Welcome to the National Association for Poetry Therapy

Board Members
2007-2009

2007-2009 NAPT Executive Board (biographies included below)

President: Diane Allerdyce
VP for Conferences: Richard Brown
VP for Membership: Nessa McCasey
Treasurer: Position open
Secretary: Phyllis Klein
By-Laws/Governance Chair: Position open
Publications Committee Chair: Karen vanMeenen
Academic/Institutional Outreach: Rob Merritt

Board Members-at-large

Evelyn Torton Beck
Barbara Bethea, Diversity Chair
Margaret Blanchard
Ted Bowman
Geri Chavis
Nick Mazza, Journal of Poetry Therapy Editor
Hannah Menkin

2007-2009 BOARD MEMBERS
* indicates board member is an approved mentor-supervisor.
For a complete list of mentor-supervisors, please click here.

Diane Richard Allerdyce, PhD, CPT: Diane is the co-founder of Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice in Delray Beach, Florida, where she serves as Principal, and a professor at Lynn University, where she offers courses in the principles of Poetry Therapy and Drama Therapy online. She is a community activist, an author and poet, and a CPT, who has been active on the NAPT board since 2000. Write to Diane at president@poetrytherapy.org.

Evelyn Torton Beck, PhD: Evi is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and holds dual Ph.D.s in Comparative Literature and Clinical Psychology. As part of her psychology training she studied poetry therapy with Peggy Heller and Ken Gorelick and continues as an active member of the poetry peer group in the Washington DC area. She brings to NAPT decades of experience as a teacher and department chair with a firm commitment to broadening the base of NAPT to include previously under-represented populations. She currently teaches workshops combining the healing powers of poetry with those of circle dance, on themes such as "life stages of women’s development" and "aging and creativity."

Barbara Bethea, MA, RPT: Barbara completed her MA in Psychology with a focus on Poetry Therapy & Counseling in August 2004, and she received her RPT, working under the supervision of Dr. Sherry Reiter, in 2005. She wants to explore other possibilities to make diversity more visible within NAPT.

Margaret Blanchard, PhD: Margaret's major focus is education—strengthening and extending the bond between NAPT, plus all creative arts therapies, and educators at all levels, particularly teachers of English. She hopes to nourish a special connection with progressive higher education but would also like to reach out to members of such organizations as the National Writing Project and the National Council of Teachers of English. She writes, "Our nation has never been more in need of the healing power of writing, poetry and literature than it is right now."

Ted Bowman: Ted is committed to giving voice for educators and trainers working with the literary arts, particularly those working in settings of grief and loss. He presents throughout the U.S. and worldwide workshops and consults of using poetry therapy as a pathway through grief and loss, and he writes that his intention is always to "give voice to the wondrous power of stories, writing, and literary arts."

Richard Paul Brown, MEd, CPT-in-training: As a middle school special education teacher, Richard's particular focus is in the area of education. He is committed to keeping the pulse of poetry alive in the classroom. He writes, "I have enjoyed being part of a dynamic group of people and playing a role in making some important decisions that have helped NAPT grow and evolve."

Geri Chavis, PhD, CPT, M/S, LP: Geri brings to the board a personal 30-year historical perspective of the poetry therapy field and an openness to new ideas reflecting current trends and needs. Being a literature professor, active board member of NAPT in the past, a CPT, Mentor/Supervisor and Licensed Psychologist, has served her well in her current extensive poetry therapy training role in the U.S., the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. She writes, "I am particularly interested in the education and training of poetry therapists and in the interdisciplinary nature of our field which encompasses not only poetry but also journaling, film, story, drama and metaphor/symbol exploration."

Phyllis Klein, LCSW: Phyllis has been facilitating poetry therapy groups and workshops for the past eight years in diverse settings and has just been granted her CPT after working with mentor/supervisor Perie Longo. A licensed social worker, Phyllis recently presented a workshop at the NAPT conference on poetic conversation and community building. Email Phyllis at gethelp@womenintherapy.com.

Nicholas Mazza, PhD, RPT: Nicholas Mazza is a Professor of Social Work at Florida State University. He is the founding (1987) and current editor of the Journal of Poetry Therapy and author of Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice. Dr. Mazza has been involved in the practice, research and teaching of poetry therapy for over 30 years. He is past vice president and has served on the NAPT board since 1985. In 1997, he received the Pioneer Award from NAPT. Nick holds Florida licenses in clinical social work, marriage and family therapy, and psychology.

Nessa McCasey: Nessa joined the board at the 2008 Annual Conference in Minneapolis, feeling the desire to "step up" and help the organization which had helped her fulfill her passionate calling in Poetry Therapy. Her past experience as a marketing professional gave her skills in networking that she hopes to put to good use in re-activating the Regional Representatives of NAPT. Through that vehicle, the webbed approach of connecting to members will be an increase of personal connection, which will add to the wonderful networking already going on through online forums. "It's imperative that we help each other as we all work towards helping our hurting world."

Hannah Menkin, MA Gerontology, CAPF in training: She is a poet and visual artist and facilitates poetry and art groups with American Veterans, caregivers and older adults using an integrative approach through oral history, storytelling and the expressive/creative arts. Hannah facilitates poetry groups at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in Los Angeles, California. One of her goals is to help broaden the exposure and use of her poetry therapy model throughout the VA. "Expressing feelings on paper is a compelling tool for Veterans who find it difficult to talk about their experience." She was the Volunteer Coordinator for the NAPT 2006 and 2007 conference, and is currently on the 2008 Conference Committee.

Rob Merritt, PhD, chair of the Division of Language, Literature, and Communications at Bluefield College in Virginia, grew up in North Carolina and has a B.A. and M.A. in English from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Kentucky. He is a poet and a scholar of modern American poetry. He is author of the book Early Music and the Aesthetics of Ezra Pound, in which he examines how Pound adapted some elements of pre-Mozartian instrumental music into his poetry and into his critical defenses of modern art. He has also published essays on Joyce, Yeats, and Faulkner. In addition to offering numerous workshops on the power of writing for healing, Rob has published poems in The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, The Village Rambler, Asheville Poetry Review, other journals, and two anthologies: Wild Sweet Notes II: An Anthology of West Virginia Poets and Coal: A Poetry Anthology. His book of poems, Landscape Architects, is about how the land creates us, and we construct a landscape to grow in. He is an editor of The Nantahala Review.

Karen vanMeenen, MA, CPT: As a continuing board member of NAPT and a new Executive Board member, Karen plans to increase her involvement through her role as Chair of the Publications Committee. In this capacity, she will not only continue to edit The Museletter as she has done for the past three years, but she has also organized a Publications Committee to oversee more regular print publications along the lines of Giving Sorrow Words: Poems of Strength and Solace, published through funds granted by the NAPT Foundation in 2002, now in its fourth printing. In this vein, She is currently working with Giving Sorrow Words co-editor Charlie Rossiter and Brian Moore on a collection of poems addressing issues of peace and justice with a tentative publication date of Fall 2005. Poetry therapists are people of words and maintaining a strong print presence through regular publications and periodic anthologies is imperative for our mission as is providing an accessible, engaging, and useful web site. Write to Karen at publicationspoetrytherapy.org.