Meet the Staff

Amy Rosenbluth
Executive Director / arosenbluth@lakeerieink.org

Reaching out, stepping back; letting go

Amy Rosenbluth has worked with youth during both in-school and out-of- school time programs since 1991. She created the Youth Leadership group and mentoring program for the Shaker Heights Youth Center and has been facilitating Teen Poetry Slams in the Heights area for over 18 years. A credentialed 7-12 English teacher and prevention certified youth advocate, Amy is co-founder and oversees all operations of Lake Erie Ink. She still works directly with youth, primarily teen poets, facilitating writing and spoken word workshops, both on site and off. Amy also designs and facilitates professional development workshops for teachers and other youth serving professionals. Amy has been teaching as adjunct English faculty at Lakeland Community College since 1998. She received her BA in English from Hiram College and her teaching certification and graduate work from San Francisco State University. Her training in Bay Area Writers’ Project has given her a passion for and strategies in incorporating writing throughout the curriculum. She believes that all youth have stories that deserve to be heard and uses creative writing as a way to make that happen.

Jill Levin
Program Director / jlevin@lakeerieink.org

Full of wonder, continuing to learn

Jill Levin is a career arts educator with a range of experience working with students of all ages. Most recently she taught and directed theater at Montessori High School at University Circle. She is a former director of education for Cleveland Public Theatre and has taught acting at a number of area theaters and colleges. As a writer, Jill is especially interested in personal narrative as a form of creative expression and is very pleased to be part of an organization that works with young people on finding their own form of creativity.

Cynthia Larsen
Curriculum Director & Lead Teacher / clarsen@lakeerieink.org

My home-work: working with writing, kids

Cynthia Larsen is Lake Erie Ink’s co-founder and Curriculum Director and Lead Teacher. She holds a BA in English with an emphasis in creative writing from Stanford University and a single subject teaching credential in English and Language Arts from San Francisco State University. Ms. Larsen taught secondary English in Jersey City, New Jersey; Oakland, California; and Cleveland, Ohio before attending graduate school at the University of Arizona, where she received her MFA in creative writing. Ms. Larsen has facilitated project-based creative writing in collaboration with teachers for over ten years, combining her training in education with her passion for writing. Ms. Larsen continues to stay abreast of new standards, methods and technology that helps Lake Erie Ink best meet the needs of youth and educators. At Lake Erie Ink, Ms. Larsen develops and implements creative writing curriculum that supports and meets the educational state standards for English and Language Arts.

Cordelia Eddy
Teen Program Coordinator / cordelia@lakeerieink.org

Using empathy to cultivate good humans

Cordelia has guided youth in many cities to develop and magnify their voices and build community through writing. She is particularly drawn to sharing the truths found in fiction, the poetic in prose, and the magical dialogue between words and images in comics and zines. Cordelia is left-handed, and often takes notes backwards in cursive like Leonardo da Vinci (mostly to avoid smearing her words). She believes that creative writing is a powerful tool for growth and understanding that helps us to think critically about the world and better understand our place within it.

Barbie Estrada
Development + Administrative Manager / bestrada@lakeerieink.org

Raise and educate kids who create

Barbie is the development and administrative guru at Lake Erie Ink. With a BA in Creative Writing and a Masters in Nonprofit Management, she has been working for youth and literacy initiatives since 2008 through the Americorps as well as for various organizations and schools. Barbie supports bucket lists, clementines over oranges, and descriptive grammar. She writes to remember the magical little moments in life and to make sense of the grand ones.

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Naazneen Diwan
Creative Arts Teacher

Naaz is a Creative Arts Teacher here at Lake Erie Ink. She is a poet, social justice educator and healing arts and meditation facilitator. Her tent literally blew away and I had to chase it down, while camping in Zion National Forest in Utah. Naaz writes because when she’s writing she loses track of time and space and constraints and its a beautiful thing.

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Kisha Nicole Foster
Creative Arts Teacher

I am a mother, artist, healer

Kisha Nicole Foster is a mother, nationally performing poet, and teaching artist. The author of Poems: 1999-2014 and Blood Work, Foster is the recipient of the 2019 Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature. Foster is also three time Ohio for the Center for the Book fellow, Regional Coordinator for Poetry OutLoud/ Ohio Arts Council, and a two time Pink Door Fellow. She is currently the Literary Cleveland Fellow/ Cleveland Stories program Coordinator, teaching artist with Lake Erie Ink and crafted the poem for the Justice Center Mural Project. Foster uses her locution as a conduit towards healing and fostering truth within language; allowing mistakes and humility to guide her craft.

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Sarah Kloos
Marketing and Communications Manager / marketing@lakeerieink.org

Make a list. Check it off.

Sarah Kloos is an administrative assistant at Lake Erie Ink. She is a recent graduate from Hobart and William Smith Colleges where she earned a BA in English and spent several of those years working as a peer student writing tutor, both in the library and in the classroom. As a lifelong dancer, she enjoys finding parallels in creative expression between movement and language. She writes to find new perspectives in daily observations and is fascinated by the power of words.

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Damien McClendon
Creative Arts Teacher

Liberate through art, surviving in love

Damien recently began a two year tenure as Cleveland Heights Poet Laureate and is the co-director and reigning grand Slam champion of The People Poetry Slam on Cleveland’s University Circle. In 2017, Damien placed 7th in the Individual World Poetry Slam and self published his debut chapbook ‘Soft’. Damien has completed the Baldwin House fellowship with Twelve Literary Arts and works as a teaching artist in various public schools in Cleveland.

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Jarod “Od” Perry-Richardson
Program Assistant

Sitting down sketching, away like always

Jarod “Od” Perry-Richardson is a Program Assistant at Lake Erie Ink. Beginning his time at LEI as a volunteer, Od eventually joined the LEI family as a teacher. As a current student at the Cleveland Institute of Art majoring in Illustration, Od brings his artistic experience and love of the arts to the table. When he isn’t busy teaching or drawing, Od can be found at one of Cleveland’s many concert venues. He believes that visual arts and creative writing are invaluable expressive outlets for which the youth can channel their creativity and let it burst out in all directions.

Nicole Rossa
Creative Arts Teacher / nicole@lakeerieink.org

Anxiety, emails read but not responded

Nicole Rossa is a Creative Arts Teacher who runs our comedy club. She has been teaching and working with non-profits since 2013. Starting out as an Ink Spot volunteer, Nicole jumped at the opportunity to teach formally in LEI programs. Prior to becoming a teacher, Nicole made her living as a stand-up comic and emcee. She writes because she has stories to tell and paper holds up better than brain space. She believes that creative expression is what makes problems into art forms. Even a terrible day can make a fantastic story.

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Randee Stroud
Ink Spot Coordinator / randee@lakeerieink.org

Restless in spirit. Searching for inspiration.

Randee is the Ink Spot Program Coordinator for Noble Elementary and Monticello Middle school. Randee studied Creative Arts and Social Change at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Randee also trained at The Second City in Chicago, where she studied improvisational theatre, writing, and storytelling. She also brings her experience as an Art Director at The Boys and Girls Club, a year of AmeriCorps service as a literacy tutor, her 2 years as a volunteer tutor at 826CHI, as well as, her plentitude of experiences working with youth in different capacities. She hopes to help students develop their voice through creative expression. As a visual artist herself, she believes that the process is the most important part of creating. In turn, she hopes to inspire her students to embrace the process, try new things, and lose the fear of failing.

Cliff Sweeney
Creative Arts Teacher

Artistic melodies changes time of king

Cliff is a Creative Arts Teacher at Lake Erie Ink. His experience as a mentor and leadership facilitator of youth combined with a past in songwriting allow for a perfect fit for helping youth cultivate their creative talents. He believes creative writing and expression gives youth opportunity to view the world through different lenses.

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Sony Ton-Aime
Program Operations Coordinator

Sony Ton-Aime is the Program Operation Coordinator at Lake Erie Ink. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the NEOMFA program and a BBA in Accounting from Kent State University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Wick Poetry Center and Chautauqua Literary Arts Center. He is the author of one chapbook, LaWomann, and a forthcoming Haitian Creole translation of the book, Olympic Hero: The Story of Lennox Kilgour. He is the co-founding editor of ID13 – an online publication – that published creative works by inmates he led in poetry workshops. His works have appeared in Brainchild, La Revista PingPong, The Oakland Review, Dunes Review, Poets.org, and more. He believes that writing requires a level of innocence that is characteristic of childhood, which makes the writing process inevitably childlike.

Vivian Vail
Creative Arts Teacher

Give a boost; reveal fresh promise

Vivian Vail became a certified elementary teacher with a reading endorsement many years after earning a Master’s degree in dance. Her experience teaching in various academic and community settings has taught Vivian that we all do better when we find our voice. She loves to garden and makes a mean guacamole.

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Raquel Wilbon
Creative Arts Teacher

A true safe place for love

Raquel Joy Wilbon is a teaching artist, an award- winning published poet, a playwright instructor, and hasjudged poetry for America Scores slam poetry. Her work was selected more than once for inclusion in the Literary Magazine Breakwall (2018), Vindicator magazine (2017) and Eber & Wein poetry Anthology (2015). Raquel has earned a BA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing. Her role is to inspire as many youth to safely imagine and create written work in multiple ways. . She writes to breathe life into and inspire individuals, and the youth who do not feel safe to express through the language of penmanship.

Adam James Zahren
Ink Spot Coordinator / inkspot@lakeerieink.org

Through modeling love they then become

Adam James Zahren holds an English degree with an emphasis in creative writing from Allegheny College. During their college career, Adam James focused on poetry and nonfiction. They have been published in Queer Studies in Media and Popular Culture as well as Gaga Daily, one of Lady Gaga’s biggest fan sites. Adam brings two years of City Year Americorps experience to Lake Erie Ink. They are excited and eager to fuse creativity, love, and writing together to help students find their voice at Coventry Ink Spot.