LEADERSHIP
Jennifer Hwozdek / Director
Jennifer Hwozdek, a State College native, has been immersed in the storytelling arts in multiple ways throughout her life: as a student and graduate from Penn State's Film Program in 1988; as a filmmaker working in New York City and Los Angeles in the early 90's; as a storyteller performing at local venues; as a dedicated community volunteer and fund-drive spokesperson for WPSU where she shares her passion for public radio and television; and in her work as a homeopathic practitioner, in which for the past 25 years she has been deeply listening and gently coaxing her clients to explore and untangle the intricate interplay between their health histories and their personal narratives. Jenny believes that when approached with curiosity, honesty, humor and compassion, storytelling is an empowering act of personal evolution. She enjoys connecting with Ridgelines' loyal supporters and helping to expand Ridgelines' reach and impact in the Centre Region.
Katie O'Hara-Krebs / Board President
Katie O’Hara-Krebs is a long-time writer, storyteller, and collector of tales. She is the co-creator of Write to Shine, a creative writing business that works and collaborates with audiences in the Centre region. Write to Shine helps individuals find and use their authentic voices through writing, demystify the act through “recreational writing” as a means to uncover deeper meaning and connection with themselves and the world. Katie’s background is in marketing and corporate communications for companies including The Walt Disney Company and Nintendo of America. She has also spent time as a journalist and freelance writer. But her passion is not to share the words of large organizations, but instead to encourage people to find themselves through writing and relating to the world with words. Katie lives in State College with her husband and daughters, and enjoys writing, reading, hiking, drinking lots of coffee and having inspired conversations.
Britta Petrich / Board Treasurer
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Born and raised in Coudersport, PA, Britta is a lover of language and storytelling. She holds two degrees in Communication. Professionally, Britta’s background is in teaching writing courses to first-year college students. She has taught at both Virginia Tech and Penn State, respectively. Currently, Britta’s time is centered around family life and community involvement in State College, where she has lived and built relationships for the past 10 years.
With the belief that all populations of people can write, Britta champions writing programs that offer space for self-expression and reflection based on real life happenings. Learning, healing, humor, and discovering one’s wit is possible through writing and offers connective tissue, worth sharing, among people. In November 2023, Britta told a story as part of Ridgelines’ program Blood Lines about her reproductive experiences during the postpartum period of pregnancy. Together with her husband, she has a son and a daughter.
Alison Condie Jaenicke / Board Treasurer
Alison Condie Jaenicke has spent much of her life writing, teaching, and coaching in various places along the Appalachian Mountain chain. Born in the Alleghenies of western PA, Alison was raised near Washington, DC; earned her BA and MA in English at the University of Virginia; and lived for a time in Knoxville, TN, near the Smoky Mountains. Since 2001, she’s been settled in the center of her birth state. Until retirement in 2024, Alison served as Assistant Director of Creative Writing at Penn State University, where she taught writing and acted as advisor for the student literary magazine, Kalliope. Alison’s essays and stories have appeared in numerous literary journals; in 2016, her essay “I Slept Well If You Slept Well” was recognized as Notable in The Best American Essays. Alison currently aims to balance her time among passions both sedentary and active—reading, writing, photography, hiking, biking, camping, gardening, and beachcombing.
Shannon Telenko / Board Media Strategist
Shannon Telenko is a lifelong Pennsylvanian with roots in eastern and western ends of the state. She has called central Pennsylvania home since 2005, when she started working on a research project about urban-to-rural migration. Her knowledge of history and culture guides her in collaboratively developing applied, educational opportunities for college students, higher education employees, and community advocates through her university work and other projects. The founder of Interrogating Bias, LLC, she offers curriculum and facilitation for looking inward at our histories and taking thoughtful actions, and she also facilitates conversations alongside her friends at Harris Connections. Shannon puts her feelings into writing through poetry, blog posts, and letters to the editor. Living in State College with her family, she enjoys making her home a beautiful and nurturing place, hiking new and familiar trails around Rothrock State Forest, reading non-fiction books, and seeing live music while sipping a local beer.
Abby Minor / Founder / Large Grants Manager
Born and raised in Centre County, Abby Minor is a poet and community writing teacher with many years of arts programming experience in central Pennsylvania. She has directed and taught outdoor creative writing programs, summer art camps, poetry writing workshops for adults, and interdisciplinary after-school art classes for kids and teens. In 2012 she founded Being Heard, an award-winning creative writing program honoring the voices and imaginations of Centre County’s older adults, which she directed for five years before joining forces with others to reimagine, expand, and reincarnate the work as Ridgelines. A graduate of Smith College and Penn State’s MFA Program in Creative Writing, Abby pursues an active writing life alongside her students. Her commitment to this work grows from her own need to hear the poems and stories that haven’t yet been written or read, and from her belief in the transformative power of language used with courage, curiosity, inventiveness, and care.
PAST LEADERSHIP
Casey Wiley
Casey Wiley teaches creative writing and rhetoric at Penn State University Park and holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from George Mason University. He writes and publishes fiction and essays on themes such as socioeconomic inequality, language as identity, and gender discovery. He believes everyone has stories to tell and that communities grow stronger and more empathetic by sharing and listening to these stories.
Leah Poole Osowski
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Leah Poole Osowski is a poet from Massachusetts who moved to State College in 2015. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and works for the School of Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Penn State. Her first book, Hover Over Her, won the 2015 Wick Poetry Prize, and her poetry and lyric nonfiction appear in the Southern Review, Gettysburg Review, the Cincinnati Review and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from Image Journal's Glen Workshop and the Vermont Studio Center. In the fall of 2018, she taught creative writing as the Emerging Writer in Residence at Penn State Altoona, and she currently reads poetry submissions for New England Review and Raleigh Review.
Mary Rohrer-Dann
Mary Rohrer-Dann writes fiction and poetry, and is author of Taking the Long Way Home and La Scaffetta: Poems from the Foundling Drawer. A retired Penn State teaching professor of creative and academic writing, she loves having more time to paint, garden, travel, and hike. She is a long-time Big Sister, and also volunteers with Rising Hope Therapeutic Riding Center. Although a long-time resident of State College, she is still a Philly girl at heart. She believes that stories of all kinds are essential to being human, for discovering who we are and who we might be, and for forging connection with others.
Evangeline Wright
Evangeline Wright, a Midwest transplant who loves the rhododendrons and creeks of Central Pennsylvania, is a nonprofit attorney who provides civil legal services to low income residents of Centre and surrounding counties. She holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts and writes an occasional short story or flash fiction. She believes that telling and hearing stories is integral to making meaning from our lives. A community in which all voices are invited to share stories is a healthy community.
Christine Tyler
Christine Tyler grew up in DuBois, a small town in northwest Pennsylvania. With a passion for social justice, especially centered on poverty and race, Christine has worked for thirty-plus years as a Human Services Professional and with non-profit organizations in Pennsylvania, Florida, and Washington, DC. While working full-time and raising two bi-racial children with her African-American husband, she earned a Master’s Degree in Public Administration followed by completion of all coursework and exam for an Ed. D. at the University of North Florida. Since the untimely passing of her husband in 2013, Christine has shifted priorities in her life. In addition to her work as Executive Director of State College Area Meals on Wheels, Christine writes poetry on a regular basis and dabbles in creating mixed media art and painting. Her passions continue to center on family; social justice; spirituality and religion; the environment; and the arts.
Teresea Hamilton
Teresa is a storyteller from West Helena, Arkansas, who moved to State College in December 2009. She teaches writing courses in the English Department at Penn State University and serves as a writing coach and advisor for undergraduate and graduate students with the Office of Graduate Educational Equity Programs. Teresa is co-founder of State of the Story, a moth-styled storytelling group who tell stories in the Attic at the State Theatre. She believes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Danger of a Single Story" where humans are extremely complex and cannot be reduced to a single narrative. We need more stories to help make sense of the world.
Sarajane Snyder
In 2017 Sarajane Snyder took over Mondragon Bookstore in Lewisburg, home of 5000+ used books, a refuge for the tech-weary, and a delight for the curious. She believes that writing and storytelling are essential for any community to thrive. As people practice writing and storytelling, they find their voice. When people find their voice, they find their ability to speak up. When they can speak up and be heard, communities grow stronger. She envisions a rural renaissance in central PA filled with small farms, handy craftspeople, wise governance, radical librarians, happy babies, healthy parents, good art & song & dance & stories galore.