We are excited and honored to have a diverse group of professionals with unique connections to the Mississippi River for our panel of judges. We would like to thank each of them for their time and commitment to our essay contest.
Well-versed in the art of writing, Rebeca Bell is communications manager at Biodiversity Project, an environmental nonprofit communications organization based in Chicago. Biodiversity Project heads the 1 Mississippi Campaign, which educates and engages the public in protecting the Mississippi River via a River Citizen network. Rebeca manages communications strategy and is responsible for many writing and editing projects. With a background in grassroots organizing, rhetoric and writing, Rebeca manages Biodiversity Project’s communication efforts so they are both inspirational and persuasive. She holds a degree in political science from Denison University and a Master’s degree in writing and rhetoric from DePaul University. Rebeca first saw the Mississippi River while visiting a college friend over the summer in St. Louis. She got terribly sunburnt while enjoying the Mighty River from the deck of an old-fashioned steam boat.
Rivers have been a part of Denny Caneff’s life since spending his childhood in the Mississippi River town of Hastings, Minnesota. As a college kid in another Mississippi River town, (St. Cloud, MN) he and a partner traveled the entire length of the Mississippi by canoe. Denny is currently executive director of the River Alliance of Wisconsin, a statewide river conservation organization. Prior to assuming his current position, Denny was the Upper Midwest Regional Director with the American Farmland Trust (AFT), a national organization dedicated to preserving farmland. While at AFT, he helped establish the first-ever farmland preservation program in Illinois. Denny also served as executive director of the Wisconsin Rural Development Center, a sustainable agricultural advocacy organization.
Born and raised near Louisiana’s end of the Mississippi River, Susan Swartwout is professor of English at Southeast Missouri State University where she also directs the University Press and edits Big Muddy: Journal of the Mississippi River Valley and The Cape Rock: A Gathering of Poets. She’s the author of two poetry collections, Freaks and Uncommon Ground, and co-author of Hurricane Blues: Poems About Katrina and Rita, Real Things: An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry, and A Student’s Guide to Publishing. Among her writing awards are the Hanks Award, the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writer’s Award for Poetry, the Stanley Hanks Award for poetry, the Davenport Award for fiction, a Ragdale Foundation Fellowship, and a Hedgebrook Writers Fellowship. She has published over 100 poems, stories, and essays in anthologies, collections, and literary magazines.
An environmental educator and conservationist for over 30 years, Mark Wagner is the director of education for the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institute) in his home town of Dubuque, Iowa. After earning a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology at Iowa State, Mark served three years in the U.S. Peace Corps working in agricultural programs and in a national park in West Africa. For over 25 years, he also worked for two Iowa county conservation boards in positions including including naturalist, conservation peace officer, acting director, wildlife biologist, historian, and natural resource manager. Mark shares his love of the Mississippi River through living history programs on aspects of Mississippi River life and culture, including the fur trade period along the river, water power milling, and pioneer lifestyles and crafts.
Wildlife biologist for the Upper Mississippi National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, Stephen Winter spent much of his childhood “running around outside” in his native home in rural southeast Nebraska. Stephen pursued his love of the outdoors during college, earning a BS in Fisheries and Wildlife Management, MS in Biology, and PhD in Range Ecology and Management. Stephen brings extensive experience in refuge management to his current position, having served as assistant refuge manager for national refuges in Texas and as wildlife biologist for a national refuge in California. He has also worked for the Missouri Department of Conservation, The Nature Conservancy and Oklahoma State University. Stephen’s current work in the Upper Mississippi River provides him frequent opportunities to study and work with waterfowl, one of the first species he connected with as a child (his current favorite is the tundra swan). In Stephen’s spare time, he enjoys bird watching, hunting, fishing, cutting wood and setting prairies on fire (but that’s a good thing!).
Photos by 1 Mississippi River Citizens