Detroit Working Writers Logo over a sunset skyline of the city of Detroit

To encourage creative writing of the highest professional standard and serve as a creative and professional resource for one another and the community.

The DWW Board

For the term June 2023 to May 2025

Executive Board
President: Theresa Nielsen
Vice President: Michelle Morouse
Secretary: Laura Hedgecock
Treasurer: Bill Rathburg

Honorary Directors: Kathleen Ripley Leo, Maureen McGerty, and Angela Rochon

Board Committee Chairs:
Program Chair: Theresa Nielsen
Website: Laura Hedgecock
Social Media Co-Chairs: Terry Hojnacki & Richard Stiennon
Historian: Michelle Morouse
Membership: Michelle Morouse

 

Profiles

Theresa Nielsen

President

Theresa Nielsen, a Royal Oak resident, writes across many genres. She is currently working on the sequel to a young adult novel and a memoir about her quilting life.  When she’s not writing, Theresa enjoys spending time in her garden and with her family pets. She has self-published three picture books and a young adult novel.

Michelle Morouse

Vice-President

Michelle Morouse is a Detroit area pediatrician. Her flash fiction and poetry have appeared recently, or is forthcoming,  in Litro Online, Ponder Review, Necessary Fiction, Wigleaf, Peregrine, Lullwater Review, Passager, The MacGuffin, Pembroke Magazine, Passages North, and Cease, Cows.

Laura Hedgecock

Secretary

Laura is an author, freelance writer, speaker, and blogger passionate about helping others tell their personal and family stories. Her books (so far) include Memories of Me: A Complete Guide to Telling and Sharing the Stories of Your Life ( Cedar Fort, 2014) and Blogging for Family History. She blogs at TreasureChestofMemories.com and serves as the organizing President of GeneaBloggersTRIBE, a community of over 3,300 family history bloggers. Laura is currently working on a YA fantasy series.

Bill Rathburg

Treasurer

Terry Hojnacki

Social Media Co-Chair

Terry Hojnacki, author of I Can See With My Eyes Shut Tight, is an award-winning flash fiction writer, poet, novelist, and editor. As founder and editor-in-chief of Sterling Script: A Local Author Collection, she works to encourage and promote her local writing community.
Terry is the Creative Writers Workshop facilitator at the Sterling Heights Public Library where she was named 2018 Volunteer of the Year. She currently serves as a member of the Library Board of Trustees.
Her short stories and poetry have appeared in ARTIFEX, Ghostlight: The Magazine of Terror, Pink Panther Magazine, Recurring Nightmares, and Sterling Script.

Richard Stiennon

Social Media Co-Chair

Richard Stiennon writes nonfiction. He has presented on the topic of cybersecurity in 31 countries on six continents.   He is the author of Security Yearbook 2021: A History and Directory of the IT Security Industry. In 2019 he published Secure Cloud Transformation: The CIO’s Journey. He also wrote Surviving Cyberwar (Government Institutes, 2010) and Washington Post Best Seller, There Will Be Cyberwar. He writes for SecurityBoulevard.com, and The Analyst Syndicate.  He has a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and an MA in War in the Modern World from King’s College, London. Follow @cyberwar on Twitter.

Kathleen Ripley Leo

Honorary Director

Kathleen Ripley Leo is an awarding winning poet, adjunct professor, novelist. Her credits include 15 volumes of poems, countless literary press publications, and two nominations for Pushcart; Leo’s novel, The Seamless Universe, is a YA fantasy tribute to lost children. She received grant-funded residencies under MCACA Creative Writers in the Schools programs and twice received tributes from Michigan’s legislature. She chaired AWP’s pedagogy conference, providing speakers and compilations of lesson plans for university writing instructors. Kathleen has served often on DWW’s board, including as President. She was awarded the national prize Woman in the Arts Recognition Award for her national reputation and lifetime of achievement.

Maureen McGerty

Honorary Director

Maureen McGerty is a writer and an editor. At her day job, she manages the publishing process of original research in maternal-fetal medicine. Her current personal project is a trilogy of historical novellas set during the aftermath of the First World War. She also tutors students in English language arts. She has worked as a reporter and feature writer and as a public relations specialist in healthcare. In her spare time, she reads mystery novels and is braiding an area rug. Maureen is a past president of DWW (2007-2011).

Angela Rochon

Honorary Director

Team

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