JoyBelle Phelan
JoyBelle Phelan is a writer and system-impacted leader. Her journey began while incarcerated, where writing became a lifeline—and where she witnessed firsthand the power of storytelling to cultivate healing, connection, and hope.
Her work centers radical care, dignity, and imagination, and she brings a fierce belief that no one should be reduced to their worst moment.
JoyBelle is a 2023 Dream Justice graduate, a 2024 Realness Project Exemplar Award recipient, and serves on the Arapahoe County Community Corrections Board. Her TEDx San Quentin talk, Phoenix Rising, speaks to the transformational power of writing and is available on YouTube.
Libby Catchings, Ph.D.
Libby Catchings teaches writing, craft rhetorics, and critical prison studies at the University of Denver. As a writing facilitator, she has supported community literacies in Denver homeless day shelters, women’s halfway houses, Colorado Corrections facilities, and juvenile detention facilities in California. A firm believer in the liberatory power of play, she values experimental, visual, and kinaesthetic practice alongside writing toward self-knowledge and community-building.
Our Board
Sarah McKenzie
A visual artist based in Boulder, Sarah McKenzie has exhibited her paintings nationally, including shows with the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Yale School of Architecture, the New Mexico Museum of Art in Santa Fe, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. Since 2020 she has been working on an extended project researching and painting the architecture of prisons. In 2021, she was awarded the Marion International Fellowship for the Visual and Performing Arts to support her research into carceral space. That same year, she also began teaching art classes inside the Colorado Department of Corrections through the University of Denver Prison Arts Initiative. In 2024, along with Lillian Stannard, Sarah founded Impact Arts, a non-profit that creates and supports exhibition opportunities for formerly and currently incarcerated artists.
Benjamin Martin, MBA
A Colorado native and Senior Vice President of Commercial Lending at Collegiate Peaks Bank, Ben has been in Denver-based community banking since 2001, serving both small business and consumer clients. As former treasurer and advisory board member for Art from Ashes, Ben comes to Unbound Authors with expertise in nonprofit board governance, ethics, and finance.
Joseph Ponce, MFA
An MBA candidate and Former Fulbright Scholar with an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University, Joe comes to Unbound Authors with cross-genre expertise as both an author-editor and program manager at the University of Denver. His writings have appeared in Action: Spectacle, Anathema Magazine, Blunderbuss Magazine, and Apogee Journal, while his audio scripts have been published by the Eeriecast Network; Joe also teaches youth writing workshops with Lighthouse Writers.
Jamie Ray, J.D.
A Legal Fellow at the Korey Wise Innocence Project at the CU Boulder School of Law, Jamie Ray has years of experience working with reentry organizations in Colorado. Jamie coordinates Legislation Inside (LI), an innovative program that she first started at the Second Chance Center. Through LI, incarcerated representatives across Colorado learn about the legislative process, take positions on pending bills, and introduce legislation on issues important to the incarcerated population. Jamie Ray comes from small, tight-knit family that was heavily affected by incarceration, which led to her passion for criminal justice reform.
Facilitators & Respondents
Alexander Shalom Joseph, MFA
Alexander is the author of five published books: the novella “the last of the light” (2024), two prose poetry collections (2022, 2023), the chapbook “buttons and bones” (2020), as well as the short story collection, “American Wasteland” (2021). His short stories, poetry, and essays have been shortlisted for many awards and have been published widely. Alexander has an MA in English Education and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Jack Kerouac School.
Anita Mumm, MFA
Anita comes to Unbound Authors with a decade of experience in the publishing industry and a lifelong passion for books. A seasoned editor, ghost writer, instructor, and writing facilitator, Anita runs writing workshops for Unbound Authors in Southern Colorado.
Kate LeMasters, Ph.D.
An Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the CU School of Medicine-Anschutz, Kate is a social epidemiologist and a community-engaged researcher focusing on how mass incarceration creates and exacerbates health inequities. Kate brings her expertise in teaching, health advocacy, and mental health to incarcerated writers across the Front Range, using writing to support resident well-being.
Jenny Liou, Ph.D.
A poet, former MMA fighter, professor of English, environmental journalist, and ecological restorationist, Dr. Liou engages with adaptive narratives and systems towards equity, sustainability, and meaningful engagement. With poetry published in The The Evergreen Review, Zocalo Square (2018), and standalone volumes Vesuvius at Home (2017) and Muscle Memory (2022), Dr. Liou brings pedagogical experience in community college contexts and Pacific Northwest Indigenous communities to support diverse writers on the inside.
Emily Eads, MFA
Emily comes to Unbound Authors with an MFA in poetry and dual BA in English and Political Science from Colorado Western University. With experience as an academic program coordinator and university instructor, Emily facilitates workshops and provides asynchronous feedback to incarcerated writers across the state of Colorado.
Frédérique Chevillot, Ph.D.
Frédérique Chevillot is professor of French and Francophone studies at the University of Denver. A dedicated teacher of French language, narrative, and history, her pedagogical work and research is shaped by antiracist, feminist values. Sister Fred brings compassion, inquisitiveness, and joy to writers at Denver-based corrections facilities.
Stephen Lauer, Ph.D.
A sociologist and specialist for the CSU Extension Rural Initiative supporting thriving communities, food, and agriculture production in southern Colorado, Stephen brings a holistic, socially-engaged approach to his support of incarcerated writers, with a rich sense of how expressive and reflective writing support relationship-building for individuals and communities.
Tobi Jacobi, Ph.D.
Professor of English and Director of the Community Literacy Center at CSU Fort Collins, Dr. Jacobi brings decades of experience as a teacher, scholar, and administrator in carceral spaces. She has published essays on prison writing, community service learning and activism in the writing classroom, and the ethics of university-community collaborations in journals such as English Journal, Community Literacy Journal, and The Journal of Correctional Education. She is also co-editor of the book Women, Writing, and Prison (2014), prefaced by Sister Helen Prejean.
David Riche, Ph.D.
As Associate Professor of Writing at the University of Denver, Dr. Riche emphasizes the importance of creative thinking and student-centered authorship, notably through creative nonfiction and game design. Drawing on his scholarship examining rhetorical vulnerability (2017) and ongoing youth D&D facilitation at the Littleton Learning Lab, David brings deep listening, compassion, and a spirit of play to the incarcerated writers he supports across Colorado.