Leadership
Team

Rowana has been writing young adult fiction and working in writing education since she was in middle school. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and has been awarded the 2023 Greater Philadelphia Social Innovation Award for Educational Entrepreneurship and the 2022 University of Pennsylvania President’s Engagement Prize. Her own writing can be found in the Penn Review, plain china, and Slate Magazine, but her greatest joy is in helping youth to express themselves with clarity and confidence.

Em is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with a Master's in Social Work and a concentration in macro-level social work. Born and raised in Nebraska, she moved to Philadelphia for school and loves the city as her home now. She brings experience mentoring and supporting youth through volunteer and professional work, including as an advocate in a Child Advocacy Center working parallel to the child welfare system. Em believes in self-expression as a form of self-advocacy and is excited to be on a team empowering young people to tell their stories in their own ways.

Nancy is a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in English. A writer and educator specializing in interdisciplinary synthesis, her academic work has ranged from pharmacological neuroscience research to analyses of mainstream classroom autism accommodations to a thesis in the literary properties of video games. She is an avid science fiction fan, a veteran Dungeon Master, and the caretaker of a beautiful puppy named Beowulf. She is delighted to be part of an extraordinary team of education change-makers.

David Han is an undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he is pursuing concentrations in Finance and Environmental, Social, and Governance. He is an avid fan of creative writing and cinema and is involved with the Penn Film Society and the Kelly Writers House. His poetry has been published in the Blue Marble Review, National Poetry Quarterly, and The California Quarterly.

Sophia represents her hometown, Washington DC, as Youth Poet Laureate and U.S. Presidential Scholar. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Library of Congress, Button Poetry, and several other organizations. Her poem “Multiple Choice,” won grand prize in the Sixteen River Press’s Youth Poetry Contest and was subsequently nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and her poem “What We Leave Behind” was a Frontier Poetry finalist for North America. She has taught workshops at Politics & Prose, the National Gallery of Art, the Marchutz School, Writopia Lab, and now for Cosmic Writers! She attends the University of Pennsylvania.

Emaan is a senior at Reedy High School with a passion for neurology. After her brother's diagnosis with autism, Emaan's innate interest in medicine developed into a fascination for the human brain. Emaan has worked at her local mosque as a teacher for the past two years and loves working with children. Combined with her compassion for those with special needs, Emaan is driven to provide equal opportunity to people across all backgrounds, especially children who deserve a way to express themselves.

Leah is a freshman at Millard West High School in Omaha, Nebraska. In the future, she hopes to explore a career involving humanities and helping others. Throughout Leah's childhood, she's had amazing role models to look up to, modeling her passion for reading and writing. Currently, she is a volunteer coordinator for a nonprofit dedicated to creating joy within foster children's lives.