Jen Toews holds an MA in English from the University of Colorado, Denver and BAs in both English and Biology. Prior to JWU, she tutored writing at a local community college and also taught English as a Second Language both in the United States and abroad. Through her other career in public horticulture she recently co-authored the book Wildflowers of the Rocky Mountain Region (2018), has written plants-related articles for publications, and maintains a nature-themed blog.
Samuel Wells is the Director of the Denver Campus Writing Center and an Associate Professor of the Humanities. He received a BA in Theatre from Grandview University, during which time he was a member of the Shakespeare on the Loose acting ensemble and a performer in the first musical ever presented for members of the United Nations. He attended Yale’s graduate summer writing workshop and received his Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University in Boulder, the only accredited Buddhist University in North America. During the last year of his graduate studies Wells was presented with the inaugural award from the William S. Burroughs estate scholarship for fiction writers. He is an accomplished technical editor, a published poet, short story author and award-winning playwright. His work has appeared at MadeUpMovement.com as well as Treating Yourself: The Alternative Medicine Journal and Sativa magazine. He has presented work on the uses of alternate reality games in higher education to educational conferences across the nation; the paper Reefer Madness by Other Means: The Role of Iatrogenic Inversion in the Evolution of the War on Drugs in Colorado was presented as part of the Drugs & Culture panel at the 2014 Southwest Popular and American Culture Association Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In April 2016 Wells presented his newest work, The “Urgent Squandering” of Satanic Ennui: The Roles of Reality and Parody in the Emergence of Lacanian Jouissance in 19th Century Decadent Literature for the national meeting of the Nineteenth Century Studies Association. Wells teaches Basic & Advanced Composition, Communications, Technical Writing, Food Writing, and the interdisciplinary courses The Atomic Age, City as Text, The Problem of Evil, Studies in Shakespeare, and Contemporary Approaches to Classical and World Mythology. He is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Higher Education Finance and Policy at Northeastern University with an expected completion date of early 2020.