Cohort 3
Summer 2022
Matt McBride is an Assistant Professor of English.
Interview with Matt
May 2023
What communities do you work with in your daily life and how are you applying your learnings from the Certified Listener Poet course with them?
As a creative writing professor, I am entrusted with my students' life stories. The Certified Listener Poet course helped me better hear what they have to say.
What's something that's inspiring your writing these days?
Poetry, for me, is about making our everyday experience strange, so that we can see our experience in ways we may ignore since we've become so used to it. Poetry is one way of creating awe for the world.
What one thing has stuck with you most from your Certified Listener Poet experience?
One of the most important lessons I internalized from the Certified Listener Poet experience was that honestly listening to someone requires that you hold back the urge to contribute to a conversation unless the other person is earnestly asking for your response.
Gray Davidson Carroll is a transfemme writer, educator, public health researcher, and (self-proclaimed) hot chocolate connoisseur.
Avni Vyas is a poet and professor living in Florida. She is the author of Little God (Burrow Press, 2021)
Dawn M. Schocken is the Director for the Center for Experiential Learning and Simulation.
Salaam Green is the Founder of Literary Healing Arts, a Consultant, and Artist in Residence.
Zina Mercil is the Director of Coach Development, a counselor, and body psychotherapist.
LaShaune Johnson is a public health professor, breast cancer survivor/advocate, and culturally responsive evaluator.
Sailaja Devaguptapu is a published poet, writer and researcher, wellness facilitator, designing and developing courses on Health Humanities.
Kelsey D. Mahaffey is a non-profit leader working to educate and engage communities in the All of Us Research Program from the National Institutes of Health.