Executive
Dani Hedlund
Chief Executive & Founder
Helen Maimaris
Chief of Staff
Leadership
Victoria Bruick
Executive Assistant
Ejiwa ‘Edge’ Ebenebe
Assistant Creative Director & Impact Lead
Kaitlin Lounsberry
Internship Supervisor & Senior Editor
Nate Ragolia
Communications & Marketing Director
Valerie San Filippo
Education Program Manager
Evan Sheldon
Editorial Director
Senior
Suzie Bartholomew
Senior Editor
Thomas Chisholm
Senior Editor
Race Garber
Senior Editor
Sam Gladstone
IT Officer
Maribel Leddy
Internship Assistant & Junior Editor
Dominic Loise
Content Creator & Staff Writer
Matt Peadon
Visual Identity Associate
Anya Prosser
Education Associate
Eileen Silverthorn
Senior Editor
Junior
Azalea Acevedo
Junior Editor
Chase Bailey
Junior Editor
Eliza Browning
Junior Editor
Sam Burt
Junior Editor
Erin Clements
Junior Editor
Ally Geist
Junior Editor
Gina Gruss
Junior Editor
C. E. Janecek
Junior Editor & Communications Associate
Simon Kerr
Junior Editor
Asmaani Kumar
Junior Editor
Haley Lawson
Junior Editor
JP Legarte
Junior Editor
Marizel Malan
Junior Editor
Sonya Minner
Junior Editor
Jaclyn Morken
Junior Editor
Alex Schotzko
Junior Editor
Amber Sullivan
Junior Editor
Intern
Inanna Carter
Intern
Zara Garcia
Intern
Montanna Harling
Intern
Sara Santistevan
Intern
Aubrey Unemori
Intern
Consultant
Asa C. Garber
Legal Advisor
Zach Howard
Prison Book Art Director & Co-Creator
Drew Nolte
Web Designer
Board
Suzanne Hickox
US Board Member
Jennifer Leong
US Board Member
Ian Leprino
US Board Member
Vivian Marr
UK Trustee
Harriet Moll
UK Trustee
Jon Schindehette
US Board Member
Catherine Stihler OBE
UK Trustee
Zara Garcia
Intern
Zara Garcia is a proud Mexican American woman living in Southwest Florida, where she recently graduated with a BA in English and a minor in World Literature. She is an aspiring editor with a passion for magical realism and Latinx literature. When she isn’t reading, she is writing free verse poems in her journal, making fake cakes out of spackle, or cooking vegan food.
Pronouns: she/her
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Sara Santistevan
Intern
Sara Santistevan was born in California, where she grew up around vivid storytellers. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a B.A. in Literature and Legal Studies. During her time at UCSC, Sara received the 2021 Reyna Grande Scholarship for her poetry on the Latina identity. Her forthcoming chapbook, The Root from Which Freedom Blossoms, explores how complicated mythologies, histories, and cultural norms can live on in the internal lives of marginalized individuals. In her free time, Sara enjoys visiting local cafes, petting all her neighborhood cats, and discovering the magic of the written word.
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Montanna Harling
Intern
Montanna is an MFA in Prose candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she teaches undergraduate writing courses. She graduated summa cum laude with a BA in Literature and Writing (Honors) from UC San Diego and had the incredible opportunity to research literary haunting at the University of Oxford. Montanna co-founded UC San Diego’s first-ever literary arts magazine organization, O(the)r People Magazine, and served as its Editor-in-Chief for three years. She writes speculative eco-fiction, with an emphasis on inheritance—her writing explores familial legacies and positions the ecological environment as a space that is infinitely inherited.
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Inanna Carter
Intern
Inanna is a recent graduate of Kutztown University with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in English/Professional Writing. She’s currently undertaking an online MFA in Emerson College’s Popular Fiction Writing and Publishing program and freelances for a gaming journalism site. With her two wild cats Remy and Mouse constantly on the run, Inanna’s been doing her best to outline and write her first novel, all while crocheting, reading (more like collecting) any romance books she can find, and happily listening to BTS or Stray Kids.
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Aubrey Unemori
Intern
Aubrey Unemori graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in Creative Writing. She was born and raised on Maui, Hawaii but currently resides in Seattle, Washington. She likes to fill her days with reading, writing, playing games with friends, and pretending to be a coffee snob.
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Race Garber
Senior Editor
Race has a background in editing, including fiction and non-fiction, scientific and technical papers, professional essays, and legal writing. Regardless of the nature of the writing, a powerful creation stems from strong narrative, approachable language, solid structure, and momentum-building flow. Race enjoys donating his time to Brink to assist new and established authors in suffering through the revision process and celebrating the progress.
Pronouns: he/him
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Simon Kerr
Junior Editor
Simon Kerr is a writer/reader/editor from Colorado. Their home turf is fantasy and sci fi, their passion is queer representation in media, and they have opinions about loose leaf tea.
Pronouns: he/they
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Haley Lawson
Junior Editor
Haley Lawson is a writer and educator, having taught English in the U.S.A., Mongolia, South Korea, and the United Kingdom. Currently, she works as a Program Coordinator for AmeriCorps. A lover of all things make-believe and magick, she writes genre fiction under the pen name H. M. L. Swann. Some of her works are published in The Manchester Anthology IX and Quibble Literary. She received her master’s degree in Creative Writing from the University of Manchester in December 2021. When not writing, she can be found reading tarot cards and hiking along the shores of Lake Superior.
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Alex Schotzko
Junior Editor
Alex Schotzko is currently chasing a BFA in Creative Writing at Portland State University. He enjoys many different flavors of creativity: writing, drawing, painting, playing the piano, annoying his friends, and baking. When he needs to recharge said creativity (his friends, unfortunately, grow tougher to annoy by the day), he prefers immersing himself in live music, big open-world video games, and the utterly magical environs of the Pacific Northwest.
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Marizel Malan
Junior Editor
Marizel Malan was born and raised in South Africa, and recently graduated from the University of Pretoria with an Honours Degree in English Literature. She showcases her poetry on the online platform Substack via her newsletter named I don’t drink gin and tonic. Marizel is currently working as a ghost writer, writing nonfiction books in various niches including history, hobbies and crafts. Whenever she is not reading or writing, you can find her dabbling in a variety of arts and crafts, playing Minecraft, or baking for her family.
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Anya Prosser
Education Associate
Anya is a doctoral student of education at Columbia University’s Teachers College focusing on using superhero comics to address issues of mental health in the classroom. She taught language arts at a high school in Denver before moving to New York City to pursue higher degrees in education. Her central pedagogies are Hip Hop Education and dismantling the heteronormative white supremacist capitalist patriarchy. Besides her academic work, Anya is a freelance editor. An avid Marvel fan, she will eagerly discuss why Illyana Rasputin and Lorna Dane are the best and why Scott Summers is the worst.
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Valerie San Filippo
Education Program Manager
Valerie San Filippo is a writer and educator from Long Island, New York. She received her MFA in Fiction from Stony Brook Southampton. Her work has appeared in F(r)iction, PANK, TSROnline, and elsewhere. She is a graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, and a recipient of George R.R. Martin’s Miskatonic Scholarship. When she isn’t teaching, or writing stories about angry young women, she spends her time playing TTRPGs, embroidering, and caring for her pet moss balls.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
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Eliza Browning
Junior Editor
Eliza Browning is studying for her master’s degree in modernist literature at the University of Oxford. She recently graduated from Wheaton College in Massachusetts with a degree in English and art history. Her poetry and fiction appears in The Adroit Journal, Salamander Magazine, Contrary Magazine, Up the Staircase Quarterly and the Oxford-Cambridge Mays Anthology, among others. When not reading or writing, Eliza can be found painting, embroidering or baking with botanicals.
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Sam Burt
Junior Editor
Sam is a tutor and proofreader living in east London. Since graduating in 2021 with a master’s in creative writing, he has been a bookseller for Phlox Books and Waterstones, and started the East London Indie Book Club to champion innovative fiction from small presses. Sam is the founder and editor of POINT BLOC, a new online literary journal that will launch later this year, and has edited fiction submissions to Bandit Fiction, An Inkling, and The Manchester Anthology IX. His fiction has appeared in Popshot Quarterly, Bandit Fiction, and Ink, Sweat and Tears, and his essays/reviews in The London Magazine, 3:AM Magazine, and BookRiot. Off the page, he can usually be found baking, volunteering at a local LGBTQ+ charity, or missing shuttlecocks.
Pronouns: he/his
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JP Legarte
Junior Editor
JP Legarte is an alum of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who double majored in Creative Writing and Individual Plans of Study (Science, Health and Environmental Writing) and minored in English. As a junior editor, he reads and grades pieces submitted to F(r)iction to determine which pieces move up to be considered for publication by senior leadership. He also occasionally helps as a copyeditor, content writer, and grant writer for F(r)iction. In Fall 2021, he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize XLVII by Pareidolia Literary for his poem “The Petal Box.” He is a Summer 2022 Anaphora Arts Poetry Fellow, a Summer 2023 Bread Loaf Environmental Writers’ Conference Nonfiction Alum, and a Summer 2023 Kenyon Review Writers Workshop Nonfiction Alum and was also a finalist for the 2023 Jack McCarthy Book Prize with Write Bloody Publishing. Outside of Brink and F(r)iction, he works as an ISACorps Community Outreach Worker for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. You can follow him and keep up with his endeavors on Instagram at @jpl091.
Pronouns: he/him/his
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Azalea Acevedo
Junior Editor
Azalea Acevedo grew up in Florida, where she spent her childhood drawing portraits of her favorite characters from the books she read. In high school, she moved to South Carolina. She attended Trident Technical College and graduated from Converse University, where she studied creative and professional writing. She was an editor for The Concept Literary Magazine, the school’s literary journal, which piqued her interest in developing stories in collaboration with an editorial team. Azalea has been published in both The Concept Literary Magazine and Converse Magazine, the university’s annual publication.
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Dominic Loise
Content Creator & Staff Writer
Dominic Loise lives with his librarian wife Jenna, their rabbits and many books. He met his wife one night over a shared love of reading Ray Bradbury. The rabbits love books too but aren’t readers. As a content creator for F(r)iction, Dominic writes book reviews, does interviews and has a series of personal essays about pop culture and mental health. He is open about and advocates for mental health awareness. Dominic can be found at @dominic_lives on Instagram & Twitter where he shares recently published work.
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Victoria Bruick
Executive Assistant
Victoria Bruick drinks (coffee) and knows things. As the Tyrion Lannister to Brink’s leadership team, she provides administrative support across the organization’s programming, fundraising, and internal operations. Outside of her work with Brink, Victoria is a marketing and podcast consultant with a passion for education and supporting the work of nonprofit organizations. She is a co-host and producer of the podcast Book Club with Julia & Victoria. Victoria earned a Bachelor’s degree in English and Music from Valparaiso University. Her poetry has been published by The Academy of American Poets and in Indiana’s Best Emerging Poets (Z Publishing).
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Asmaani Kumar
Junior Editor
Asmaani Kumar is a graduate in Sociology from Delhi University. Brought up in Guwahati, Assam and currently living in Delhi, she works as a writer for a media company. You’ll always find her taking the longer road for walks while blasting music in her ears. A hardcore postcard collector who spends too much time writing letters, reading poetry, gazing up at the skies and daydreaming of being in the mountains or a seaside village, these days she has been trying to learn new things like a language, an instrument, and cooking. What brings her happiness more than anything is stories, seen, read, or heard and she hopes she can spend a lifetime telling stories, sometimes her own but mostly of the people she comes across. She’s always ready to listen.
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Gina Gruss
Junior Editor
Gina Marie Gruss is an undergraduate student at the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College of FAU, double majoring in Creative Writing and Visual Art. She’s a born-and-raised south Floridian who hates the heat but loves her home state’s myths and nature. Her works have been featured by Amazon Prime Video, Mensa America, Wattpad, and FAU. She’s excitedly crafting her interdisciplinary senior thesis, which explores different Armageddons while centralizing disabled, queer, and diverse narratives. When not creating, she loves planning events, cooking and baking way too much food for said events, avoiding getting eaten by gators, and spoiling her cat Apollo.
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Matt Peadon
Visual Identity Associate
Matt Peadon is a character artist and art director working in film and video games. As the only blonde Australian that can’t surf, he pivoted and opted for a more digital medium. He was part of productions like Game of Thrones, Aquaman, Underworld, and Ghostbusters and has collaborated with organisations like Weta Workshop, NASA, KikkiK, Epic Games, and Magic Leap. Matt pursues his interest in photography and Hedlund’s quips by camera-slinging for Brink.
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Nate Ragolia
Communications & Marketing Director
Nate Ragolia is an author, editor, publisher, and podcaster. He’s published three books, There You Feel Free (2015), The Retroactivist (2019), and One Person Can’t Make a Difference (2022). Nate co-hosts Debut Buddies, a podcast about firsts, and is co-founder of the indie press Spaceboy Books. At Brink, he leads communication and marketing, writes grants, and collaborates with the leadership team on a wide variety of projects and programs. He has also dabbled in webcomics, e-zines, and music blogging, and worked in community wealth development and nonprofit strategy. When he’s not doing the things listed above, Nate is a husband and a dog dad.
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Erin Clements
Junior Editor
Erin Clements is an Ohio-based editor and writer who holds a graduate certificate in Publishing from New York University and a BA in English from Ohio Christian University. She loves everything literary, from Shakespeare to the newest fantasy bestseller, and she’ll happily tell you her opinions on everything from Shakespeare’s Dark Lady to how stories could and should be more diverse. When she’s not working as the Senior Community Manager for John Green’s charity book club, Life’s Library, she’s probably listening to podcasts, buying more books than she could ever read, or getting emotional over dogs.
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Amber Sullivan
Junior Editor
Amber Sullivan is probably hiding in a dark corner somewhere. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English Writing at the University of Colorado in 2018. Her work at Brink includes editing for F(r)iction and F(r)iction Log, reviewing submissions, and other miscellaneous assignments. Her writing can also be found in F(r)iction Log. Fortunately for Amber, Brink is mostly remote, as she usually smells a bit like canned fish after her cat drags her shoes into his food bowl. She spends her time outside of Brink training her apartment demon, working a day job, and feeling like a secret agent while writing fanfiction under an alias.
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Harriet Moll
UK Trustee
Harriet worked for fifteen years as a TV journalist for Bloomberg, CNBC and MTV in London and in Italy before returning to her home country of Scotland to take up a fundraising role with a housing charity. Now, as Creative Director at Charlotte Street Partners, she works with businesses and charities from around the world to help them tell their stories so that everyone can understand. She is a proud bookworm, mum of two boys, Iyengar yogini, and novice mountain biker.
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Ally Geist
Junior Editor
Ally is a quirky little Canuck living in Toronto, Canada (yes, they do have a lot of maple syrup up there!). She graduated with a BA in Theatre Studies (specializing in Playwriting and Dramaturgy) from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. She also has a post-grad certificate in Publishing from Ryerson University. When Ally is not reading, crying over cute puppy videos on the internet, defending the merits of the Oxford comma, or watching reruns of Schitts Creek, she is most likely lip-synching for her life in her bedroom, pretending she is one of the fabulous Drag Race queens.
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Jaclyn Morken
Junior Editor
Jaclyn is an aspiring writer and editor from Saskatoon, Canada, where she completed an MFA in Writing and BA Hons in English at the University of Saskatchewan. Her work can be found in antilang no. 1, Dually Noted (March 2019), and River Volta Review of Books. Jaclyn writes fantasy and speculative fiction.
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C. E. Janecek
Junior Editor & Communications Associate
C. E. Janecek is the internal newsletter wizard of the Brink team, keeping the staff up to date on happenings, deadlines, and projects each month. C. E. recently got their MFA in poetry at Colorado State University and is now a freelance editor and writer—having work featured in Poetry , Booth , Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. Online at www.cewritespoems.com.
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Catherine Stihler OBE
UK Trustee
Catherine is the Chief Executive Officer of the Open Knowledge Foundation, a global not for profit advocating for a fair, free, and open future.
For 20 years she represented Scotland in the European Parliament where she was recognized for her digital policy leadership and as an ambassador for public libraries, accessibility, and citizens rights.
In 2014 she was elected unopposed as the 52nd Rector of the University of St Andrews, being awarded an honorary doctorate in 2018.
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Ejiwa ‘Edge’ Ebenebe
Assistant Creative Director & Impact Lead
Ejiwa ‘Edge’ Ebenebe is a Nigerian-Canadian artist based in BC, Canada. Edge serves as Assistant Creative Director for F(r)iction, working alongside the Creative Director to craft the vision and artistic direction for each issue, as well as assisting the Managing Editor with circulation and fulfilment logistics. As Data Lead for Brink, Edge also assists the team in tracking and analyzing the varying points of information needed to ensure Brink’s impact is as focused and effective as possible.
As an immigrant, they wrestle with concepts of community and identity, both within themself and their artwork, and strive to create representation for voices (particularly Black and/or LGBTQ+ folks) who are often pushed out of positive, empowering narratives. Their artwork echoes a love for the ethereal, fantasy stories they grew up with with vibrant colours and ornamentation that weaves Edge’s experience throughout each piece they create.
They have worked with clients including Scholastic, Wizards of the Coast and Marvel. Their work has also featured in publications such as ImagineFX Magazine, Infected By Art, and Brink’s very own F(r)iction.
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Chase Bailey
Junior Editor
Chase Bailey is a baker living in Columbus, OH. He holds a BA in Professional Writing from Miami University and he enjoys learning about the evolution of colloquial language. Chase is a fiend for any book with magic or queer characters—don’t even get him started on queer characters with magic. When he’s not spamming your feed with F(r)iction-related content, Chase enjoys listening to the birds, sharing apples with his dog, and doing yoga. Eventually—eventually—he will put together a chapbook of poetry.
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Vivian Marr
UK Trustee
Discovering words and language and finding out what words mean and how they are used in multiple languages, have fired Vivian’s career. She was involved in dictionary-making for nearly three decades, working for some of the world’s most iconic dictionary publishers, with most of her time spent at Oxford University Press.
Starting out as an editor on bilingual dictionaries for the print market, she moved firmly into the digital world, leading a team of lexicographers and editors who were responsible for creating and acquiring lexical content for use in the wide and diverse range of technologies that seek to bring universal human communication ever closer.
Proud of her Scottish roots in an Aberdeenshire farming family, she is now based in Edinburgh and loves taking advantage of all the many cultural and social opportunities the city offers.
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Asa C. Garber
Legal Advisor
Like many writers, Asa spends most of his time writing drafts, then editing to the point of loving, then hating, then loving what he’s written. A select few read and appreciate his work; the general public either ignores or does not understand it. But such is the life of a lawyer. Asa is the founder of Reason Legal, LLC, providing legal services and consultation to businesses and entrepreneurs. He is a proud supporter of Brink’s many good works.
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Zach Howard
Prison Book Art Director & Co-Creator
Zach Howard is a freelance professional illustrator of seventeen years. His most notable employers include Marvel, Disney, DC, Warner Bros., Image, IDW, Boom, Simon & Schuster, Webtoons, and Steve Jackson Games. Zach’s most popular projects are Wild Blue Yonder, Shaun of the Dead, Spiderman, Wolverines, GI Joe, The Cape, and Detective Comics. He has been nominated for an Eisner award, multiple Indie awards, and received an Amazon Book of the Month selection for Wild Blue Yonder. In addition to his professional work, Zach is passionate about supporting young artists and has dedicated much of his time to helping nurture the next generation of creators.
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Drew Nolte
Web Designer
Drew Nolte is a professional designer who decided to take time off work and get an MFA in poetry. Using his web and design knowledge, he looks for projects and opportunities to help the literary world anyway he can. He has been a marketing designer, college web designer, partner in a ruby on rails company, and now leading design for a luxury travel company.
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Kaitlin Lounsberry
Internship Supervisor & Senior Editor
Kaitlin Lounsberry graduated magna cum laude from Columbia College Chicago with a Bachelor of Arts degree in journalism and a minor in fiction writing. She also earn her master’s degree in Writing and Publishing from DePaul University with distinction. While working towards her master’s, Kaitlin was a managing editor for The Garica Boy, published through Big Shoulders Book. She has bylines in The State Journal-Register, The Columbia Chronicle, Pop’Stache, and Chicago Talks. Kaitlin is currently working on her revising first novel, learning Hangul, playing Uno, and attending live concerts in the Chicago area.
At Brink and F(r)iction, Kaitlin leads the Publishing Internship Program, serves as a senior editor, and copyedits/proofreads upcoming F(r)iction issues.
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Thomas Chisholm
Senior Editor
Thomas Chisholm is a freelance editor, creative writer, and an alumnus of The Evergreen State College. He received a year of formal copyediting training from the University of Washington’s editing certificate program, though he especially enjoys cracking a story open and getting into developmental edits. Originally from suburban Detroit, he’s called Seattle home since 2009. His creative work has appeared in Inkwell, Drizzle Review, and Vanishing Point Magazine.
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Jennifer Leong
US Board Member
Jennifer is a Calirado native (a person born in California that now lives in Colorado) who leads a Fortune 100 global marketing team by day and sits on Brink’s Board of Directors, also by day (her days are long). She’s passionate about creating community and bringing people together for a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Her obsessions include rock climbing, coffee, traveling, and storytelling.
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Ian Leprino
US Board Member
As a graduate from the Denver School of the Arts, Ian Leprino has been impacting the Denver art scene from a young age. Since then, he’s gone on to develop a career in business, dance, and philanthropy. With more than eleven years of experience in business management and development, Ian owns and operates Ovation Academy of Dance and works as the COO of Leprino Home Inc. In his free time, he contributes his expertise to an array of Denver-based nonprofits (though Brink is his favorite), fighting for the importance of art in our community.
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Jon Schindehette
US Board Member
Jon is a veteran of the marketing, gaming and publishing industries. Through the years, he has worked with clients such as: Disney, Fox Entertainment, Warner Brothers, Hasbro, Wizards of the Coast, ThinkGeek, Harley-Davidson, Microsoft, Kodak, Price Waterhouse, Atari, Activision, Nintendo, Pokémon, Sony Entertainment, CBS, Bioware, Bethesda SoftWorks, Crystal Dynamics, and many more. In his spare time, Jon creates lots of sawdust while building fun woodworking projects.
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Suzanne Hickox
US Board Member
Suzanne’s real estate career began in the late 80s, when she started buying distressed properties, renovating, and reselling for a profit. Suzanne has also managed large REO portfolios for Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Chase, Wilshire Capital, Ocwen and Barclays. She has also served on the Board of Directors for the Children’s Advocacy Center in Colorado Springs, and is currently on the Business Development Committee for the Rocky Mountain MS Center. Suzanne also has a BS degree from the University of Northern Colorado, is married to the wonderful Steve, and has several incredible children along with many amazing family members.
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Eileen Silverthorn
Senior Editor
Eileen is a senior editor at F(r)iction, working on both journal submissions and the occasional review or article for F(r)Log. She loves both fiction and poetry: In fiction, Eileen looks for stories with character-driven narratives blended with detailed writing and speculative genre elements. In poetry, Eileen is drawn to imagery-heavy pieces that are unafraid to experiment with form, line breaks, and language.
Eileen is also a bookseller at the Tattered Cover in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in English Creative Writing and minors in History and Women’s Interdisciplinary Studies. Inspired by her work with CSU’s undergraduate literary magazine Greyrock Review, Eileen decided to explore a career in publishing through the Denver Publishing Institute. She enjoys spending her time traveling, editing her friends’ fanfiction, reading ten books at once, spending her whole paycheck at her place of employment, and cuddling her cats whilst writing bios about herself in the third person.
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Helen Maimaris
Chief of Staff
Helen joined Brink in 2016 as an intern, soon rising to the rank of Chief of Operations, a position she held for nearly 5 years before becoming Brink’s Chief of Staff in 2023. As Chief of Staff, Helen heads up all things staff-related, from the development of new education programs, staff culture practices, and staff management, to the legal and logistical needs of running a nonprofit. When she’s not madly consuming any comic she can get her hands on, she also serves as the Managing Editor of F(r)iction, overseeing the submission pipeline, senior editor team, volunteer training, and production of the journal.
Helen lives in Bristol, UK, and travels extensively, with past adventures including training as a professional scuba diving guide, participating in scientific fieldwork with humpback whales in Ecuador, and one particularly incredible eye-contact encounter with a wild male orangutan.
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Dani Hedlund
Chief Executive & Founder
Dani Hedlund founded Brink Literacy Project to champion new and diverse stories. As CEO, she creates the vision for the organization, manages fundraising and advocacy, spearheads new initiatives, and teaches far more than the board would like. She is also the editor-in-chief of Brink’s critically-acclaimed publication, F(r)iction—one of the world’s fastest growing literary magazines—and the lead creator of products like our hit Literary Tarot campaign.
Dani speaks at events all over the world on the importance of literacy and education reform, supporting emerging creatives, and getting people excited about the next generation of literature. In addition to university lectures and conference panels, she shares Brink’s mission to spur cultural and political change via major media outlets, including the Times, the Sun, KOA radio, CW, Channel 4, Fox 31, and many others.
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Sam Gladstone
IT Officer
Sam gave up studying English at the age of sixteen and would never have guessed that he would end up involved with an organization like Brink! Instead, he specializes in the languages of machines, working as a full stack developer by day and helping Brink with any tech-related queries at all times in between. He graduated with a Master of Mathematics from the University of East Anglia and is a passionate diver, helping to introduce people to the underwater world at a local club in Norfolk, UK.
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Suzie Bartholomew
Senior Editor
Suzie Bartholomew hails from Indiana and works for the Indianapolis Public Library. She earned her BA in English from Purdue University North Central (now Northwest) and her MFA in Creative Writing from Butler University. Having fully embraced her inner grandma, she loves to crochet, embroider, and live off of tea while cuddling with her cat. When she’s not working or being crafty, Suzie is focused on writing stories and indulging in serial killer documentaries.
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Maribel Leddy
Internship Assistant & Junior Editor
Maribel Leddy graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a BA in Writing Seminars. She’s originally from Buffalo, New York, but she now lives in Chicago where she works as an Associate Content Strategist at Yakkety Yak, a digital marketing agency. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, traveling, and eating.
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Evan Sheldon
Editorial Director
Evan lives in Denver, CO and is a graduate from the Denver Publishing Institute. He is the author of Shed the Midnight (Ghost City Press, 2019). His creative work has appeared in over forty different publications and has been translated into Russian. When he is not writing or editing, he is most likely reading to his young daughter or studying the history of weird literature and fairy tales.
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Sonya Minner
Junior Editor
Sonya Minner is a self-proclaimed writer from western Pennsylvania. She successfully graduated from California University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Creative Writing in 2015. Since then, she’s bounced around from place to place. She currently works in an office by day and writes YA fiction (and sometimes hockey articles) by night. If she’s not writing, she’s probably tweeting. One day, she hopes to pay off her student loan debt and publish a best-selling YA novel, just maybe not in that order.
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