Staff

Director
 

David Hassler is the author of two books of poems, including Red Kimono, Yellow Barn, for which he was awarded Ohio Poet of the Year 2006. He is the author of several nonfiction books as well, most recently the play, May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970 based on the Kent State Shootings Oral History Project (The Kent State University Press, 2013). With photographer Gary Harwood, he is the author of Growing Season: The Life of a Migrant Community, which received the Ohioana Book Award, the Carter G. Woodson Honor Book Award, and was a finalist for the Great Lakes Book Award. He is coeditor of two anthologies by the University of Iowa Press, Learning by Heart: Contemporary American Poetry about School and After the Bell: Contemporary American Prose about School, as well as A Place to Grow: Voices and Images of Urban Gardeners. He received a BA from Cornell University and an MFA from Bowling Green State University. His poems have appeared in Prairie Schooner, The Sun, DoubleTake/Points of Entry, Indiana Review, and other journals. He speaks widely at state and national conferences on issues of poetry and education.

Sr. Director, Academic Programs

Jessica Jewell is the author of three collections of poetry including Slap Leather (dancing girl press), Sisi and the Girl from Town (Finishing Line Press) and Dust Runner (Finishing Line Press). She is also an editor of two collections: Speak a Powerful Magic (Kent State University Press) and I Hear the World Sing (Kent State University Press). Jewell is currently the senior academic program director for the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, where she also earned her PhD in higher education administration and an MFA in poetry. Her academic writing has been published most recently in the Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education and Inside Higher Education. Her poetry has appeared in Cider Press Review, American Poetry Journal, and Nimrod among others. Jewell lives in northeast Ohio with her wife and two gorgeous dogs.

Assistant Director, Marketing 

Györgyi Mihályi-Jewell is the assistant director of marketing at the Wick Center and International Programs and Education Abroad in the College of Arts and Sciences. She has an M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration with an Internationalization certificate from Kent State University as well as BA in English Literature from the University of Szeged and a BA in Business Administration from Kent State University. She is originally from Szeged, Hungary. 
Photo credit: Melissa Olson

Program and Outreach Manager

Charles Malone is a Northeastern Ohio native who earned his BA and MA from Kent State before working on his MFA at Colorado State University. While in Colorado, Charlie taught poetry in the schools with Literacy Through Poetry and served on the staff of the Colorado Review and Matter Journal. In collaboration with Wolverine Farm Publishing, Charlie edited the anthology A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park. His writing has appeared in Salfront, Sugar House Review, Phoebe, Harpur Palate, The Laurel Review, Boneshaker, and Permafrost. He is also the author of the chapbook Questions about Circulation from Driftwood Press and the full-length collection Working Hypothesis forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. 

Assistant Director, College of Arts and Sciences

Alyssa Mazey is an assistant director in the College of Arts and Sciences and is spearheading the Sisters in Liberty initiative. She sharpened her interests in the intersections of critical thinking, creativity and analysis while earning her BA in Communication Studies and M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration, both from Kent State University, where she is also pursuing her Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration. Mazey is very active in the Kent community and loves to volunteer in her spare time. She is also amazed by the beauty of the world, which she explores while on runs with her Aussiedoodle, Baker.