves tea more than coffee and has been working on her first novel for last 9 years.
Emily Ratto
River of Words Publishing Manager
Emily Ratto is a second-year graduate student and MFA Candidate at Saint Mary’s College of California. In 2016, she received her BA in English from Saint Mary’s. A poet, teacher, avid gardener, reader, sun-layer, and lover of succulents, Emily's highest goal is to work with students of all ages to support their relationship to writing, particularly in the nonprofit world.
Ed Hirtzel
Assistant Publishing Manager
Ed Hirtzel is a first-year graduate student in the Saint Mary's Creative Writing MFA program and a recipient of the program's Composition Fellowship. In spring of 2017 she received a B.A. in English at Millersville University, located in Central Pennsylvania, and graduated from that university's Honors College. She is a poet, occasional fiction writer, tutor, and former student metalsmith. Her time outside of academic and professional pursuits is largely spent adding books to a reading list that never seems to get any shorter and diverting her rabbit, Carmine, from his relentless quest to eat everything in sight.
Ambereise McElrath
Publishing Assistant
Ambereise McElrath is a third-year English-Creative Writing major at Saint Mary’s. She is also minoring in East Asian Studies (Japanese) and will be studying in Japan during Fall 2017. As well as being involved in the Japanese community on campus, Ambereise is involved in the English community, as one of the 2017 editors for Saint Mary’s literary magazine, riverrun, and a 2018 co-head editor. Her first published work is the creative nonfiction piece “TV Guide for HRT Network” in riverrun – which she hopes to be the first of many. When she isn’t writing, editing, or speaking Japanese, Ambereise likes to read, draw, take care of plants, and watch The Food Network with her parents.
Amanda Ramos
Publishing Assistant
Amanda Ramos is a third year student at Saint Mary’s College majoring in Child & Adolescent Developmental Psychology and minoring in Theatre. She is a Theatre Scholarship student and part of the Honours Program, leading the Arts for the Community Honours Colloquium. She is also the leader of the Green Living Learning Community, promoting sustainability efforts. She is an INFP, a ukulele-strummer, a quirkiness enthusiast, a honeybee protector, and drinks dandelions instead of coffee. She believes in using love and art to change the world, and agrees with Van Gogh that “there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.”