Dr. Wendy Elle has been at Austin Community College (ACC) since 2006, and she has served as Department Chair of Composition and Literary Studies since 2021. She earned her doctorate in English Literature from the University of Texas at Austin (2003). She currently serves on the executive board of the Association for the Departments of English with the Modern Language Association. In her time at ACC, she has led programs as the Assistant Department Chair of Assessment, the Vertical Teams Language Arts Chair for the college, Chair for the ACC College Readiness Standards Faculty Team, Coordinator for the College Readiness Collaborative, and Faculty Advisor for The Rio Review; she has served on an array of committees including the 2022-2023 Chancellor?s Priorities, the ACC Curriculum and Programs committee, the hiring committee for the Associate Vice Chancellor for College and High School Relations, the Distance Learning Committee, the 8-Week Initiative Committee, and the Writing Advisory Committee. Dr. Elle was a founding member of the Liberal Arts Gateway at ACC, and she has presented most recently with her colleagues at the Gardner Institute (2023), Community College Humanities Association (2023), and the MLA Convention (2024), on topics ranging from generative AI in the community college classroom, trauma-informed pedagogy, and departmental leadership and cultivating culture change within a department. Her academic interests include Shakespeare, Milton, and John Donne; metaphysical and transcendental poetry; transcendence in ancient literature; pop culture; social justice; and critical pedagogy. She occasionally publishes short fiction, including "Hestia," Cracked the Spine, The Year Anthology, 2020 and she won the Texas Observer Short Fiction Prize 2017 for "Muriel." Retreat West Shortlist for the Novel Prize 2018, Iron Scourge, Writer's League of Texas 2017 Manuscript Finalist, Historical Fiction for Mary Bennet Gets No Play.