Wendy Barnes is Korean. Her Korean name is Hyung-Soon Lee, but she goes by her adopted American name, Wendy Lee Barnes. She earned a Baccalaureate from Sarah Lawrence College and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Mills College. Wendy teaches developmental, composition, literature, and women’s studies courses at GCC; she is also the faculty co-adviser for the Queer Straight Alliance and coordinates the Ben Drabeck Composition Award.

Scott comes from the land of the ice and snow, from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow. He attended a college staffed by beer-drinking nuns. Almost by chance he ended up in a town called Normal surrounded by the humid corn and soybean fields of central Illinois. One day he drove a twenty-four foot U-Haul truck seventeen hours straight until he ended up in New Hampshire. Scott loves teaching and working at GCC. He especially likes his English 090 and 101 classes. He’s also involved in the College Orientation series of classes, and has helped create two new literature classes, ENG 212: Graphic Novel and ENG 210: Creative Nonfiction. Stop by his office sometime and talk with him about his love of country blues and The Price Is Right and his fascination with Lyndon Johnson and Kathy Lee Gifford. All of this is true.

Christine Jones Monahan stepped foot in GCC’s Main Building in 2003, found her people, discovered her calling, and decided that she never wanted to leave. She holds degrees in English Literature from Salem State College and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. You can bend her ear about Renaissance and Restoration poetry and drama, feminist, gender, and queer studies in general, contemporary memoir, the art of narrative, developmental reading and composition, and teaching and technology. Christine lives in Hatfield with her wife, Aileen, their sons, Adam and Andrew, and their little fuzzball, Izzy.

Steve Poulin has been an Instructor of English at GCC since 2005. He received his Bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Master’s degree in English from Western Washington University, in Bellingham, Washington. Before returning to the Pioneer Valley, Steve taught at Bellingham Technical College and at City College of San Francisco, California. Steve has worked extensively with disenfranchised populations and has developed English curriculum for severely emotionally disturbed adolescents and incarcerated adults. Steve enjoys hiking and biking and lives with his son, Zachary, and wife, Kim, in Amherst, MA.

Lillian Ruiz, Professor of English, began teaching at Greenfield Community College in 1993, chairing the English Department from 1999-2005, and co-chairing from 2008-2010. In addition, she founded and coordinates the Liberal Arts English degree option and the Inclusion and Diversity (ID) Center. She holds a B.A. (magna cum laude) in English with a minor in psychology from the University of Rochester, an M.A. in English from UCLA, and 30 graduate units in education from UCLA. Her areas of academic interest are composition and literature, most particularly, Gothic literature and Shakespearean drama. She also teaches public speaking and communications courses. In her spare time she enjoys watching horror films, and is an avid dog lover. Originally from New York City, she now resides in Greenfield, MA, with her husband Dane and their pug Biscotti Cappuccino.

• Ticket to Terror: Horror Film in the Age of Anxiety (LAVA Center Presentation 10/30/21)

Cindy coordinates writing and language tutors in GCC’s Peer Tutoring Program. She started working at GCC in 2013 after years of interesting jobs and volunteer work: teaching, editing, coordinating people-to-people programs in Nicaragua and supporting pregnant and parenting teens. When not at GCC, you might find Cindy walking in the woods, writing, singing, dancing or drying apples. Cindy is fascinated by the 17th Century naturalist and scientific illustrator, Maria Sibylla Merian, about whom she’s published poetry. Cindy never finds time to clean her office, but she loves working with tutors and students and coordinating GCC’s literary magazine, Plum. Cindy has two terrific adult children, Wylie and Renna, and lives in Shelburne Falls with her potter husband, Steve Earp, and a cranky cat.