2021 Staff

Karen Bailey, Logistics Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: American Hippo by Sarah Gailey
When she is not wrangling students (and co-workers) for a music non-profit, Karen Bailey can often be found working on completing the Sirens Reading Challenge. She also keeps busy with quilting, crocheting, and paper-crafts.

Sarah Benoot, Programming Coordinator - Exploratory
A favorite fantasy work: The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson
Sarah spends her workdays as an operations specialist for a large broker-dealer, where her degree in media production comes in handy more often than you might expect. She’s been working on conferences since The Witching Hour in 2005, when she found that she liked helping people find new ways to interact with literature enough to volunteer for Phoenix Rising, Terminus, and Sirens as well. Among other interests, she spends a lot of time trying to fit just one more book on her overloaded shelves.

Zack Bernheimer, Financial Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Warcross by Marie Lu
Zack currently works for a media company on the strategy and financial analysis team. He graduated from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. At The U, he was the student commencement speaker for his graduating class. In Zack’s free time, he likes to go to the gym, hang at the beach, and watch television shows.

Faye Bi, Communications Director
A favorite fantasy work: The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi
Faye works as a publicity director in New York City and spends the rest of her time cycling, reading, pondering her next meal, and leading the Sirens communications team. She’s yet to read an immigrant story she hasn’t cried over and is equally happy in walkable cities and sprawling natural vistas.

Simon Branford, Systems Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Flame in the Mist by Renée Ahdieh
Simon is a specialist in high performance computing and mathematical modeling and works in supporting researchers across a variety of fields. Before this he worked as a researcher on evolutionary models, which built on his PhD in mathematical computation and master’s degrees in computer science and mathematics. Simon has been on the program and organizing committees for conferences on computational sciences. In his spare time, Simon likes to read and run.

Chelsea Cleveland, Social Media Director
A favorite fantasy work: The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo
Chelsea Cleveland is a reader, writer, and marketer on a never-ending quest for the perfect casual-to-formal backpack. She lives in Washington state in a small houseplant forest that was once a home, drinking lots of coffee, and dreaming of sunshine, summer, and one day receiving an urgent message via some sort of woodland creature.

Nivair H. Gabriel, Bookstore Coordinator
Favorite fantasy work: Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar
Nivair H. Gabriel is a writer, editor, and aerospace engineer. Her stories appear in two Sirens benefit anthologies; she has also edited several critically acclaimed picture books. She reviews children's and teen fiction for Kirkus Reviews and has presented work on intersectional feminism and indigenous futurist thought at several conferences, including Sirens. She received her MA/MFA in children's literature and writing for children from Simmons College, and her BS in aerospace engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kallyn Hunter, Research Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Kallyn Hunter is a researcher, writer, and knight from northern Colorado. When she isn't in front of a computer, she can be found traveling the wilds of her state with her adventure-Pomeranian or smashing the patriarchy with her theatrical jousting troupe, the Knights of the Tempest. She has been a member of the Sirens community since 2011 and has an endless to-read pile because of it.

Manda Lewis, Logistics and Art Director
A favorite fantasy work: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake
Manda served as an engineer in the Air Force for seven years. She currently works for a children’s museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, hosting after-hours special events. She is also the caretaker of two small bundles of chaos. Manda has always made it a habit to draw, color, and doodle on just about everything within reach and loves themes far more than anyone really should. She has been a volunteer for Narrate Conferences since 2007.

Candice Lindstrom, Editor & Conference Administrator
A favorite fantasy work: The Silence of Medair by Andrea K. Höst
Candice is an assistant editor for a business magazine publisher covering women, LGBT, minority, and disabled-veteran enterprises. In a past life she edited young adult and adult fiction for a paranormal publisher. When not reading for work, she's reading for pleasure in almost any genre, but speculative fiction is her first love.

Becky Loucks-Schultz, Website Co-Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett
Becky spends her work days wrangling specialized computer programs and the medical staff that uses them. When she’s not at work she spends a great deal of time wrangling cats, both permanent residents and fosters, and learning to write books.

Fred Loucks-Schultz, Website Co-Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Court of Fives by Kate Elliott
Fred is an Information Technology Specialist who has worked in corporate, government, non-profit, and small business sectors over the course of his career. He grew up in Seattle, but now lives in Denver with his wife, several cats, and a small library. He reads voraciously, but also enjoys video games, woodworking, costuming, and music (both listening and playing).

Cass Morris, Conference Content Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: The Orphan’s Tales duology by Catherynne Valente
Cass Morris works as a writer and educator in central Virginia and occasionally moonlights as a bookseller in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. She completed her Master of Letters at Mary Baldwin University in 2010, and she earned her undergraduate degree, a BA in English with a minor in history, from the College of William and Mary in 2007. Her debut novel, From Unseen Fire: Book One of the Aven Cycle, is a Roman-flavored historical fantasy released by DAW Books. She reads voraciously, wears corsets voluntarily, and will beat you at MarioKart.

Erynn Moss, Registration Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Erynn is an enthusiastic reader who likes refreshing her soul by spending time with the brilliant people she finds at Sirens. She’s into comics, sewing, knitting, costumes, and camping. She currently lives in Louisville with her bff spouse and their toddler trainee-Siren.

Jo O’Brien, Art Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White
Jo O’Brien is a writer, artist, cosplayer, mythical creature, and Viking who lives in northern Colorado, wrangling a host of familiar spirits. She draws and writes about ambitious, unrepentant, sometimes vicious women in novels and for live steel horse theater. She has been a member of the Sirens community since 2011.

Sharina Pratt, Customer Service Director
A favorite fantasy work: The Protector of the Small series by Tamora Pierce
Sharina is an experienced conference and event manager with a zeal for project management, customer service, and logistics.  She has been working in the hospitality industry for over fifteen years, starting out as a volunteer at a number of Harry Potter conferences and interning at SeaWorld Orlando in their marketing department before finding her career in event management on the vendor and client side. Her passion is bringing people together and giving them the support to succeed. In life, she is a kitten parent, Floridian turned Seattleite, Enneagram 6, and Guardian/Integrator, and loves office supplies a little too much.

Jennifer Shimada, Community Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
Jennifer is a fantasy reader, tea drinker, world traveler, and academic librarian. She is originally from California, earned a BA in history in Texas, taught fifth grade in Oklahoma, and currently works at a graduate school of education in New York. Along the way, Jennifer earned an MLIS from San Jose State University.

Amy Tenbrink, Conference Chair
A favorite fantasy work: Conservation of Shadows by Yoon Ha Lee
By day, Amy Tenbrink dons her supergirl suit and handles strategic and intellectual property transactions as an executive vice president of a major media company. By night, she dons her supergirl cape, plans literary conferences, bakes increasingly complicated pastries, and reads 150 books a year. She holds degrees with honors from both the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and the Georgetown University Law Center. She likes nothing quite so much as monster girls, flagrant ambition, and a well-planned revolution.

S.K. Tiao, Publication Coordinator
Favorite fantasy work: Circe by Madeline Miller
During the day, S.K. Tiao can most often be found dreaming up new ways to tell people what to buy. She has lived in every major metropolitan area on the West Coast although she hopes to end up back in Washington State. For fun, she loves to read more than almost anything, but also cooks her friends seven-course, themed meals. She can't draw, but she makes quilts, wool rugs, and knitted lace shawls.

Hallie Tibbetts, Programming Director
A favorite fantasy work: Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
Hallie has been involved with Narrate Conferences since its inception in 2006, serving variously as education officer, communications officer, and vice president, along with chairing a number of conferences (including many years of Sirens). She works in editorial at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers on books for children age zero to eighteen, but doesn’t mind if grownups like those stories too.

K.B. Wagers, Safety & Accessibility Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
K.B. Wagers is the author of the Indranan War trilogy, as well as There Before the Chaos and Down Among the Dead, the first two books of the Farian War trilogy with Orbit Books, and the upcoming NeoG series from Harper Voyager. They hold a bachelor’s degree in Russian studies and a second-degree blackbelt in Shaolin Kung Fu. A native of Colorado, K.B. lives at the base of the Rocky Mountains with their partner and a crew of recalcitrant cats. In between books, they can be found attempting to learn Spanish, dying in video games, dancing to music, and scribbling new ideas in their bullet journal.

Danielle Wright Design Coordinator
A favorite fantasy work: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
Danielle is a writer, graphic artist, and photographer originally from Ogden, Utah. She’s a former Marine who now subsists almost entirely on coffee, an ever-shifting ratio of snark and salt, and Pocky. She can usually be found writing about the Marine Corps she wishes she'd served in, prodding pixels around, or entirely ignoring Star Wars canon in favor of worldbuilding, conlang, and Extravagant Sith Fashion. Danielle lives in Portland, Oregon, with her very patient husband, three children, two cats, and possibly too many Funko Pop figures.