The Consultants

Our consultants are accomplished graduate and undergraduate Mason students. Our graduate and undergraduate consultants are talented writers and scholars who come from majors across the university. These are the Summer 2026 consultants:

 Angela B

Angela is a PhD candidate in the Cultural Studies department. Here in the Writing Center, she consults with advanced graduate students working on their theses and dissertations. Angela has taught in the Integrative Studies department for four years, focusing primarily on visual culture and society. Her dissertation research involves understanding the intersections of fanship, digital community, and merchandise. She has completed fields (qualifying exams in the form of extensive literature reviews) in culture & political economy and digital communities. Angela holds an M.A. in Sociology from the University of Texas at Arlington. She has presented work in the forms of papers and presentations at the Mid-South Sociological Association Annual Meeting and at the Southern Sociological Association Meeting. At the Mason Writing Center, she supports graduate writers working on their thesis, dissertation, and other academic projects. Angela is a tabletop gamer, trained in sword fighting, a violinist, and avid consumer of mass media.

 Caitlin

Caitlin is a PhD candidate in the History department, studying American history with a focus on gender and gender-non-conformity in the 18th century Atlantic world. Her dissertation research seeks to broaden our understanding of gender in the past by identifying and investigating recurring language and tropes in gender-non-conforming narratives. With a minor field in digital history, she has previously worked at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media and taught The Digital Past: History in the Digital Age, an upper-level undergraduate course in the History department. She holds an M.A. in History from George Mason University and a B.A. in History and International Relations from the College of William & Mary. Prior to Mason, she also taught high school English, History and AP Economics at Killington Mountain School in Vermont. At the Writing Center, Caitlin is a Thesis/Dissertation Consultant, working with graduate writers on their theses, dissertations and other academic projects.

 Cheyenne

Cheyenne (she/her) is a first-year graduate student in the Non-fiction Creative Writing program. Cheyenne graduated from Hampton University with a B.A. in English and a minor in Strategic Communications. During her undergraduate studies, Cheyenne served as the editor-in-chief of the digital magazine, Her Campus, where she first learned how to help writers to find and preserve their voices– this is her favorite part of the writing process. In 2024, Cheyenne graduated with an M.A. in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College. During her time at Emerson, she worked as an Editorial Coordinator at Harvard Business Publishing and served as an Editorial Assistant to the series editor of the Best American Essays series. It was also during that time that Cheyenne learned to read and curate across genres, and, with the help of faculty, realized that writing wasn’t just a supplement to a publishing career, it was the dream itself. When she’s not reading, she’s working out, listening to Taylor Swift, and being a co-dependent youngest daughter.

 Gemmalee

Gemmalee (she/hers) is a first year MFA student in the creative nonfiction track. She is from San Antonio, Texas, and received her bachelor’s in Classics and Anthropology from the University of Arizona. Gemmalee also worked as a writing tutor during undergraduate at the university’s Think Tank and is CRLA certified. She studied abroad in Italy and gained valuable experience in Classical Archaeology through direct interaction with sites and artifacts. Gemmalee also has experience revising academic research papers and argumentative essays. In pursuing the study of nonfiction, she wants to explore the power of narratives and memoirs. During her free time, Gemmalee loves reading contemporary fiction, writing, learning about the expansive world and culture of fragrance, playing with and petting cats, and also trying new coffeeshops, restaurants, and bookshops.

 Janalyn

Janalyn is a PhD candidate in the Linguistics program, studying acoustic phonetics and speech science. Her dissertation research looks at pronunciation variation among first and second-language Turkish speakers. Her research uses quantitative and computational methodologies using corpus and self-collected data. She has also done previous work that included qualitative methodologies. She holds an M.A. in English with a concentration in Linguistics from George Mason University. At the Writing Center, Janalyn serves as the Graduate Writing Coordinator, working with graduate students on theses, dissertations, and other academic projects. She has experience writing funding proposals as well as preparing conference submissions and manuscripts.

 Kelsey

Kelsey (she/her) is a first year MFA creative writing student with a concentration in fiction. She received her Bachelor’s in dance and digital media and video production at Marymount Manhattan College. After leaving New York she moved back to her home town, Birmingham Alabama, and became a reporter at WBHM, her state’s NPR station. While there she received three awards for her reporting. With her reporting experience acting as the groundwork, she aims to enrich her own writing by creating fictional works that rely on real life context. Her aim with reporting was to empower the public with information, similarly she hopes to empower writers who come to the writing center with the fundamentals of writing, so they can understand the power they wield once they know these techniques. When she is not in the Writing Center, you can find her at a movie theater or at a bookstore.

 Kendall

Kendall is a PhD student in the linguistics program. Her research uses computational linguistic methodology and quantitative analysis to research questions involving the intersection of language and media. She has presented work on how fans use the language of their fandoms and on multilingual students' university writing experiences. She has a master’s in linguistics from George Mason University and an undergraduate degree in communication and media studies from Old Dominion University. She also has a background in education, teaching multilingual students in Fairfax County. At the writing center, Kendall specializes in helping graduate writers with theses, dissertations, proposals, and publication-bound papers.

 Meg

Meg (they/them) is a first-year MA Literature student and has lived in Northern Virginia all their life. Meg received their Bachelor’s in English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Mary Washington. Given their background with an interdisciplinary major, Meg has experience with many disciplines and has written and worked with humanities-focused papers in MLA, Chicago, and APA style citations. Meg is passionate about working with disabled writers and individualizing sessions for each writers’ needs. Meg works for Phoebe, the graduate literary journal at Mason, as the social media editor. Their interests include books, 2000s sitcoms, concerts, bumblebees, and 20th century lesbians.

 Nikki

Nikki is a first-year student in the MFA in Creative Writing program, with a concentration in nonfiction. She has a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a teaching certificate from Moreland University. Nikki is a credentialed ESL educator and has taught writing and literacy in K-12 and post-secondary settings using her many years of experience in journalism and public relations with media, nonprofit, corporate, and global intergovernmental organizations. She speaks several languages, with Russian and English being her fortes. Her pedagogy style is defined by her desire to support each individual writer in the way that is most useful to them and to meet them where they are in their writing process.    

 Pari (پریا)

Pari (پریا) is an MFA candidate in Poetry, as well as the poetry editor for the magazine So to Speak. They hold a BFA in Creative Writing with a minor in Linguistics. They were born and raised in Iran, and speak Persian as their first language, as well as some elementary Korean. As an immigrant who was unfamiliar with English academic writing, they’re somewhat familiar with the struggles of acclimating to a different writing context. In the Writing Center, they strive to help writers be confident in their work and find a writing style that empowers their voice and individuality. They also serve as the Outreach Coordinator. Other than reading and writing, they enjoy cooking, music, and video games. Their favorite band is Creeper.

 Rachel

Rachel (they/them) is a first-year graduate student in the Master’s in English program concentrating in Literature. They received their Bachelor of Arts in English at George Mason University. Within their discipline, they have a particular interest in queer, medieval, early English, and disability literature. As a neurodivergent student and consultant, Rachel is very passionate about cultivating their sessions to be accessible for any writer. Their favorite movie series is Back to the Future, with a special love for the 2nd part of the trilogy (Doc Brown is them in another life). Rachel also has a cat named Bowie, after David Bowie, one of their favorite music artists.