Staff 2023-2024
Director Of The Writing Center
Elizabeth Catchmark

Elizabeth is new to Georgetown and the Writing Center, but not to writing or tutoring! She’s been teaching writing and administrating writing programs for years, with a focus on linguistic justice, and was actually a peer tutor herself many moons ago as an undergrad. She has also developed and delivered tutor trainings for The Petey Greene Program. Teaching is her dream job and she absolutely loves learning cool new things from all of her wonderful students. When she’s not teaching or thinking about teaching, she’s often reading spooky novels with a cup of tea.
Staff
Abigail Corrao

Abigail is a senior from Northern NJ studying Human Science and Public Health in the School of Health. She is interested in the relationship between lifestyle choices and health outcomes. Abby loves organization and helping with outlining and is eager to talk through the entire writing process. She is excited to work with writers of all specialities, but Abby has particular experience in analytical writing. Outside of the Writing Center, Abby can be found exploring new restaurants, stopping to pet dogs, or rewatching sitcoms.
Alexandra Siddall
Alexandra is a junior studying an odd combination of Math, Psychology, German, and French (she’s fluent and would love to work with French speakers). If she’s not sleeping in, she’s usually knocking back a few cups of coffee or listening to one of her hyper-specific playlists. When she’s home in New York, you can often find her with a coffee in hand, music in one ear, and unintelligible subway announcements in the other. Alexandra never particularly enjoyed writing until she learned to write the way she talks: with creative flares, sarcasm, witty remarks, and the occasional sentence that makes absolutely no sense (luckily, you can edit writing). She believes that the author’s voice should always be present, even in professional or academic writing. She would love to help more writers use theirs. She has something to say about everything, so come find her with niche questions or difficult topics!
Anna Vernacchio
Anna is a Junior in the College studying Classics and Psychology. She is from Westwood, MA, where the locals’ claim to fame is that Leonardo DiCaprio once stayed in the town while filming a movie in Boston. From sciences to humanities, Anna believes in starting the writing process with a comprehensive outline to guide her work and loves sharing her organizational skills with people. When not at the Writing Center, Anna can be found taking naps in Nevils, convincing people to join Classics Club, or grabbing a coffee at Midnight Mug (probably her 3rd of the day). Come say hi to get a second look at a project or if you feel like you just don’t know where to start.
Arianna Ashley Nassiri

Arianna is a senior in the School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Politics (IPOL) with a concentration in security studies and international human rights law and a certificate in marketing. She has worked in the government sector throughout her childhood, specializing in municipal policy research and authoring, and has held office as a City Commissioner in her hometown of San Francisco, CA. Her time working on policy writing teams has equipped her with an eagerness to work with students to clarify their written language and captivate their readers. On campus, when she is not in the writing center, Arianna is involved with the Georgetown Astronomical Society, intramural tennis, and GU Politics; she can often be found reciting the US Constitution in the corners of Regents Hall or the MSB, or manically pacing campus as to close all three fitness rings on her Apple Watch.
Armoni Armour

Armoni Armour is a senior in the college and has interests in English, Psychology and Justice and Peace Studies. Hailing from New York City, Armoni is a proud Barb and spends her free time listening to music, practicing yoga, trying out new ice cream spots and visiting the Smithsonian Museums on the National Mall. She loves rereading the best book ever, The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak because of the fascinating narration of the plot by death personified. Her favorite part of the writing process is brainstorming theses because she loves the challenge of coming up with arguments that are new and creative.
Caed Spencer
As a junior in the College, Caed Spencer plans to major in English. Originally from Austin, Texas, it is Caed’s biggest dream to one day be a professor of English literature. Thus, he eagerly seeks to hone his teaching, reading, and writing skills at the Writing Center with each and every session. More than anything, he hopes to help create an environment that celebrates writing as a joyous, communal, and creative process. When not tutoring away, Caed can be found on an Escape retreat (as a leader!) or at the Center for Social Justice. Finally, Caed is excited for a wonderful 2023-2024 academic year at the Writing Center.
Charlotte Lee

Charlotte is a Senior in the McDonough School of Business, double majoring in Finance and Operations and Analytics with a minor in math. A native Californian, she will easily debate about the ideal weather and the superiority of NorCal. Outside of the classroom, you can easily find her wolfing down a Sun City at Call Your Mother or playing tennis at Yates. She enjoys debates about the Oxford comma, or anything grammar related, and her favorite literary trope is the oxymoron. She especially loves the brainstorming and outlining process, but would love to help in any step of the writing process!
Dan Sachs

Dan hails from Northern California, though he finds himself in Washington D.C., a senior in the College majoring in Linguistics and minoring in Theology. He loves going on jogs, listening to audiobooks, and telling terrible jokes. Dan is an avid language learner, so come in and teach him a phrase in your native tongue! Outside of the Writing Center, you can find him searching for tasty DC cuisine or playing board games in the common room of VCE. Dan’s favorite recent reads include Project Hail Mary, In the Time of the Butterflies, and Why We Sleep. He is excited to aid in any part of the writing process, but more than anything, he’ll help you find a good use for an em dash (—).
Daniel Wachman

Daniel is a junior in the College majoring in government and minoring in Chinese. He is a proud lifelong resident of Massachusetts, where he has been involved in local government since he was fourteen. He now aspires to be a lawyer or high school teacher, so he hopes his career path is clearer to you than it is to him. Daniel currently serves as the Secretary-General of NAIMUN, Georgetown’s high school Model UN conference, and volunteers with Hoya Taxa, which helps local families file their taxes. In his free time, Daniel enjoys walking around D.C., spotting dogs on campus, binging movies/TV, and maintaining his place in the top 0.001% of Billy Joel fans on Spotify. Whether you want advice on shaping your argument, help with draft revisions, or just another perspective on your writing, Daniel would be happy to work with you!
Daniella Arevalo
Daniella is a junior in the College majoring in Linguistics and English. Hailing from San Francisco, CA, she proudly represents the city by the bay, and you can often find her complaining about D.C. weather–despite claiming she loves experiencing actual seasons for the first time in her life. Daniella enjoys getting into classic novels such as the original Dracula, but has been a longtime fan of sci-fi, particularly by the author Blake Crouch. Similar to her attitude on book genres, she is open to all subject matters and stages in the writing process. However, her favorite stages are outlining (because of actualizing and organizing your ideas) and revising (because of the satisfaction of seeing the culmination of your work)! She has spent the past summer researching first-generation and low income students at writing centers, and as a member of GSP and CSP on campus, she especially welcomes any students who identify with those backgrounds to the center. Outside of class and the Writing Center, you can find Daniella at rehearsal for BFMG, a club for traditional Mexican dance, or the Early Learning Project, a psychology lab investigating infant and family development.
Duc Than

Duc is a junior in the School of Foreign Service studying International History. He was born and raised in Saigon, Vietnam, although he now calls the San Francisco Bay Area his home (ask him about In-N-Out!). He grew up speaking English and Vietnamese and is now studying Mandarin, and so he enjoys the opportunity to work with both native and nonnative English speakers. As a history lover, he enjoys creative nonfiction, documentaries, and British TV shows. He loves the brainstorming and revising stages of writing, but he would love to work with students on any aspect of the writing process. Outside the Writing Center, you can find him either at fencing practice, Model UN training, or somewhere on campus watching random YouTube videos.
Gershon Stein

Gershon is a Senior in the SFS majoring in Regional and Comparative Studies with a Government minor. He was born in the California Bay Area, where his dad lives, and grew up in Chicago, IL (downtown, not the suburbs). Outside of classes Gershon is a member of the Model UN team and the Philodemic Society. He also works for Jewish life and is involved in GU Politics. In his free time, Gershon enjoys skiing, scuba diving, and traveling. In fact, he is a certified rescue diver–he can rescue you from 120 feet below sea level. Gershon loves to read people’s drafts, but is also more than happy to help anyone at all steps of the writing process.
Hillary Zeng

Hillary is a senior pursuing a dual degree in Business and Global Affairs through the SFS and MSB. In her tranquil hometown of New York City, her favorite activities include playing volleyball, eating hotpot (Haidilao is supreme), and wandering Manhattan streets for the ~vibe~. Hillary spent this past summer teaching English to L2 students, so she is comfortable working with both native and non-native speakers alike. Although she has a soft spot for personal and argumentative writing, she is open to stimulating her brain with more formal, academic papers. Wherever you are in the writing process, stop by! Hillary would absolutely love to meet you 🙂
Jasmine Alas-Castillo

Jasmine is a junior in the School of Foreign Service from Los Angeles, CA. She is majoring in Regional and Comparative Studies with a concentration in Latin America and hoping to minor in Education, Inquiry, and Justice. As an essay planning enthusiast, she is excited to deconstruct prompts, brainstorm topics, and create outlines (especially for literary analysis papers!). Outside of the Writing Center, you can find her listening to podcasts about reality TV, watching social commentary videos on YouTube, and visiting local plant-based restaurants. If you want to listen to Jasmine talk nonstop, ask her about CBS’s Big Brother, personality tests, or vegan baking!
Miles Cooper

Miles is a second year graduate student working towards his M.A. in English. He grew up in Charlottesville, Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in English where he took multiple creative writing workshops and was a DJ on UVA’s student radio station. Before coming to Georgetown, he lived in Atlanta for three years working in management consulting. He believes that writing is a process and is happy to work with students on syntax, cover letters, short stories, outlining, or really any part of the writing process. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, DJing, and cooking up something good.
Peter Zorc
Peter is a junior in the School of Health majoring in Health Care Management and Policy. He’s from Bethesda, MD (all of 20 minutes from campus) and is interested in both medicine and policy as well as how they intersect. At Georgetown, he enjoys swimming at Yates, grilling at Red Square, and sitting in a hammock on the front lawn on a temperate day. Peter loves to journal about anything and everything and as a result loves reading other people’s writings and hypothesizing about how their minds assembled them. He particularly enjoys learning new things, so he loves reading papers about topics he has not studied. As a pre-med student, he is familiar with lab reports and happy to give input on those. His favorite tutoring challenge is helping people get under the word limit. And he never shuts up about the summer camp he worked at, so watch out for that.
Sarah Ackels

Sarah is a senior in the McDonough School of Business studying Operations and Analytics and Finance. She is from Connecticut where she loves to ski with her friends, hike with her dog, and cook with her sister. In Georgetown, she enjoys napping, studying in the MSB, drinking coffee, and spotting rats. Her favorite sentence structure is “independent clause; conjunctive adverb, independent clause” and her favorite word is abundant. She is also a Social Impact Project Consulting Coach and Treasurer of Survivor: Georgetown. She looks forward to helping other Hoyas with outlines, sentence structures, and editing (as long as it is in Times New Roman).
Sarah Ong

Sarah Ong is a senior in the College currently studying Mathematics with an eye towards minoring in Japanese and Computer Science. Coming from the diverse bubble of Northern Virginia, Sarah has a soft spot for poetry and creative writing with a dream to one day publish her own novel; she’d love to talk with other inspiring authors as well. Having worked in a writing center in high school, her favorite part of tutoring is helping people brainstorm ideas and find inspiration. She’s a little shy (okay maybe more than a little) but that’s why she’d be more than happy to work with those that also have trouble opening up to others, especially with their writing. Outside of the Writing Center, she can be found huddled in the corner of her room drawing, writing tidbits of various WIPs, watching anime, or playing video games with her boyfriend.
Sergio Rodriguez Cifuentes
Sergio is a junior in the School of Foreign Service, majoring in International Economics and minoring in International Development and Statistics. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, he calls Singapore home now (is this an SFS cliché?). Sergio is a native Spanish speaker who grew up speaking English and is working on mastering French, which means that he enjoys working with native and non-native English speakers alike. He has a soft spot for novels, stories, historical fiction, and scientific articles. Sergio likes the pre-planning and editorial stages of writing but would enjoy working with you on any stage of your process! When he’s not in Lau (either studying or tutoring), you can find him TA’ing for “Maps of The Modern World,” running around the monuments, criticizing American coffee, working on Effective Altruism and MUN, or in the Kennedy Center with his friends.
Sriya Guduru
Sriya is a junior in the SFS, majoring in International Political Economy and minoring in Statistics and Women’s and Gender Studies. While she currently lives in Virginia, Sriya grew up in northern New Jersey and will argue the merits of a Jersey bagel given the chance (garlic bagels reign supreme!). She loves listening to podcasts by the HFSC fireplace, hunting for new vegan snacks, or trying new coffee places around DC. Outside of the Writing Center, Sriya serves as the Chair of the Student Activities Commission, Head of DEI for the Hilltop Microfinance Initiative, and Director of Internal Outreach for Rangila. No matter what stage you are in the writing process—be it the initial pre-writing or a final draft—she would love to help you with your assignments, so please stop by!
Taryn Moore
Taryn is a junior in the MSB double majoring in Operations & Analytics and Finance. Even though she’s from Ashburn, Virginia (i.e. the DMV), Taryn still loves doing all the touristy things around D.C., and can be frequently spotted wandering around the Georgetown neighborhood or catching the bus to the National Mall. Outside of the Writing Center, Taryn is involved with Innovo Consulting where she supports socially-minded enterprises and the Edunomics Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy where she is a project assistant on an education finance database. Taryn would love to help with any type of writing or slide decks you may have, so feel free to swing by and talk to her!
Yana Gitelman
Yana is a junior majoring in Culture and Politics in the School of Foreign Service. She is from New York City and consequently cannot drive. She speaks Russian and some French, and she loves to work on research, brainstorming, and organization, so she is excited to work with native and non-native English speakers alike on any part of their writing process. Yana is a proud member of Superfood (an acapella group that has nothing to do with food), GUish, and H*yas for Choice. In her free time, she can be found listening to Mac Miller, making herself a fancy coffee beverage, or photosynthesizing on the HFSC terrace.