Fiona is the face of the Professional Writing Academy community. She’s spent much of her career managing and developing communities both face-to-face and online.

She's worked on a variety of projects with adults and young people, including an arts outreach scheme for Cheltenham Borough Council and community-based projects for the YMCA in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Fiona has been with PWA since 2015, focusing on the student experience and course development.

She works with students to support them both during their course and afterwards, via the growing Alumni Area, where participants join an active and supportive international community as they continue their writing journey.

Fiona has a PGCE, MA in Professional Writing and an MFA from Falmouth University.

Carolyn lives in Glasgow with her husband and four children. Her novels have been published in 23 languages and her poetry has won many awards. Two of her books are currently optioned for film.

She holds a PhD in Literature from the Queen’s University of Belfast and is currently Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she researches creative writing interventions for mental health.

Carolyn founded the The Writing Depression project in 2014 to explore the links between writing and mental illness, to investigate ways that writing can support mental wellness, and fundamentally to empower anyone suffering from mental illness. She is currently leading the next phase of the project.

In March 2020 Carolyn set up the Stay-At-Home! Literary Festival, in partnership with the creative writing incubator Paper Nations, in response to Covid-19 and as a venture to provide people with accessible, eco-friendly engagement with literature.

Helen has been teaching people to write for 30 years. She has devised and delivered writing courses from adult classes for recreational writers to undergraduate and masters degrees.

Her graduates are international prizewinners and have published adult, YA and children’s fiction, non-fiction and have had screenplays produced. They cite her down-to-earth approach and clear instruction as key to their progress.

Helen is a fiction writer and was a finalist in the Independent on Sunday short story competition.

She recently retired from university teaching to concentrate on finishing a novel – a contemporary thriller about a child’s murder – and to work with groups of writers in the wider community.

Jo has been working in online learning for almost a decade and specialises in the development, implementation, and administration of online learning systems, and the creation of high quality e-learning that enhances the learner's educational experience.

Kathryn has many years of experience as a journalist and in developing online learning products in partnership with different organisations. Her focus is always on how the online resource can best serve its audience and on how partners can work together to get the best result for both involved.

A former nurse and health visitor, Kathryn is a trained Buteyko breathing therapist where she has learnt the important relationship between how we breathe and how we feel both physically and mentally.

Claire has developed and taught online and face-to-face courses in creative writing and communications as a lecturer at the Centre for Talented Youth (CTY Ireland) at Dublin City University.

Previous to this she worked for more than 20 years as a writer and columnist with a particular interest in health and wellbeing, including for the Irish Independent, Irish Examiner, Evening Herald, Sunday Tribune and Sunday Times.  She also had a successful 10-year broadcasting career with RTE and Ireland AM, and worked as Senior News Reporter and Anchor for Independent Network News Agency, Today FM and Newstalk radio stations.

The path of yoga and meditation called her to open a private school in Dublin where she has successfully helped many students navigate their life back to wholeness and wellbeing. Claire understands that there are many holistic approaches to healing, and has witnessed how writing for therapeutic purposes has a profound and positive impact on individuals. Claire wishes that for anyone who reaches out and welcomes WriteWell into their space.