Ms. Abby

Ms. Abby is a fun and enthusiastic teacher who has been helping teens write for fifteen years.  She holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing: fiction, with a graduate certificate in online writing instruction. She is also a novelist, editor, writing contest literary judge, and writing teacher. Working as the director of the Young Writers Workshop at Messiah University, Ms. Abby has extensive experience in teaching mixed-age groups of students. Three of her students had published their own fantasy novels and poems in 2021. Ms. Abby has also coached local teens to write and published an anthology of creative writing together to raise funds for the food bank in 2020.

Ms. Abby’s young adult novel, The Art of Drowning published in Feb. 2021 with Cable Creek Publishing, has quickly become the best seller in its category. Her next book, More Than One Way to Breathe, will be published in March of 2022. Ms. Abby has her own publishing company focusing on aspiring authors to gain their first publishing credit through anthologies, journals, and contests. She has coordinated eight literary anthologies, showcasing works from a group of authors and poets.

Ms. Abby’s classes are fun and engaging. She particularly enjoys working with emergent young writers and advancing their writing to the next level. Her greatest passion is watching students thrive and blossom in a fun learning environment.

Ms. Caryn

Ms. Caryn, who writes under the pen name Dana Ross, has had an exciting career mentoring both teen and adult writers. Ms. Caryn is the regional director of the Florida Writers’ Association, Palm Beach County and her articles have appeared on different websites and papers.  Her first novel: Full Girlfriend Experience was released on February 18, 2019. Ms. Caryn is passionate about helping students find their voices through their pens. She brings excitement and creativity to her classes and believes patience, thinking outside the box, and good listening skills are the building blocks to memorable stories.

Ms. Allison

Ms. Allison holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Creative-Writing. She has rich experiences in teaching English, reading, and writing to students from elementary school to college. She is a published author, a professional proofreader, and a writing contest winner. Ms. Allison prides to know her students well and understands their educational and social-emotional needs. She integrates exciting games and creative activities to make her classes fun, engaging and educational. Her rich teaching experience and enthusiasm will surely strive to motivate students to keep learning and enjoy writing. Ms. Allison is very excited and ready to help students to achieve their academic goals and success.

Ms. Elizabeth

Ms. Elizabeth joins Apex Academy after 25 years as a writer, newscaster and talk show host. She has a degree in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and has worked in radio and newspapers. She is excited to teach Little Anchor and Opinion Writing, as she understands how complex the process is to write and perform a speech, and she is excited to prepare elementary-aged children for this important life skill. When she’s not working or spending time with her family, she loves to bake, walk her dog, spend time with friends and swim.

Ms. Sharon

Ms. Sharon is an award winning private school teacher who holds a BA in English. Her over 18 years broad range of intensive professional experience in teaching from elementary school through high school English literature, close reading and writing has strived to provide students a fun and nurturing environment where students can continue to achieve their personal best.

Ms. Sharon has numerous publications. She has written and published a specialty children’s book, My Friend Daniel Doesn’t Talk (Speechmark Publishing, 2006), which won the recognition of Highly Commended in the BMA Patient Information Awards (Printed Materials). She is also a writer for Autism Parenting Magazine, as well as numerous magazine, newspaper, and other publications.

Ms. Sharon is thrilled to share her passion for learning and writing to ensure every student’s academic success.

Dr. Shira

Dr. Shira holds an MFA and a PhD in Creative Writing and Literature, and currently is an Editor at Tarpaulin Sky. Dr. Shira is an educator and a writer. Among her professional literary passions and as an educator, she has many years of experience teaching students in a wide range of settings including elementary school, middle school, high school, colleges, and community writing centers. She has also been a guest writer at many colleges.

Dr. Shira is the author of five books and is the winner of the Eugene Paul Nassar Post-Publication Book Prize 2021. Her writing appears in many venues including Poetry, American Poetry Review, New American Writing, Poetry Society of America online, and National Public Radio, etc. She’s a recipient of numerous awards including an Academy of American Poets’ Prize, etc.

Dr. Shira’s class is fun and engaging and she is thrilled to share her passion for writing to ensure every student’s academic success.

Ms. Julie

Ms. Julie is an experienced math teacher who loves math and desires to help students to achieve their goals in education. She has extensive experience and taught broad ranges of math classes including college math, high school math and as well as elementary school math for the past 16 years. With a Master’s degree in Math Education and a Bachelor’s degree in Education, Ms. Julie incorporates fun math and challenging brain games to the curriculums. She wholeheartedly believes that math learning can be fun by fostering a creative learning environment. Ms. Julie is looking forward to encouraging all students to love math and achieve academic success in all levels. 

Mr. Sui

Mr. Sui is an award-winning painter, illustrator, and art educator, who holds a MFA degree in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art and a BFA in Illustration from the Art Center College of Design. As an artist, Mr. Sui specializes in watercolor, acrylic, mixed mediums, drawing, and printmaking. Mr. Sui is an award winner at numerous places, and produced art exhibitions in Los Angeles and Baltimore, as well as online exhibition & printed publication.

As an experienced educator, Mr. Sui is patient and kind. He encourages his students to be curious, be creative, develop skills, generate ideas, seek challenges, solve problems and develop confidence in themselves and their ideas. Mr. Sui is thrilled to share his rich art knowledge and creativity with young minds and celebrate the beauty of art with Apex students. He is passionate and ready to bring an art education program with an emphasis on teaching for the development of creativity to Apex students.

Ms. Wu

Ms. Wu holds a bachelor degree in Education and English literature and a K-12 Mandarin Education licensure. She worked as a public middle school Mandarin teacher in MA and has been working as a private Mandarin tutor for nine years with different age students, from elementary to high school. She also has a lot of experience teaching after school and weekend programs. As a native Mandarin Chinese speaker, Ms. Wu has always integrated Chinese and American teaching and learning strategies to help students succeed. Her classes are based on a student-centered learning standard, aimed at helping students to not only improve listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, but also involve students with cultural elements to use the language as much as they can. Ms. Wu’s classes always boosts students’ interest with online learning games, songs, short stories, Chinese traditional crafts and tongue twisters etc. Ms. Wu thrives guiding students to explore the beauty of Chinese language and culture in a fun and happy environment!

Ms. Elise

Ms. Elise holds a Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Notre Dame, where she was the recipient of a two-year fellowship and an Outstanding Graduate Student Teacher Award. She won the Best Essay Written by a First-Year, the essay scholarship for Best Essay, and prize for Excellence in Poetry during her undergraduate study in creative writing.

Ms. Elise is currently a fiction editor for Guesthouse Magazine. She is the author of two books of experimental poetry: Tractatus (Spuyten Duyvil, 2021) and So Neon Was the Rope (Dancing Girl Press, forthcoming), selected as a semi-finalist and an honorable mention from two literary magazines. Her poetry, prose, and critical essays have appeared or are forthcoming in over nine different literary journals. Her work has been supported by residencies from Art Farm and twice nominated for the “Best of the Net.”

Ms. Elise has been writing seriously and won a National Council of Teachers of English Certificate for Superior Writing. She has taught college and high school writing classes to students of a variety of ages and in various settings, some of whom have gone on to win Scholastic Art & Writing awards or to enter top colleges. Ms. Elise believes in the unique genius of each of her students and is honored to work with each one of them on their writing. Ms. Elise’s classes are fun and engaging. She is thrilled to share her passion for writing to ensure every student’s academic success.

Ms. Genna

Ms. Genna holds a Bachelor degree in English, a Master of Arts in Teaching, and a Master of Arts in Literary from Carnegie Mellon University. She is a passionate reader and writer and has worked as a writing instructor and adjunct professor at Penn State. As a certified teacher, Ms. Genna currently serves as the lead English language and literature teacher at a high school and has developed curriculum and lesson plans for all English courses for the high school.

Ms. Genna has led and guided many students in various literary analysis and writing activities for years. Many of her students have published creative writing works in different literary magazines and or won awards in writing competitions, including: Appelley Publishing, Young Writers USA, Ralph Munn Creative Writing Contest, Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and more! Ms. Genna’s classes are fun, engaging and rich in content. She is eager to pass her passion in literature study and writing to her students, and help her students to achieve academic success.

Dr. Jones

Dr. Jones holds a Ph, D.in American Literature, an MFA in Creative Writing, a M.A.T. in English Education, and a Bachelor’s Degree in English with a minor in German. He is a certified teacher with over a decade of teaching experience. Dr. Jones is a two-time Pushcart Nominee in fiction and nonfiction. He is the author of two novels, four memoirs and a story collection. His creative nonfiction won two grants. His stories were anthologized in the 2009 Dogzplot Flash Fiction Anthology, The Best of Clapboard House Literary Journal, Southern Gothic: New Tales of the South, and Summer Shorts II.

As an experienced educator and a writer, Dr. Jones has many years of experience teaching students creative writing, essay writing, composition and rhetoric, AP Literature, etc, in a wide range of settings including elementary school, middle school, high school, colleges. He has been a university magazines’ and literature magazines’ editor. Among his professional literary passions and as an educator, he has taught college and highschool writing clubs, and organized multiple school writing contests.

Dr. Jones’s class is fun,  engaging and rich in content. He is thrilled to share his passion for writing to inspire all the young writers, and ensure every student’s academic success.

Ms. Kirsten

Ms. Kirsten received her BA in English in Creative Writing, and MFA in creative nonfiction with the Carol Gelderman Thesis Award.  Her nonfiction, fiction, and poetry have been featured in numerous literary journals, magazines, and newspapers. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize twice, Best of the Net, and won Best Microfiction in 2021 as well as the Gabriella Rico Challenge in Nonfiction through Reed Magazine. Ms. Kirsten has been featured reading her work on multiple events. We are excited to see two of her chapbooks will be published by publishers, Bone and Ink Press and Ethel Press next year.

Ms. Kristen is a college adjunct professor teaching composition classes. She has been a judge for children’s writings competitions and a nonfiction editor for multiple magazines. She has also served as the head editor for literary anthologies.

Ms. Kirsten is an avid reader and a passionate professional writer. She has a long history of helping elementary school to high school and college students to improve their writing skills. Her enthusiasm motivates and inspires students to continue to bloom. Ms. Kristen renders a cheerful classroom atmosphere with her adorable smile. Her creative teaching methodologies ensure students’ repaid growth and academic success through a fun and engaging learning environment.

Ms. Shannon

Ms. Shannon has graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree in English and has more than twenty years of teaching experience. She began her career in Venice, Italy, where she taught English to business people and university students. Afterward, Ms. Shannon taught Reading in Oregon and worked with pre-K through high school students for eight years in a college preparatory program. Starting in 2012, she became a private teacher, working one-on-one or in small groups, designing lessons to help each individual reach their personal goals. She has taught students from learning how to read all the way through undergraduate and graduate admissions.

Ms. Shannon is also an author. She has published travel writing, educational writing, and three novels. Additionally, she has worked as an editor, including editing literature textbooks. Ms. Shannon loves sharing her writing enthusiasm and skills with students. In addition to teaching writing and reading comprehension, she has assisted students in building personal writing portfolios and submitting their work to contests and paid publications. From literary analysis, creative writing, and essay fundamentals to college application essays, poetry, and rhetorical skills, Ms. Shannon is ready to help students overcome their individual challenges and achieve their aspirations. Students of all ages and levels are encouraged to reach out to Apex Academy regarding their unique educational goals.