ACTA's Must-Reads author bios
Amy Averell
Amy Averell is a program officer at ACTA, concentrating on trustee affairs. A native of southern New Jersey, she earned an A.B. in English with a certificate in American Studies at Princeton University. For her thesis, she investigated the shared concern of Emily Dickinson and Anne Bradstreet for cultivating the individual spirit. Previously, she worked in development and finance at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and other non-profits.
Sandra E. Czelusniak
Sandra Czelusniak is a program officer at ACTA, focusing on policy. She previously interned with the Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation and was a 2007 Publius Fellow with the Claremont Institute. Sandra completed her B.A. in History cum laude at Cornell University in 2007 and is an M.A. candidate in American History at Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland.
Charles Mitchell
Charles Mitchell is the program director at ACTA. He graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history and economics from Bucknell University and has participated in the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation's Associate Program (2007-2008), the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Leadership Conference (2006), the Claremont Institute's Publius Fellowship Program (2005), and the Collegiate Network's Geostrategic Correspondence Course (2004). He has written in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Harrisburg Patriot-News, the Washington Times, and other publications, as well as appearing on The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, MSNBC, C-SPAN, Fox News Channel, and National Public Radio.
Anne D. Neal
Anne D. Neal is president of ACTA. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in American History and Literature and received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she served as the first woman editor of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. From 1990 to 1992, she specialized in the First Amendment at the New York City law firm of Rogers & Wells. She has also served as General Counsel of the Office of Administration in the Executive Office of the President, General Counsel and Congressional Liaison of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and editor of the American Bar Association newsletter Communications Lawyer. She regularly speaks on higher education across the country and writes for publications including the Chicago Sun Times, Inside Higher Ed, the Rocky Mountain News. Liberal Education, and academic journals such as The Montana Professor.
Erin
O'Connor
Erin O'Connor writes, researches, and blogs for ACTA. She received her B.A. in English from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her Ph.D. in English language and literature at the University of Michigan. She has taught English at the University of Michigan and the University of Pennsylvania. Currently a director of communications at the Moving Picture Institute, she has been writing about higher education issues since launching her weblog, Critical Mass, in 2002.
Siyuan Xie
Siyuan Xie is the administrative director at ACTA. She graduated in 2006 with honors from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in English. After graduation, she was a Fulbright scholar in Shanghai, researching the Cultural Revolution's reeducation-through-labor programs. She has also studied at the Collegium Hieronymi Pragensis in Prague and Cambridge University.