Meet Our Staff

Alex Hack is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Southern California, where she received her Master’s in the same field. Having previously received her B.F.A. from Parsons School of Design, she has a background in communication and UI design. Her dissertation project takes up medicine and its software as fertile ground for humanistic analysis as they force us to consider that racial harm lies too in supposed benevolence, that it has become elemental and rhizomatic, and that its killer instinct doesn’t simply resolve with more training or better data. Alex loves teaching and has experience teaching in both Cinema and Media and Gender Studies, and her writing utilizes both these fields, as well as African American Studies, Ethnic Studies, Sociology, Environmental Studies, History, and the Medical Humanities. She has experience with short and long-form personal and academic essays, research papers, resumes and C.V.s, script writing, cover letters, personal statements, and more. Alex is a potter in her free time and also enjoys a good period drama.

Amelia “Amy” Cruz (she/they) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at USC Dornsife. She earned her B.A. in English Literature and Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Amy’s work sits at the crossroads of literary, disability, neurodivergence, and queer studies. Her dissertation interrogates the “leaky” boundaries of the human/inhuman binary, and the subversive potential of the autistic way of being. Amy served as an Assistant Lecturer in the Writing Program, so she has lots of experience with the ins and outs of Writing 150. Feel free to ask for tips on how to thrive in college or graduate school while neurodivergent (i.e., a person with one or more learning and/or cognitive disabilities, such as autism, ADHD, OCD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.)! Amy’s favorite part of teaching is working with students to find solutions that work with their brain, rather than against it. In her free time, Amy enjoys seeing Ghibli movies at the New Beverly Cinema, rewatching Criminal Minds for the fourteenth time, and cross stitching with a fuzzy orange cat on her lap.

Camila Reyes (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the English department and a Wallis Annenberg Endowed Fellow at USC. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in English and Psychology at the University of California, Riverside, where she was a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellow and won the English Department’s Undergraduate Student Essay Contest Award in 2018. She also previously worked at UC Riverside’s Writing Center. Her research interests lie at the intersections of girlhood studies, queer theory, and early modern English literature. Other research interests include law and literature, and performance studies. Camila served as an instructor for Writing 150 and her main areas of writing experience are in the humanities and social sciences. She also has experience working with first-generation students, English as a second language students, and nontraditional students. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, going to concerts, and birdwatching.

Carolina Muñoz (she/her) is a second-year Ph.D. student studying English Literature at USC Dornsife. She earned her BA in English and minor in Education at the University of California, Riverside. Carolina has served as the Assistant Editor-in-Chief for the UC Riverside Undergraduate Research Journal, where she aided in publishing student research articles from various disciplines. Additionally, she has tutored community college students and taught undergraduate students, helping scholars’s develop reading and writing skills and providing mentorship on topics related to navigating higher education. Through her mentorship, she also has experience building and editing resumes. Carolina’s research lies in the field of Chicanx and Latinx studies. Her interests include hiking, cooking and baking, crocheting, and exploring taco trucks around Los Angeles.

Ellie Xu (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Clinical Science. Her research focuses on understanding how deficits in emotion regulation contribute to the development, maintenance, and recurrence of affective disorders, such as depression. Ellie received her Bachelor of Arts in Economics and Psychology from the University of Chicago, and has experience reviewing academic essays in those fields, as well as résumés, CVs, cover letters, graduate school applications, and fellowship applications. Outside of work, Ellie enjoys hiking, reading, and exploring neighborhoods and restaurants in the Los Angeles area.

Kat (Katrina) Tran (she/her) is a Rossier EdD candidate researching effective reflective discourse practices alongside educational leaders. After earning a B.A. in Communication Studies at UCLA and an M.A. in Elementary Education from LMU, Kat taught elementary, middle school, and high school students for over a decade. With twenty years of writing and editing experience for various publications and populations, she offers students support in reviewing personal statements, creative pieces, and research papers. Outside of “dissertating,” Kat enjoys reading, adventuring, and seeking out the next delicious meal.

Mahnoor Ali (she/her) is a Ph.D. student studying Comparative Media and Culture at USC Dornsife. Her work operates on the intersection of literary and museum studies and explores themes of spatiality, communal memory, and cultural identity. She is interested in how these themes shape visual and literary narratives of displacement and diaspora. Mahnoor completed her B.A. in Comparative Literature at Harvard with a secondary field in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She also has an MPhil in English Criticism and Culture from the University of Cambridge. She has done ethnographic research in France and literary research in Turkey and can advise on fellowship and internship application materials (personal statements, cover letters, etc.) in addition to essays across disciplines. She also enjoys writing fiction and would be happy to discuss your creative projects! Outside of the classroom, Mahnoor has made significant progress in her quests to find the best pain au chocolat on the West Coast and to prove that Los Angeles is, contrary to popular opinion, a walkable city.

Morgan Lynch (she/her) is a PhD candidate in the Clinical Science area of the Psychology Department in Dornsife. Her research explores the various factors that contribute to why and how people age differently, spanning from the cellular level to the individual and broader community levels. She is passionate about the strength of social connections in preventing or delaying neurodegeneration. Morgan has worked in psychology, neuroscience, and biology research for about 10 years. During that time, she has built expertise in reviewing essays for academic courses and manuscripts for journals, as well as résumés/CVs, cover letters, graduate school personal statements, and conference/fellowship applications. Outside of work, Morgan enjoys taking her dog to the park, hiking, and trying new ice cream flavors.

Robert Waller (he/him) is Director of the Writing Center and an Associate Professor (Teaching) in the Writing Program. Professor Waller received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University, where he studied oral history and music, and has a degree in creative writing from USC.   Robert has over 20 years of experience teaching writing with a particular focus on using writing as a tool to explore and reveal the creative process. At USC, he developed the popular Special Topics WRIT 340 course, Writing for Visual and Performing Artists, that aims to help students articulate their own aesthetics and through this process expand their understanding both of writing and the meanings and purposes driving their work.  In addition to his work at USC, Waller is also an active performing songwriter and musician who has toured internationally and had his songs appear in TV and film. Robert lives in Highland Park with his wife, three children, and two cats.

Stephanie Mullings (she/her) is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing and Literature. She received her B.A. in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University. Her main areas of writing expertise include creative writing, social sciences and humanities, history, and academic writing. Stephanie’s fiction writing has appeared in various literary magazines, including Boulevard, Catapult, the Los Angeles Review, and elsewhere. She is originally from Chicago, an avid WNBA and N.B.A. fan, and a proud sneakerhead.

Yousef Alghawi (they/them) is a third year Ph.D. in the Division of Cinema and Media Studies in the School of Cinematic Arts. They received their B.A. in Political Science and English, with a minor in philosophy, from the University of Florida and an M.A. in Cinema Studies at New York University. Yousef is a cross-disciplinary writer who works throughout a range of discourses, subjects, and mediums, including political science, literature, film, theory, sociology and anthropology, among others. Yousef has also worked many years in non-profit, political, and activist spaces, with a wealth of experience with CVs, applications and résumés. Yousef’s research revolves around film as philosophy, ethics, postmodernist literature, audio-visual decay, phenomenology, gender, and political ideologies.