Board of Directors and Advisory Council

ABOUT THE BOARD MEMBERS

Rachel Unkefer, President and Founding Member

In a previous life, Rachel was co-founder and CEO of Silicon Valley-based technical bookstore chain Computer Literacy Bookshops. She is currently looking for a literary agent for her first novel, A Useful Life, (Quarter-finalist for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award) and working on the second draft of her second novel. Her short fiction has appeared in Crab Orchard Review, Prime Number Magazine, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and Writers in the Heartland.

Jeff Coomer, Treasurer

Nica Waters, Secretary

In 6th grade, Nica wrote a story set in a place she’d never been, with characters she’d never met, doing things she’d never done. After hours of painful revision, she realized she needed to start with what she knew, so she put down her writing tools for about 25 years. Her family’s recent trip to the Bahamas on board their 28’ sailboat gave her much-needed fodder for writing. She’s working on a novel and some short stories, all of which for some reason have something to do with the sea. Her article on the trip, “There and Back Again,” was published in the November 2010 issue of Chesapeake Bay Magazine.

Christina Ball

An Italian teacher for the past 20 years and the owner of local foreign language/ESL enterprise, Speak! Language Center, Ball also leads language and opera-focused travel programs in Italy. She has served as the Business Representative to  the Sister City Commission of Charlottesville and is a founding Board member of Slow Food Albemarle Piedmont. A free lance writer since 2000, Ball has published over 40 magazine articles, which have focused primarily on food and wine, but have also touched upon topics as diverse as silent film star Clara Bow and Franz Kafka.

Sean McCord

Sean McCord is a burgeoning playwright, director, and actor in the community theater scene, as well as a local political activist. In addition to the WriterHouse Board, Sean serves on the City Parks and Recreation Board and the PVCC College Board. Before coming to Charlottesville twenty years ago, Sean lived in New York and Los Angeles, where he kept himself busy as a screenwriter and film archivist. Sean currently works for the UVA Library, is a frequent volunteer at Live Arts and the Virginia Film Festival, and produces the Sunday Morning Wake-Up Call for WNRN-FM.

Walker Thornton

Walker comes to WriterHouse with a varied resume of experience on nonprofit board of directors. From her tenure on the Alabama Diocesan Board of Episcopal Church Women, to the board of the Virginia Sexual and Domestic Violence Action Alliance (VSDVAA) she has worked to support a variety of causes. Before starting a new career as a freelance writer, Walker was the Executive Director of SARA. As a writer she works with small business clients, offering blogs, articles, newsletters, web content, press releases and consulting services. Walker writes several blogs, including A Woman's Page and The Diva of Dating. She is currently working on her memoir about divorce and dating as a midlife woman. A UVA grad with a graduate degree from the University of Georgia, she returned to Charlottesville in 1999.

BOARD MEMBERS EMERITI

Diana Strickler, Past Treasurer

Catherine Crittenden, Past Secretary and Founding Member

Elizabeth McCullough, Past Treasurer and Founding Member

Christy Strick, Past President and Founding Member

Burnley Hayes, Founding Member

Hilary Jerrill Steinitz, Founding Member

Hope Mills Voelkel, Founding Member

Kristen-Paige Madonia, Past Membership Committee Chair

Charles J. Shields

Gale Martin