Jennifer Benka, Executive Director

For much of her more than two decades in nonprofit management, Jennifer Benka has served national organizations dedicated to writing and poetry. Most recently she was the National Director of Development and Marketing for 826 National, a youth writing organization based in San Francisco, which was founded by the award-winning author Dave Eggers. Prior to 826, Jen was the Vice President of Development for The Bay Citizen, an online start-up news organization that produced content for the New York Times. Before her time in San Francisco, Jen served as the Managing Director of Poets & Writers in New York City for nearly a decade where she was the chief fundraising and marketing officer and the deputy administrative officer. Jen has also worked as a consultant and trainer helping hundreds of nonprofit leaders nationwide develop successful fundraising, communications, and outreach plans.

Jen is the author of the poetry collections Pinko (Hanging Loose Press) and A Box of Longing With Fifty Drawers (Soft Skull Press); the artist book Preamble, a collaboration with Mark Wagner (Booklyn); and co-author, with Carol Mirakove, of the chapbook 1,138 (Belladonna). Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous print and online publications, including Crossing State Lines: An American Renga (Farrar, Straus and Giroux), Eoagh, Failbetter, How(ever), make/shift magazine, and a forthcoming celebration of the poet Etel Adnan (Post-Apollo Press). She has served on the Boards of Small Press Traffic in San Francisco and Woodland Pattern Book Center in Milwaukee, and on arts and literature grants panels for the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Milwaukee County, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Having a commitment to bringing poetry into the public sphere, she has also organized several large-scale poetry events in New York City, including a 24-hour marathon reading of the collected poems of Emily Dickinson, the inaugural event at The Bowery Poetry Club. Jen holds a BA in Journalism from Marquette University and an MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry from The New School.

Eric Engleson, Financial Director
Eric Engleson has been the financial manager at the Academy since 1993. Prior to joining the Academy, Eric worked as a controller for Berger, Stone & Partners Advertising. He received his M.B.A. in finance (2002) and B.B.A. in accounting (1993) from Baruch College (CUNY).

Audrey Ference, Membership Director
Audrey Ference was raised, though not born, in San Antonio, Texas. Before joining the Academy, she worked in development at the Morgan Library and the Regional Plan Association. She has an undergraduate degree in English Literature from Haverford College, and her essays and criticism have appeared in various publications.

Amber Galeo, Program Intern
Amber Galeo is a New York native. She is currently an M.F.A. candidate in Poetry at Columbia University, and also holds an M.A. in Human Rights and a B.A. in Women's Studies. She worked for seven years in social justice non-profits, during which time her writing and social criticism appeared in various publications. She is currently collaborating on the art and writing project "From Dexter to Sinister: Exquisite Blazonry for the Disenfranchised" with visual artist Sarah G. Sharp. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Mary Gannon, Associate Director/Director of Content
Mary Gannon has worked in the literary nonprofit field for over fifteen years. Most recently she was Editorial Director of Poets & Writers, Inc., where she oversaw the production of pw.org and the publication of Poets & Writers Magazine, for which she served as Editor from 2004 to 2009. Under her leadership the magazine was awarded the Eddie Award for Magazine Editorial Excellence and was nominated for an Independent Press Award for arts coverage. As a journalist, Mary has profiled a diverse range of American writers for Poets & Writers Magazine, including poets Anne Carson, Norman Dubie, Major Jackson, and Sarah Manguso. Her reviews of poetry collections have been published in the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette, Poetry International, and Chelsea Magazine. She has served as judge for numerous poetry prizes given by organizations such as the Colorado Council for the Arts, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Bronx Council for the Arts. She was a founding member of the Brooklyn Literary Council, which launched and continues to organize the Brooklyn Book Festival, and she presently serves on its poetry programming committee. Mary is also a poet and has published work in numerous literary magazines, including the Antioch Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, the Paris Review, Passages North, Washington Square, and SHADE, among others. She received her MFA degree in poetry from Arizona State University in Tempe, where she was awarded a Swarthout Prize in Writing, and a BA degree in English from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Patricia Guzman, Programs Assistant
Patricia Guzman was born and raised in California. She has been published in Westwind Literary Journal as well as The Best American Poetry Blog and was a recipient of the May Merrill Miller Award. She holds an M.F.A in Poetry from The New School, and a B.A. in English Creative Writing from the University of California Los Angeles.

Stacy Lasner, Publicity & Outreach Coordinator
Stacy Lasner is a born-and-bred New Yorker. Before joining the Academy, Stacy was a Publicist at Simon & Schuster, representing books and authors in a variety of genres. She received her Bachelor of Science in Communication at Boston University where she specialized in Public Relations.