Meet the Graduate Writing Consultants

Our writing consultants are graduate students who have extensive experience with graduate-level writing, as well as teaching and tutoring. Feel free to make an appointment with the writing consultant in the academic area most similar to yours, but all writing consultants have been trained to help graduate students with general writing issues in any field.

Scott Arno
Scott is a third year doctoral student in the interdepartmental program in neuroscience. His areas of research include electrophysiology, neural engineering, and theoretical neuroscience. Prior to his matriculation at UCLA, he was a masters student in biomedical engineering at Tufts University and an undergraduate in biomedical engineering at Boston University; as undergraduate, he won thesis of the year for his senior capstone project. Scott has also worked in industry; as an associate bioengineer in clinical research, he oversaw clinical trials for a nationwide study, and he authored both internal and external company documents. He has co-authored several scientific papers as well. In his spare time, he enjoys running and complaining about traffic. He has always been fond of the saucy tilde.

Netta Avineri
Netta Avineri is a fifth-year graduate student in the Department of Applied Linguistics. Her dissertation research focuses on heritage language socialization, language ideologies, and classroom discourse analysis within the current U.S. Yiddish language revitalization movement. Netta earned her BA in Anthropology with a minor in French from UCLA in 2001. In addition to working at the Graduate Writing Center, she is the GSA Vice President of Academic Affairs; teaches Anthropology, Applied Linguistics, ESL, and Sociology classes; and works as the Center for Jewish Studies’ Civic Engagement Program Coordinator. In her free time, Netta enjoys traveling, playing flute, and salsa dancing. Netta's favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis...

Allison Crumly
Allison is a sixth-year graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature. She is currently writing a dissertation on race and transnational circulation in contemporary Black European fiction. Allison grew up in Boise, Idaho. After earning a B.A. in English and French at Stanford University, she spent two years editing and writing elementary math textbooks. At UCLA, she has taught writing, literature, and French language. She enjoys hiking, running, traveling, drinking tea, and reading novels that have nothing to do with her dissertation. Her favorite punctuation mark is the comma.

Kip Austin Hinton
Kip is a Ph.D. candidate in Education. His research includes cultural studies, immigrants, and school equity; he is writing a dissertation on Chicana/o farmworker students and their video projects. Kip earned his M.A. in Bicultural-Bilingual studies at University of Texas at San Antonio after finishing his thesis on Alamo films and ideology. His B.A. at The Ohio State University included research in Ukraine on Chernobyl’s cultural aftermath. He lived and worked with the indigenous Otomí in Querétaro, México. Kip has taught English and ESL since 2001 – in Mexico, Texas, and now California. His favorite punctuation is the diéresis (which looks exactly like an umlaut).

Christine Malsbary
Christine is a third year doctoral candidate in International and Comparative Education. She researches community membership practices and modes of belonging among recently-arrived immigrant high school students in Los Angeles. Christine's background is in the Arts: she received her BA in Art History from Temple University and an MA in the Anthropology of Visual Culture from the University of London. Her MA thesis was on colonial photography practices in India. After a minor existential quandry and a few globe trotting adventures, Christine switched life paths and began her teaching career in New York City, picking up an M.S. in Teaching English as a Second Language along the way. For the past six years Christine has worked with non-native speakers of English, high school students, adults, teachers, and college students, focusing on literacy, language, culture and writing. In addition to academic writing, Christine enjoys blogging, and writing opinion essays, memoir and poetry. Her favorite punctuation mark is the ellipsis...so wonderful to drift off into contemplation with....

Mac Marston
Mac is a PhD candidate in the interdepartmental graduate program in Archaeology. He received his undergraduate degree in Archaeology, Classics, and Biology from Washington University in St. Louis in 2001. His research interests are inter- and multidisciplinary, ranging across the humanities, social, and biological sciences, and focus on how people interact with their social and natural environments. His recent research has been supported by an NSF Graduate Fellowship and Dissertation Improvement Grant. Mac has participated in archaeological research projects in Turkey, Albania, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus, Kenya, and the United States. Away from UCLA, Mac enjoys cooking for friends and napping on the beach. His favorite typographical symbol is the pipe - so hot right now.

Lisa Millora
Lisa is a third-year Ph.D. student in Higher Education and Organizational Change. Her work focuses on the intersections between higher education, globalization, and social change, and she has a keen interest in how the politics of race, religion, and gender affect those relationships. Originally from the east coast, Lisa earned her BA in Political Science and MA in Higher Education Administration from Boston College and then worked in student affairs for several years. During her time as an administrator, Lisa pursued her passion for addressing issues of violence against women and successfully applied for a two-year grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to reduce violent crimes against women on college campuses. Lisa enjoys running, traveling, and discovering new culinary delights. Her favorite punctuation mark is the exclamation point!

Hugo Sarmiento
Hugo is a second year M.A. candidate in Urban Planning and Latin American Studies. His concentration is in community development with a research interest in the transformative impact of Latino immigrant workers on the urban landscape. He earned his B.A. in history at UCLA. Hugo taught English for two years at a high school in south central Los Angeles. He enjoys playing basketball, dancing to reggae and cumbia music, exploring L.A.'s late night taco trucks, and traveling. Hugo's favorite punctuation mark is the incredibly popular but sadly misunderstood comma.

Heather Shpiro
Heather is a 2nd year doctoral student in Social Science and Comparative Education. Her research focuses on health education and gender equity in education in sub-Saharan Africa. Heather earned her M.A. in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University, where she began with a focus on comparative literature and then transitioned into the social sciences. Heather’s Master’s thesis addressed sexual and reproductive health education in South Africa. Her B.A. from the University of California Santa Cruz was in World Literature and Cultural Studies. Heather has lived, worked and studied in many countries in Western Europe, as well as in South Africa and Malawi. Her favorite punctuation mark is the semicolon; it is a free pass for people who like run-on sentences; just kidding. ;)

Rob Sullivan
Rob is a second year graduate student in geography and has an undergraduate degree in philosophy. His interests in geography include urban theory, the geography of the everyday, and the geography of home. He has worked many years as a professional writer and has extensive experience in journalism, screenwriting, and creative writing. He has also taught writing at CSUN, UCLA Extension, UCLA, and the Chino State Prison. The one punctuation mark he adores: the colon.