Faculty

Diane Abdo has been a member of the UTSA faculty since 1980. She received a BA in English from St. Mary’s University, an MA in English from The University of Texas at San Antonio, and a Masters of Jurisprudence from the Texas A&M School of Law (2019). She teaches Writing for Pre-law, Freshman Composition, and Cook. Eat. Write. Repeat., an Honors course for UTSA students who love to cook and write (and eat, of course).

She is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars, the recipient of the University of Texas Board of Regents Outstanding Teaching Award, the recipient of the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in University Service, and the recipient of the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.

She has been a journalist, public relations consultant, editor, and corporate communications trainer. In addition to teaching, she serves as an advisor to The Paisano, the independent student newspaper (print and online) serving UTSA and the surrounding community.

She is married to Rick Noll, a local attorney. They enjoy snorkeling, kayaking, cooking, reading, discussing politics, and taking walks with their 83-pound Labrador, Sandy.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Call me Gen. It’s easier. I am a San Antonio native. Born and raised on the east side of town. I graduated from Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee with a Bachelors degree in English and minor in Journalism. Upon my return to San Antonio (traveling military wife for 10 years), I earned my Masters in English Language and Literature at Our Lady of the Lake University. After completing my PhD course work in Leadership, I have decided to change routes toward my passion, Composition and Rhetoric. I will soon begin working toward completing my doctorate at Texas Woman’s University.

I am convinced teaching writing is my calling, and the Writing Department is where I belong. I have been teaching for 12 years, and I have been fortunate to be with UTSA since 2017.  

I am the lucky mom of two daughters, 22 and 14 years old, one 12 years old weenie dog, Oscar, and my grand-dog, 3 years old Derek James. I am a self-proclaimed TV junkie and in my leisure time, I can be found binge watching reruns of Friends or The Tudors and MCU films.

I approach teaching with a sense of humor, but I have high expectations for my students. I see potential in each and every one of them. At the end of each semester, you can find me in my office sobbing over final self-reflections essays as they realized they could do it all along.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I am proud to be a Roadrunner. I graduated from UTSA with a BA in English with a Writing Specialization in 1999. While at UTSA, I became involved in a number of groups that have helped me in life after college, including being hired to teach at UTSA. Luck struck while I was at UTSA; I met my husband Sean, and we married in 2000. 

After my undergraduate, I pursued writing by studying Creative Writing, with an emphasis on Poetry, at Texas State University. I knew poets don’t earn a lot, so I expanded my horizons. I taught while at Texas State, gaining two years of experience before I started teaching full time. I also took advantage of our required cognate – like a minor – and studied Technical Communications. Due to that additional study along with my study of poetry, I experienced my first opportunity to work in publishing. I helped edit two journals – Texas Books in Review and Southwest American Literature. Along with editing, I published a book review and oversaw poetry submissions. 

After graduate school, I returned home to San Antonio and UTSA, where I started working in 2004. While here, I have taught both Freshmen Composition courses and Technical Writing. 

When I am not teaching, I am either at home fending off my lap from one of my two cats or writing. I started writing about the Texas wine industry in 2012. I first wrote only for my only blog; since then, I have written for two other publications, Texas Wine and Trail Magazine and Lifestyles at Comanche Trace. These days, most of my wine writing is for Texas Wine Lover, an internationally ranked wine blog and news site. The writing has allowed me to meet a variety of wonderful people, visit some of the most scenic places in Texas, attend fun festivals, and yes, drink some very good wine lovingly made by fellow Texans. 

I also spend my free playing and writing tabletop role playing games. I have been avid player, starting with D&D when I was 10, and regularly play with friends, some I have been gaming with for over 20 years. In 2015, I signed on with my husband to create a role playing setting for the Savage Worlds system, The King is Dead. We always find ourselves behind with the main book, but at least we have a publisher already. So far, we have published an adventure module, VARGR, and are working on a second one for release in 2016. I also help my husband with his other publications, as well as the many talented writers we have met and now call our friends.

Christina Frasier was born and raised in Nacogdoches, Texas. She received her BA from Stephen F. Austin State University in Psychology and English. After graduating from college, she then decided to pursue a Master's in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Upon receiving her MA in 2001, she was hired at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Ms. Frasier has been a proud Roadrunner ever since, and has many pairs of orange and navy sweatpants to prove it!

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I began my college education as a computer science major, but I quickly realized that because of the stressful nature of coding, I was likely to suffer a massive heart attack before I turned thirty. I switched my major to English Literature, and I've never looked back. 

I earned my B.A. in English Literature in 2001 from Baylor University. In 2005, I earned my M.A. in English Literature from The University of Texas at San Antonio. 

Since 2005, I have taught WRC 1013 and WRC 1023 at UTSA. I also serve as the technology coordinator for the Writing Program, and I am the faculty advisor for the Pre-Med Association. Most recently, I developed a discipline specific WRC 1023 course that focuses on science and pseudoscience in the United States. 

I'm the creator and author of the Hyperliterature blog, as well as the creator and author of the podcast Hyperliterature Presents, which can be found on iTunes and at Google Play. 

Along with Todd Wright, I'm also the co-author of the audiobook When Wade Tried to Save the World and the audio series The Adventures of Heroman, as well as a featured voice actor in both productions. For more information on Heroman, visit our Facebook page. The short film I wrote titled "'Bout Normal / Nothin' Special" won the Platinum Remi Award for Work in Progress at the Houston WorldFest Film Festival.

When I'm not grading essays or writing, I enjoy reading books and watching films, running and mountain bike riding, and frantically trying to get the first place in Tetris 99.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Once upon a time, someone asked me, “What are you going to do, go to college for the rest of your life?” I thought, “Hmm, maybe that isn’t such a bad idea,” and I’ve been “going to college” ever since.

I received my B.A. and M.A. in English from UTSA and am a proud recipient of the Kenneth Alan Hovey Memorial Scholarship.

I’ve travelled between Wyoming (my quasi-native homeland) and San Antonio for the past twelve years. I have taught developmental and introductory courses in composition and literature, both in lecture format and online, for six years. As a result, I interact daily with students, faculty, and staff from both rural and suburban settings. Within seconds, my “e-world” spans the countryside and mountain ranges to rush hour and city life. Having had my fill of nature and the great outdoors while growing up, I’m more likely now to be found happily haunting the climate-controlled halls of academia.

I enjoy reading and writing poetry, though my preferences regarding both tend to juxtapose one another. I appreciate reading “the old stuff” (or classics) like Shakespeare, Milton, Tennyson, Browning, Dickinson, and (dare I say) Byron, as well as “younger” modern poets like Whitman and Frost, but the poetry I write very seldom resembles what I prefer to read. I love attending poetry readings and stepping up to the podium. In my spare time, I’m an amateur artist, astronomer, and philosopher.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I was born and raised in San Antonio, and prior to segueing to academics, accumulated over 15 years public relations and marketing experience with national organizations. I graduated from Our Lady of the Lake University with a degree in English and minors in both Communications and Mexican American Studies.

Challenging and uncertain circumstances require people to strive for excellence. I believe recognizing student potential enhances community, facilitates synergy, and imparts a desire for academic excellence. I seek opportunities for student growth and excellence through which we all tap the boundless and renewable source of energy within. As such, the principles of synergy and sharing are important keys to understanding that we are each endowed with our own distinctive brand of excellence, enthusiasm and talent.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

John "J.R." Helton has published books on movies, drugs, people, and dogs. He's the author of Bad Jobs and Poor Decisions: Dispatches from the Working Class from Liveright/W.W. Norton in 2018, a memoir based on his 20’s as a young writer and blue-collar worker in the 1980’s in Austin, Texas. He’s published the autobiographical novels Drugs and The Jugheads and the memoir Below the Line on the film business where he worked as a scenic artist on such films as Lonesome Dove and Dazed and Confused. The artist Robert Crumb has painted original covers for three of his books and has stated that “J.R. Helton is my favorite contemporary American writer.” Helton has also published two books in French with 13th Note Editions in Paris, Au Texas Tu Serais Deja Mort and Voyage Au Bout De La Blanche as well as short stories and poetry in Mineshaft Magazine, The Sun, and The Missouri Review and has won a Pushcart Prize. J.R. Helton is a Senior Lecturer in The Writing Program at UTSA where he has been teaching Composition with a focus on visual arguments for 18 years. He has also taught Creative Writing and courses on film for the Honors College at UTSA. His website is www.jrhelton.com.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Maike Hudson was born in Germany, where she spent fifth grade through sophomore year of college at a Franciscan academy. For graduate school, she transferred to the University of Osnabrück. She first came to the United States as an exchange student and was later offered teaching assignments at Texas Lutheran University (German) and the Alamo Colleges (German and English). Since 2002, she has taught full time at UTSA, first in the College of Education and Human Development and presently in the Writing Program.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Karen Jensen earned her Bachelor's Degree in English at University of the Incarnate Word and her Master's of Arts in English at UTSA. She believes that clear, concise writing can change the world.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I joined The University of Texas at San Antonio in the Fall of 2004, and ever since, I have enjoyed being a part of the Roadrunner family. I have a Master's Degree in English (British Literature), and a Bachelor’s Degree in English with Honors. I am married to a Mechanical Engineer and have two boys. I love animals, and I try to rescue them whenever an opportunity comes by. My little four-legged son’s name is Woody. He too was a rescue dog. In my free time, which I barely ever have any, I like to paint. I paint in oil, and I usually like to paint something from the vast nature. I adore nature, and I enjoy long walks and road trips with my loved ones. I also enjoy watching TV, reading books, trying new recipes, and decorating my house. 

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Loretta Long received her M.A. in Writing from Portland State University and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Pacific Lutheran University. She enjoys helping students gain more control of their writing and delight in taking ownership of this remarkable gift human beings came up with. She writes fiction and poetry and wishes she could have worked for Studs Terkel, because she loves interviewing people about their work stories.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Jim Longoria believes in the importance of grammar and mechanics. He enjoys listening to NPR and drinking coffee, and he is a vocal opponent of British actors pretending to have American accents. 

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Pamela Mahan received her BA in Religion/Biblical Languages from Oklahoma Baptist University. After graduation, she worked various jobs before finding work in the Correspondence Department of a local San Antonio government agency. This experience of reading customers’ letters on a daily basis motivated her to apply to graduate school to get a Masters in English so she could help people improve their writing skills. 

Prof. Mahan began her MA work at the University of Texas at San Antonio, then completed her degree at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 2011. While a grad student at UH, she worked as a tutor in the Writing Center which complemented her focus on Composition and Rhetoric. Her Masters’ Project focused on how individuals reshape their identity during times of grief through involvement in online support communities and other social media. 

After Hawaii, she lived in San Diego where she taught composition courses at a community college before she returned to San Antonio and began teaching with the UTSA Writing Program in 2015. 

In addition to working with The Writing Program, she has worked with the Pathways to Health Professions program (with UTSA's College of Public Policy) during the past two summers. 

Prof. Mahan has a dry sense of humor and appreciates when students actually laugh at her jokes. Be prepared to listen to stories about her kids and her cats, as well as stories from her travels in Romania, China, and Hawaii.

Darren has been teaching composition at UTSA since 2011. He has worked on special academic projects that include library Special Collections research, developing online educational resources, and teaching special populations such as non-native English speakers. His courses typically focus on social issues.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Victoria Miller received a bachelor’s degree in English and mass media from Angelo State University and earned her master’s degree in English at UTSA.  After graduation, she worked as an academic success coach at UTSA before joining The Writing Program. Her interests include Old English and medieval literature, and she enjoys finding creative ways to teach students based on their individual learning styles.  

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Beth Morley received her Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University and her Master’s Degree in Literature from Eastern Michigan University. She spent the first ten years of her career working in digital and traditional media. During this time, she wrote advertising copy, technical specifications, business proposals, contracts, and white papers. She has also worked as a professional blogger providing digital content for a variety of clients and industries. She joined teaching in 2006 and has worked both at University of Texas at Dallas and now at UTSA. 

She is married to a guy who makes her laugh every day and works as a professional innovator. She has three children who she is mostly proud of and a very yappy Miniature Schnauzer. She is an avid reader and writes fan fiction under a pseudonym. She is easily bribed with pretzel M&Ms and Diet Coke.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

A long-time Roadrunner, I graduated twice from UTSA before heading to SUNY Albany to work on my PhD. I specialize in Walt Whitman Studies, Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Print Culture, and Rhetoric and Composition. My infatuation with Walt Whitman is well documented and I have been know to spontaneously and enthusiastically break out in soliloquy on his many merits and contributions. In my free time, I am engaged in passionate affairs with Netflix, and my Basset Hound- Puck.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I am from Austin and actually commuted from there my first year at UTSA while waiting for my son to graduate high school. Prior to teaching, I worked in technology consulting for the banking and legal industries.

I originally came to UTSA two weeks before 9/11. During those first ten years here, I piloted the first online Freshman Composition courses and I taught Technical Writing, Specialized Professional Writing, Editing, and one semester of Business Communication. My technical skills allowed me to consult faculty on using computers in the classroom during those early days. From 2008-2011, I was Director of the Judith G. Gardner Center for Writing Excellence and have served on multiple committees at UTSA.

In 2011, I was recruited by a private organization to develop online courses for universities around the globe. I even got to spend two weeks in Australia once - kicking off 13 new business courses at a university in Adelaide.

I continued teaching part-time at UTSA and at Wayland Baptist as needed. I have also spent some time working with adult students at the University of the Incarnate Word, while helping their faculty develop online versions of various courses for military students.

Since first starting at UTSA, my son graduated from UTSA and later St. Mary's Law School and is now starting his family in his new home of Brooklyn. My home has always been UTSA, however, so I was thrilled to rejoin the faculty here again in Fall 2019 on a full-time basis.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Betty was born at Mhangura (then Mangula Mine) in Zimbabwe, Africa and partly raised in Malawi. She obtained her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics (Business Communication) from the University of Adelaide in South Australia. She earned her Master of Education (Social Studies) and Master of Arts (Applied Linguistics) degrees from Columbia University, Teachers' College, New York; and her Bachelor of Social Science degree in English and Psychology from Chancellor College, University of Malawi (UNIMA). Betty also taught at Solusi University, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, while on leave of absence from UNIMA. In Malawi, she taught at both undergraduate and graduate levels, including facilitating short courses in Communication for government top and middle managers at Malawi Institute of Management (MIM). Her experience and interests include Writing across the disciplines, Language and Communication, Applied Linguistics, Literature and English as a Second Language. Currently, she teaches Freshmen Composition I and II in The Writing Program. She has a son who is a medical doctor in the US army and a daughter studying Business Management and Entrepreneurship, with whom she hangs out during her free time.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Dr. Debra Peña earned a BA in Business from Concordia Lutheran University at Austin in 2006, a M.A. in English from UTSA in 2009, and a Doctorate in English from UTSA in 2015. She joined The Writing Program in 2017 but has taught at UTSA, in various roles, since 2010. 

Debra is a native of Georgia but has lived in and around San Antonio since 1983. She is an avid reader, book collector, writer, and loves traveling.  

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Michelle P. Piña Theall is a San Antonio native.  She earned her B.A. and M.A. in English Literature and Language from St. Mary's University. She taught high school for 5 years before moving into university teaching.  She is now happily a member of the faculty at UTSA. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and writing, hanging out with her family, listening to NPR, and binge watching television.  She is a published poet in several different publications including Di-verse-City and The Pecan Grove Review.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Lindsay Ratcliffe joined the Writing Program faculty in Fall 2006 after completing a Master of Arts in English at UTSA. Her persuasive writing class engages students with environmental issues while fulfilling UTSA’s core curriculum requirement for composition. Ratcliffe also teaches Tutorial II: Sustainability and Civic Ethos for the Honors College. A 2011 winner of the President’s Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Core Curriculum Teaching and a 2013 recipient of the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award, Ratcliffe is a member of UTSA’s Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars. 

In addition to teaching, Ratcliffe advises the Green Society at UTSA (a student environmental organization) and serves as a faculty representative on the Campus Garden Steering Committee and UTSA Sustainability Council. 

Ratcliffe is working toward a Ph.D. in Environmental Studies at Antioch University New England, where she earned a Master of Science in 2019. Her work focuses on communicating climate change adaptation to public audiences. To that end, she dedicated over 225 hours of service-learning to the development of SA Climate Ready, the city of San Antonio’s first climate action and adaptation plan. 

Ratcliffe is a certified Texas Master Naturalist and an avid Crossfitter, reader, and outdoors enthusiast with a burgeoning interest in plant-based nutrition and cooking.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Dixie Shaw-Tillmon received a B.A. in English Literature in 1995 from the University of Houston, and then received her M.A. in English Literature, with specialization in the Renaissance, in 1997 from Sam Houston State University. Her master’s thesis was titled “Love and Nature in the Hesperides: Robert Herrick’s secular poetry.”

Dixie has taught writing courses at Sam Houston State University and Odessa College, and was the Public Relations Director for a school district in West Texas.  After recently moving to San Antonio, she began teaching for the Writing Program in the fall of 2005.

When she is not teaching, Dixie, with her husband, stays busy raising their two children and a yard full of animals!

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

I received a B.A. in History from the University of Texas at Austin. I then received a M.A. in English from The College of William and Mary in Virginia. I began teaching for the Writing Program in 1990. After taking a seven-year break in the early 2000s, I returned to teaching. In 2016, I celebrated my twenty year anniversary with UTSA.

I generally teach two sections of WRC 1013 each semester. I am also the Associate Director of the Judith G. Gardner Center for Writing Excellence. When I’m on campus and not teaching, I can usually be found in The Writing Center (JPL 2.01.12D). I’m proud to serve as the Faculty Advisor for Alpha Delta Pi sorority.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Phil West has been a college professor since 2000. He graduated from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas in Austin that year, focusing on poetry and playwriting. He loves teaching — specifically, to help students become better writers, readers, and critical thinkers, to use the rhetorical approach in those aims, to help students find and develop their voices, and to be pragmatic and organized in approaching writing assignments.

He has been writing professionally since his teens, and it's anchored distinct phases of his life: Covering the nascent Seattle music scene for newspapers (starting in college in the late '80s and into the mid-'90s), being part of the poetry slam movement upon arriving in Austin in 1994, running the still-active Puro Slam series in San Antonio from 2001 to 2006 when he lived in San Antonio, doing public relations and content management for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to independent authors and artists, and currently, writing about soccer. (He has two books out on The Overlook Press covering the beautiful game, one on the history of MLS, and one on the U.S. Men's National Team's prospects for future success, he wrote and edited for MLSSoccer.com, the official site for Major League Soccer, and he currently helps deliver The Striker to fans of some of MLS' and NWSL's most compelling teams.

He lives in Austin with his amazing wife, one of his two talented sons (the other has journeyed to Oregon), and one magical daughter.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Amanda Williams received her B.A. in English from UTSA in 2002 and her M.A. in Linguistics from The University of North Texas in Denton. Her thesis was titled Present Tense Marking as a Synopsis of Southern American Speech: Plural Verbal –s and Zero 3rd Singular. She has been teaching writing courses and English grammar courses at UTSA since the fall of 2004.

In addition to teaching Freshman Composition and Structures of English, Amanda has partnered with the Tomas Rivera Center in a grant-funded program designed to improve graduate writing and graduate writing assistance. 

In her free time, Amanda enjoys reading classic literature such as Twilight, seeing live music from famous bands such as Nelson, watching ground-breaking films such as Maid in Manhattan, and spending time with her husband and son. Amanda is also a proud foodie, and she spends much of her time studying the culinary techniques of her heroes, Guy Fieri and Sandra Lee. She is also very active in her church, helping with the music ministries there, as well as working with the college-aged youth.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Ryan Wilson is a writer and musician who specializes in producing works of art which yield little to no financial benefits, much to his chagrin and bewilderment. He received his B.A. and M.A. in English from UTSA, is the author of an as-of-yet unpublished novel, and believes that the written word has the power to not only convey information and ideas, but to completely transform one's perception of the world and one's understanding of the very nature of consciousness itself. There is vast power in the ability to manifest one's intentions on paper, the power to augment and to undermine, the power to imprison and to liberate. Ryan believes that an artform so potent and so dynamic should be taught with the utmost passion, with his only desire being the ability to transmit the love of this wonderful medium to those he has the honor to teach.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.

Todd Wright teaches Freshman Composition I and II for UTSA's Writing Program. He lives in San Antonio with his wife Rachel, his daughter Ruby, and his pug Doobie. 

He received his MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City, an MA in English from Kansas State University, and a BA in English from Texas Lutheran University. 

You can read his fiction in the Raleigh Quarterly, Booth and the San Antonio Current, you can listen to his work for the Hyperliteratre Presents podcast available on itunes, or you can view his website.

For faculty syllabi and current course schedule, please visit Bluebook.