Our Board of Directors
Officers
Robin Palley
President
Robin Palley is a haiku poet and Senior Vice President, Healthcare Consulting, at Epsilon, a Publicis Groupe company. She was formerly VP of Marketing for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, a founder of WebMD’s consumer portal, VP of Global digital marketing for GSK. A University of Pennsylvania grad, earlier in her career she was a reporter and editor for the Philadelphia Daily News, Inquirer, Philly.com, KYW Newsradio and KYW TV news. With Henry Brann, she administers the organization's annual Nick Virgilio Memorial Haiku and Senryu contest. Her work has been published in Frogpond and many haiku anthologies.
Bonnie Squires
Co-Vice President
Bonnie Squires is president of Squires Consulting, a woman-owned communications and fundraising firm, specializing in universities and non-profit organizations. She is a Phi Beta Kappa alumna of the University of Pennsylvania with a master’s degree in English Literature as well. She was an officer of Temple University’s Board of Trustees under then President Peter J. Liacouras and was a Special Assistant to Liacouras for eight years at Temple. She has written a weekly opinion column for the Main Line Times for decades and her articles have appeared in media across the country. She is a past president of the American Jewish Congress-PA and NJ. She published a volume of poetry, New Eden, and her work is included in the Doubleday anthology, Haiku.
Henry Brann
Co-Vice President
Henry Brann has been a member of the Nick Virgilio Haiku Association since its inception. He’s published two chapbooks of his poems, has appeared in several anthologies and was the editor of the Nick Virgilio Writers House Anthology, Vol. One. A friend of Nick Virgilio and his brother Tony, Henry was also the director of the play “Nick of Time…Nick of Time” about Virgilio by Joseph Paprzycki and the producer of the movie of play that premiered at Haiku North America in Santa Fe. A past president of NVHA, Henry serves on the Board of Directors as he has for the last twenty years.
Members of the Board
Reet Starwind
“Interstellar Storyteller'' Reet Starwind is a Camden region organizer, educator, and creative director. Whether creating entire fictional worlds, rhyme schemes, or in-person events, he takes pride in weaving intricacy and creativity into captivating entertainment for the ears, eyes, and imagination. A spoken-word artist and frequently featured speaker, Starwind has partnered with downtown Camden Fireworks, the Nick Virgilio Writer's House, the African American History Museum of Philadelphia, among others. Outside of poetry he's busy crafting his passion project: an original animated series by the name of Dreamers' Playlist.'' Dreamers tells its nostalgic action-fantasy tale by carefully combining literary, musical, and visual arts into a uniquely invigorating experience.
Dr. Geoffrey M. Sill
Geoffrey Sill is an Emeritus Professor of English at the Camden Campus of Rutgers University, where he taught British and American literature for forty years. After his retirement in 2016, he joined the Board of Directors of the NVHA. His new edition of Nick Virgilio's haiku, titled Nick Virgilio: Collected Haiku, 1963-2012, is forthcoming in 2023 from Red Moon Press or your local bookstore (ISBN 978-1-958408-13-1) for the cover price of $30.
Erin O’Neill
Secretary
Erin O’Neill is the Assistant Director of Communications for Rowan University’s Division of Information Resources & Technology and focuses on connecting people with information about technology systems and services. She previously spent nearly a decade as a reporter and editor for The Star-Ledger, NBC and AOL. She earned her bachelor’s degree in literature from Stockton University and her master’s degree in journalism from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, and holds Certificates of Graduate Study in Management of Information Systems and Integrated Marketing Communication and New Media from Rowan University. She lives in the Cooper Grant neighborhood in Camden with her husband, son and dog.
Kevin Shelly
Kevin C. Shelly is a writer and retired journalist. He wrote the book Lynne Bogue Hunt: A Sporting Life, reviewed by Field & Stream as a “must-have.” His work has been published in numerous regional and national magazines, including Philadelphia, New Jersey Monthly, Philly Style, Field & Stream, Upland Almanac, Quail Unlimited, Wildfowl, and The Wine Spectator. He has worked as an investigative, features, and narrative enterprise reporter for the Courier Post. He was formerly assistant city editor of The Press of Atlantic City, where he covered the casino industry, Atlantic City government and the environment. He's been Pulitzer-nominated and won two New Jersey Press Association Awards in public service, as well as for breaking news, features and columns. His investigative reporting earned additional honors and awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Folio Magazine Awards, and The Bayonne Writer’s Group recognized him for best short story. Spaniel Journal honored him for the best essay. Most recently, he is at work on a true-crime book.
William Davis
William Davis is a Camden city native who grew up with a passion for reading and writing. William used his love of writing and sports to become the sports editor of his high school paper “The Castle Crier,” and to become an All-State football and All-American track athlete at Camden High School. With a dozen scholarship offers to choose from, William chose to pursue a degree at Fordham University in New York City where he earned a Bachelors in English with a minor in Creative Writing. After graduating, William pursued a career with the Jesuit philosophies he developed in mind; a career of service. In homage to the mentors who helped him along the way, William began to work in service of the youth as he spent over 20 years as a family service worker enrolling young children into pre-k schools while servicing family needs to becoming a counselor in a pre-college program and assisting students with finding postsecondary success. Currently, William has expanded his reach to work in service of the community at large by partnering with corporations and diverse organizations for common goals. William has also turned his passion for writing into various art forms that include: poetry, music, script writing, speeches, and a self-published book on Amazon. He is Community Liaison for EMR in Camden.
Faryn Kushner
Faryn Kushner's life and creative pursuits have been interwoven from the beginning. From her time in art school, to supporting others as a patron of the arts, she’s had a long-time appreciation for artistic expression. As an active servant leader in the community, her focus remains on bolstering the educational pursuits of the underserved. As a board member with Nick Virgilio Haiku Association, she works to promote one of the most accessible and evocative forms of art, poetry. Faryn works as a consultant in the pharmaceutical space at Epsilon. While her work is centered in data science, art manifests in many forms.
Warren Longmire
Warren is a writer, technologist, and educator from North Philadelphia. He is the host of House Poet: A Spoken Word Dance Party and the founder of _mixlit press. He was featured in Best American Poetry 2021, edited by Tracey K. Smith, and will be featured in the anthology A Black Philadelphia Reader: African American Writings About the City of Brotherly Love (Pennsylvania State University Press, June 2024). His latest book, Bird/Diz [an erased history of bebop] (BUNNY Presse), was released in November 2022. Warren was the Programming Director of NVHA from 2019 to 2021 and is currently pursuing his MFA in poetry at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Our Advisory Board and Staff
Camille Wilson
Camille handles social media and communications for NVHA. As a freelance writer, she enjoys writing on current trends for beauty and lifestyle brand NaturallyCurly, and writing features on prominent young scholars for ASSIST, a non-profit student exchange organization. She’s also a founding member of a service and arts-based leadership development non-profit in Camden called Watu Moja, through which she’s been able to travel and better understand the world we live in. During her downtime you might find her drawing, studying Spanish, or watching reruns of The Great British Baking Show.
Nasar Rider
Born and raised in the city of Camden, Nasar Rider is a Web Design specialist responsible for managing The Nick Virgilio Website as well as keeping many of The Writers House programs flowing. A young talent with an extreme love for community art, whether through his young endeavors as a mural artist in Philadelphia or his success as an audio master. He is also a Program Director for the Muse Collaborative. He is a decorated musician as well, responsible for curating music for various art shows in Camden as well as creating lush experimental tunes for all.
Juwan Clayton
Juwan was born and raised in the city of Camden. He studied Criminal Justice at Rutgers University. A master of aesthetics, he loves to study music and film from the early 1900s. You can always find him spinning vinyl on his 1915 Victrola. Thee Sinseers, Sade, Aretha Franklin, Cab Calloway, and Sabrina Claudio are a few artists that make up his distinct musical selection. Juwan believes his only duties are to LEARN and LOVE.
Emeritus - Board and Advisors
Kathleen O'Toole
Ben Hill
Rocky Wilson
Mary Heron
Lamont Steptoe
Theresa Banford
(and ever in our hearts, and in loving memory - Father Doyle)
Fr. Michael Doyle
Monsignor Michael J. Doyle needs little introduction, Irish born, Fr. Doyle briefly taught in Absecon but ministered almost exclusively to the city of Camden. Friends, supporters and associates include late peace activist the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mairead Corrigan, housing activist Sister Peg Hynes, farmworker activist Cesar Chevez and most notable to NVHA, haiku poet and Camden native Nick Virgilio. Narrated by Martin Sheen, a recent documentary called “Poet of Poverty” focused on Doyle’s poetry and his monthly letter to his congregation. His writing was collected as a book titled, “It’s a Terrible Day, Thanks be to God.” Fr. Doyle is a master tailor of words and brings a plethora of support, creativity and knowledge to NVHA.