About Us
Executive Director: TIM WHITAKER began his career teaching fifth and sixth grade in Philadelphia before becoming a writer and editor. He was the editor of Philadelphia Weekly (1994—2008), and previously the editor of Gulfshore Life, PhillySport and Pittsburgh magazines. Whitaker was a writer at NBC Radio and has written for numerous publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer. He is also the author of “Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen.”
email: twhitaker@mightywriters.org
Program Director: RACHEL LOEPER is a writer and educator who has taught creative writing, English as a second language and early literacy. She received her BA in English Literature from Goucher College, where she served as a peer tutor, and her MFA in creative writing from Hollins University, where she received a fellowship to teach fiction and poetry. Loeper has a diverse nonprofit background, including marketing for the United Way, advanced administration for a religious nonprofit and organizational leadership of a campus chapter of Habitat for Humanity. Most recently, she served as director of a remedial literacy program at Universal Institute Charter School.
email: rloeper@mightywriters.org
Resident Writer: ANGEL HOGAN, a “rural girl transplanted from a horse farm to Philadelphia,” finds great adventure, beauty and often comedy in diverse experiences. An award-winning writer, Hogan studied literary theory at Bucknell University, where she received the Julia Fonville Smithson Prize for poetry and the Bucknell Prize for Women. Much of her work is fueled by her multiracial background and non-traditional upbringing, as well as her admitted passion for seeking out the unusual. Hogan works at the University of Pennsylvania and is a member of the New Philadelphia Poets. She lives in West Philadelphia with her cat, Mamacita, and is completing her first book, working title “Blind Foal.” You can see more of her work at angelhogan.com.
email: angelh@sp2.upenn.edu
