Dear CWPA Members: It's been a busy year. I hope you're all settling in to summer. I'm really looking forward to seeing and meeting many of you at our in-person conference in July.
Here are the topics in this month's message:
Thank you for voting in our regular elections last month! We were thrilled to see so many wonderful candidates expressing interest in guiding the future of CWPA. A special thank you to all of our candidates for putting themselves out there and standing for a vote. I applaud every person who answered the call of our Nominating Committee.
We are pleased to welcome three new members to CWPA’s Executive Board (EB), and a new incoming Vice President:
Please join me in congratulating these new CWPA EB members!
Our newly-elected, incoming Vice President is Darci Thoune, professor of English and WPA at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In her nearly two decades of membership in the CWPA, Darci has served on and co-chaired a range of committees, has offered a wide variety of workshop and institutes, co-founded the Wisconsin CWPA Affiliate, and has co-facilitated the CWPA Summer Workshop both virtually and (shortly) in-person.
I've often heard Darci say, “nobody WPAs alone.” She explains, “to be a WPA requires community, collaboration, and ongoing feedback. If our writing program is successful, part of the credit goes to me, but most of the credit goes to the incredible writing instructors in our writing program. We are better together in our writing programs when we listen to each other and work together, and I think the same holds true for the CWPA as well.”
I'm thrilled to welcome this new cohort of leaders to the EB and excited to see the ways they will shape and grow this organization. Their terms officially begin July 2026.
Registration is still open for the CWPA Summer Workshop and Conference, July 20-25, 2026! Join us at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, WY, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Wyoming Resolution and to discuss the new WPA Statement on the Five Knowledge Domains of First-Year Composition (4.0)!
Our focus this year will be to explore on the freshest (cue Kool & the Gang) and hot-off-the press resources recently published by the CWPA.
Our affordable “all-in” conference cost for members is $625. This total includes conference registration, limited roundtrip transportation from Denver International Airport (DIA), 4 nights in dorms, and all meals and events.
This affordable Early Bird $625 price is available to CWPA members through June 10--Register HERE.
We are pleased to announce that our keynote speakers have been announced for the conference!
Read more about our keynote presenters and their upcoming talks here: https://www.wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sp/conference_about
CWPA and TYCA have sustained a vibrant affiliation since 2023. Building upon that partnership, we'd like to share information about the new TYCA Reading Network, designed for teachers in two-year colleges and access-oriented institutions to talk about the teaching of reading. Along with Network partners—CBW, CRLA, CWPA, IWCA, MLA, and OWCA—we offer the following:
This list is not exhaustive as the Reading Network will evolve as needed.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/tyca-reading-network/home.
If you are not a member and would like to become one, email https://groups.google.com/g/tycareadingnetwork to be added to the listserv.
You can view upcoming events and register here: https://www.wpacouncil.org/aws/CWPA/pt/sp/events
Want to know more about CWPA? The Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) is a professional organization for academic scholars and staff of writing programs, including first-year composition programs, writing centers, WAC programs, and more.
Join CWPA representatives for informational sessions to learn more about member benefits, opportunities, and resources. These will be informal, conversation-based sessions with time for Q&A.
Thank you for being a part of the CWPA.
Cheers,
Erin Lehman, CWPA President
David Green, CWPA Vice President
Kelly Blewett, Immediate Past President of CWPA
Amanda Presswood, CWPA Secretary
Christal Seahorn, CWPA Treasurer