Faculty

Bridgette Dutta Portman

Bridgette Dutta Portman is a playwright and novelist. More than two dozen of her plays have been produced locally, nationally, and overseas. She is past president of the Playwrights’ Center of San Francisco and is currently a board member of the Pear Theatre, a teaching artist with Dragon Theatre, and a member of the Pear Writers' Guild and the Dramatists' Guild. She has been a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights' Festival, the Theatre Bay Area TITAN award, the PlayPenn Conference, the Kentucky Women’s Theatre Conference Prize for Women Writers, the New Dramatists playwrights'...

Michal Reznizki

Michal (Me-Hal) Reznizki has a PhD in Education with a designated emphasis in Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition Studies from the University of California, Davis. She has been teaching composition for over twelve years and is very passionate about the teaching of writing. Prior to joining College Writing Programs’ faculty, she taught freshman writing at the University of San Francisco and at San José State University. Her research focuses on teacher preparation and she's especailly interested in the Writing about Writing (WAW) approach as well as in the use of active learning in the...

Jordan Ruyle

Throughout his academic career, Jordan has focused on second language acquisition and second language composition, earning an MA in French literature and an MATESOL degree. Before coming to Cal, he taught at Golden Gate University, helping international graduate students prepare for the MBA program. Since joining Berkeley’s College Writing Programs in 2013, he has taught CWR1A and developed CW9C/ 109C, an academic writing course for multilingual student writers at Berkeley. In addition, he is a regular co-teacher of CW105, Intermediate Writing and Finding your Voice. In 2015, he was...

Margaret Salifu

Margaret Salifu holds a Ph.D. in English from The University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prior to joining the College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley, she taught composition courses and African American literature at The University of Tulsa. She also taught composition courses at Shenandoah University. Her areas of interest include literatures of Africa and the African diaspora. Her essay, "Having My Kenkey and Eating It Too: Being Black and Bicultural," is a book chapter in Pan African Spaces: Essays on Black Transnationalism (2019). Another essay, "Cutting...

David Skolnick

Lecturer

David Skolnick (he/him) teaches CWR1A at UC Berkeley, specializing in teaching multi-lingual students, and has been teaching academic vocabulary, cultural studies, research, reading, and writing in the UC Berkeley Summer English Language Studies program since 2005. He is Assistant Professor in the Writing and Literature program at the California College of the Arts, and has taught at the College of Marin, and the San Francisco Art Institute. He got a BA in History at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, a Graduate teaching certificate at George Mason University, and an MA in TESOL...

Ryan Sloan

Ryan Sloan is on the full-time faculty in UC Berkeley's College Writing Programs, as well as on joint appointment with the Haas School of Business. His areas of concentration include multimodal composition, digital humanities, business communications, English for multilingual learners, and creative writing. He holds an MA in English and Modern Culture from University College London, an MFA in Creative Writing from New York University, and TESOL Certification from UC...

Benjamin Spanbock

Ben Spanbock has been teaching writing, reading, and research courses at the university level since 2011. He received his Ph.D. in Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where his doctoral research focused on the relationship between cultural and linguistic translation practices at various stages in the historical development of the U.S./Mexican borderlands. In addition to his background in both transnational American studies and writing pedagogy, Ben’s interests include cultural theory, social justice, and exploring current trends in learning and writing.

Pat Steenland

Pat has taught in College Writing Programs since 1997. She currently teaches a research class focused on the Japanese American Internment and American Cultures classes that explore the history of California and ideas about the West through community partnerships with leaders from the Tribal Nations of Payahuunadü in the Eastern Sierra, also known as the Owens Valley. In addition, Pat is one of four team members on the "First Step Discovery Project" in Berkeley's Discovery Initiative, a campus-wide project that seeks to restructure the undergraduate learning experience as a "discovery...

Peter Vahle

Continuing Lecturer of College Writing
College Writing Programs

Peter Vahle is an applied linguist and continuing lecturer in the College Writing Programs at UC Berkeley. Peter’s career in teaching English began in Spain in the early 1990s where he taught a variety of English Language Courses. In the late 1990s, Peter began training new teachers of English and later established a TEFL Certification course in Barcelona where he was the Course Director for four years. Through the early 2000s, Peter continued to launch, teach, and direct teacher training courses in various European cities including Paris and Prague. Peter returned to the United States...

Margi Wald

Continuing Lecturer and Director of Summer English Language Studies

Margi Wald, M.A. Applied Linguistics, teaches first-year writing, reading, and grammar & vocabulary courses specifically designed for multilingual students. She directs UC Berkeley's Summer English Language Studies program, co-edits The CATESOL Journal, and has extensive experience presenting at and organizing conferences for English language teaching organizations. She co-edited Teaching U.S.-educated Multilingual Student Writers (with Mark Roberge and Kay Losey) and co-authored the textbook Exploring Options in Academic...