The Poetry Foundation Welcomes New Team Members in the New Year

The Poetry Foundation begins the new year with Foundation staff members, as well as new reviewers for Harriet Books. This marks the first update in a year of exciting new changes at the Foundation.

Poetry Foundation
As part of its continued commitment to transparency, the Poetry Foundation is pleased to announce three new hires: Keri Cascio as Technology Director; Allison Claybon as Vice President of Marketing & Communications; and Christine Jordan as Guest Experience Manager. 

• Keri Cascio (she/her) joins the Foundation from the Chicago Public Library (CPL), where she was the Assistant Commissioner of Technology, Content and Innovation; she holds more than 20 years of experience with technology in libraries, focusing on user discovery and access. During her time at CPL, Cascio supported the 81-branch system with a portfolio including public technology support and maker labs, collections discovery, metadata creation, maintenance of archives, and general collection development. Cascio represented CPL on the boards of the Chicago Collections Consortium and the Illinois Digital Heritage Hub, and was the American Library Association Representative to the board of RDA: Resource Description and Access.
  
  Cascio earned an MA in Information Science and Learning Technologies with an emphasis on library science, from the University of Missouri; in addition, she holds an MA in Germanic Languages and Literatures from Washington University in St. Louis, and a BA in German Language and Literature from Wesleyan University.
   
• Allison Claybon (she/her) brings with her over 20 years of integrated marketing communications experience working in both the private and public sectors. Claybon has led key initiatives and provided expert marketing direction to Allstate, KPMG, LLP, Washington Mutual Bank, Adtalem Global Education, the YMCA of the USA, and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation. Among her many accolades, she is credited with re-launching and designing the first major national YMCA campaign, Safety Around Water, to increase awareness of drowning prevention in underserved communities. 
  
  Claybon is a graduate of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), where she earned a Master of Business Administration with a marketing concentration. She is a Life Member of the FAMU National Alumni Association, Member of Chicago African Americans in Philanthropy, and Vice President of the Alpha Beta Delta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®.
   
• Christine Jordan (she/her) is a writer, fashion consultant, and guest experience specialist who is based in Chicago, IL. Jordan joins the Foundation with her experience in visitor engagement, including her work in Membership & Visitor Engagement at The Art Institute of Chicago. She has a BA in English from Loyola University Chicago.
   

Harriet Books
The Poetry Foundation welcomes two new Harriet Books reviewers: Heather Green and Diego Báez.

• Heather Green is the author of the collection No Other Rome (Akron Poetry Series, 2021), and the translator of Tristan Tzara's Noontimes Won (Octopus Books, 2018) and Guide to the Heart Rail (Goodmorning Menagerie, 2017). Green’s poetry has appeared in Bennington Review, Denver Quarterly,  The New Yorker, and elsewhere; her translations of Tzara's work have appeared in Asymptote, Open Letters Monthly, and Poetry International. She teaches in the School of Art at George Mason University.
   
• Diego Báez (he/him) is a writer, educator, and abolitionist. He is the recipient of fellowships from CantoMundo, the Surge Institute, and the Incubator for Community-Engaged Poets. Báez serves as a director of the board for the National Book Critics Circle, the International David Foster Wallace Society, and Families Together Cooperative Nursery School. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Freeman's, The Rumpus, and The Georgia Review. He lives in Chicago and teaches at the City Colleges.

 

Sign up for the “Foundation Updates” newsletter to receive institutional updates, such as this one, opportunities, job openings, and more. Select “Foundation Updates” on the newsletter signup page.