Andrea Yarbough, President

Andrea Yarbough is an author, teacher, and National Writing Project Teacher-Consultant. Having learned to write only in essay format during her high school career, Andrea’s first book, Artfulness: Formula-Free Creative Writing Explorations for Secondary ELA Classes seeks to reimagine writing instruction in secondary schools by promoting a more creative approach to language arts instruction. When she’s not teaching, she’s busy battling the blank page in her attempt to write her first full-length novel.

Alice Mergler, Vice President

Alice K. Mergler is the co-founder of the Poet Laureate Circle, former chair of the Prince William County Arts Council, retired PWC teacher of English, History, and Drama. She has also enjoyed a lifetime of wonderful accomplishments in her 85 years including rearing six sons with her beloved husband.

She now enjoys retirement teaching for the Lifelong Learning Institute (LLI), (for retirees who do not want to quit learning and serving), keeping up with her many grandchildren, getting her 10,000 steps each day, and being a Spilled Inker for the past super 11 years and counting! Enough for now she has her next poem to write!

Nate Hoffelder, Treasurer

Nate has been helping people fix broken tech since 2010. He turns broken down WordPress sites into sites which convert visitors into superfans, also builds sites from scratch, and helps authors with their social media and newsletters. 

In addition to being WBTR’s treasurer, Nate is on the board of the Florida Writers Foundation, and works with SF conventions as a webmaster. When he is not volunteering, he writes bad jokes on Facebook, creates memes and graphics, and selling model trains on Ebay.

Jada Ledbetter, Secretary

Jada Ledbetter is a writer, mentor, and playwright. She has written for several online and print publications including Virginia Living magazine. She has written about culture, art, design, and music. Jada has also shared some of her spoken word on open mic night at Spilled Ink. Her most passionate subjects are relationships and wellness. She has incorporated these passions into mentoring programs for youth from elementary to high school. Her goal is to inspire youth and young adults to overcome obstacles and lead bright futures. She understands the value of equipping youth with life skills while using positive reinforcements. Jada is currently developing her podcast and completing a book.

Emma Harris, Social Media Manager

Emma was born in the UK and taught English in Asia for many years while contributing to local English newspapers. After moving to the US, she found that she loves Northern Virginia and set fire to her suitcases a decade ago. Her travel experiences provide the setting for tales of romance and adventure along with a healthy dose of satire. She has been published in several local anthologies. She joined the Write by the Rails while teaching in PWC. With their help she hopes to finally evict the ideas from her head and put them on paper after far too many years of thinking about it. 

John Dutton II, Member-At-Large

John Dutton has taught language arts to middle school students in Prince William County for more years than he can remember. Seeing that the life of a teacher is filled with stacks upon stacks of papers waiting to be graded, he prefers spending his time as a classroom scribe writing alongside his students. He enjoys writing poetry and stories because anything is possible when pencil hits paper! 

In January 2015, John began hosting Spilled Ink. Spilled Ink is an open microphone night celebrating the written word held on the fourth Friday of the month at Jirani Coffeehouse in Old Towne, Manassas. It is open to all writers, authors, poets, or scribblers. All are welcome to read or listen. Please see his website at www.SpilledInkVA.com. John has published two books: Armadillo Lost Her Pillow and Argument at the Airport. His third book, Billy Pug’s Bad Day, is now in its final stages, so look for it soon. 

Melody Kramer, Member-At-Large

Melody A. Kramer is an innovative lawyer, ghostwriter, and author of Amazon best-seller Why Lawyers Suck, an exposé on how lawyers think and act. She has also published Green Leaves & Brownies, a Dr. Seuss parody explaining cannabis laws. Both are available on Amazon. She has also had stories published in several anthologies and has a politically-focused blog on Substack. Melody loves playing with words, whether writing hard-hitting journalistic pieces, riveting story lines, or the occasional poem.

Melody is a native Virginian (born in Richmond) but after many years away, primarily in Nebraska and Southern California, she has finally returned to Northern Virginia and is loving it! She lives with her daughter (also a writer and soon college student) and two precocious kitties who love to chew on book manuscripts.