Conference Team
DEBRA FERREBOEUF
co-director

I have been a part of the calligraphic community for over 40 years and the support, education, encouragement, and camaraderie have shaped and enriched my life beyond measure. I see this as my opportunity to give back and contribute to the community that has given me so much and pay forward all the inspiration and kindness that has been shown to me. I feel when we all band together we can do anything. And we have an amazing band!
RICK PAULUS
co-director

In co-directing Write on the Edge, I am fortunate to be able to play a role in creating a memorable week of sharing, discovery, and friendship for lettering artists from around the world. Each calligraphy conference I have attended has been a transformative and affirming event which had a real impact on my art, as well as enlarging and enriching my circle of friends. It is with that inspiration, the enthusiasm of our highly dedicated team of volunteers, and the encouragement from our calligraphy community that we move forward, confident that we will gather together in 2022!
KATIE LEAVENS
communications

Katie is a professional calligrapher based in San Francisco. You’ll find her teaching calligraphy through the San Francisco City College Extension Program as well as serving on the Friends of Calligraphy council leading their social media team. Her favorite styles are Engrosser’s Script and Brush Trajans. She brings more than 6+ years of calligraphy experience as well as a B.S. in Graphic Design.
JO ANNE LARSON
executive secretary

A familial talent for beautiful handwriting passed right by me. I am truly infamous for illegible handwriting. Years ago, when my husband and I exchanged our lists of possible names for our pending child, he wanted to know why I thought “Douglas.” So, when I retired a few years ago, I decided that studying calligraphy might help me overcome my scriptorial deficiencies. That hasn’t happened but I’ve met a wonderful tribe of artists and am so pleased to be able to help out with WOTE!
PAUL PLALE
exhibits

After six years as design lead at Museum of the African Diaspora, Paul Plale is thrilled to be this year’s exhibitions chair. He first discovered his love of calligraphy in classes with Claude Dietrich in 2011. In the decade since, he has studied with Friends of Calligraphy, developed typefaces under DC Scarpelli, participated in the 24-hour Type Jam, critiqued at TypeThursdays, and made friends at the Half Moon Bay Blackletter Brunch.
BEN YATES
facilities

Ben has been doing calligraphy for nearly a decade and enjoys above all beach calligraphy. He spends his time teaching privately and online classes that are listed at Castle in the Air, Berkeley, California. Of particular excitement are the kids after-school programs in calligraphy & lettering arts and watercolor that he began some years ago that continue to expand. For WOTE, Ben is the facilities chair and will also be contributing to youth calligraphy outreach.
MARCIA FRIEDMAN
faculty

Professional graphic designer and calligrapher for over 40 years. First international conference was Experiment in 1989. Hooked completely. Wanted to give back to the community so directing the next Experiment in 2000 seemed like a good idea. Only took a decade to recover enough to do it a second time with The Passionate Pen in 2015. In 2019, when Debra broached the idea of hosting once again, I knew I wanted a different role. Working with the faculty was always one of the most fun parts of the organizing, so I jumped into this position.
LAURA BERNABEI
hospitality

aka Ms. Hospitality 2022 — As your hospitality chair, I can’t wait to be sure you feel like you are welcomed to the conference. I love it when everyone feels at home, away from home. You will be in a special place, the Bay Area, with your like-minded friends from around the world, doing one of your favorite things…calligraphy!
SUSAN ITO
housing

Susan Ito has been practicing calligraphy on and off (with a big “off” of about 25 years!) since the early 1980s. She can be found on Instagram. She is also a writer whose work has appeared in The Bellevue Literary Review, Catapult, Hyphen, Hip Mama, Two Worlds Walking, Literary Mama, CHOICE, Santa Barbara Review, Growing Up Asian American, Making More Waves, and elsewhere. She teaches at Mills College and the Writers Grotto.
FREDI JUNI
housing

Fredi lives in Berkeley, California and is a retired social worker. She has been an active member of Friends of Calligraphy for several years and currently serves as the guild secretary. Her three grandchildren and two great grandchildren keep her busy when she isn’t in her studio practicing calligraphy and book arts. She attended three past international conferences and decided it was time to give back to this wonderful calligraphy community.
MELISSA TITONE
info tech/office manager

As a former conference director, Melissa is passionate about making directing a conference easier so that calligraphers can continue to enjoy gathering and studying together every year. After 30 years of full-time calligraphy, she is now director of technology for a non-profit organization helping make people’s lives better. Though she still loves calligraphy, her artistic passions have moved to a 3-D medium: glass. Combining all of these skills makes her a happy girl.
BART BURROWS
operations

My name is Bart Burrows, currently president of Sea Scribes (Monterey Peninsula Calligraphy Guild). I am the operation’s manager because 1) my love of calligraphy (even though I’ve never been to a conference), 2) my passion to be part of the apparatus that seamlessly makes sure that everything is in place to provide the optimum experience for all attendees and 3) the effective blackmailing campaign, but that’s an item for another time.
EDWARD DE LEON
social media

Edward was born in the Philippines, but raised in Arkansas. He moved to San Francisco 14 years ago after earning his bachelor of fine arts degree from the Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He became a member of the Friends of Calligraphy and was introduced to the world of Copperplate script by Claude Dietrich. Edward found his passion as a production artist working for Impossible Foods, where he helps to create a more sustainable global food system by creating foods derived solely from plants.
MICHELLE MORIN
transportation

“Mi Mo” enjoys learning and creating in many visual arts and calligraphic traditions, including mixed-media, watercolor, and hand bookbinding, as well as calligraphy and lettering using pointed pen, pointed brush/marker, pencil, and other tools. Mi Mo teaches a Copperplate-based Modern Calligraphy and runs regular calligraphy study groups and creative meetups online. She is also a collector of fountain pens, hoarder of art supplies, avid journal-keeper and journal-maker, program chair for Pacific Scribes, corporate lawyer, and member of the Friends of Calligraphy. You can find Mi Mo on Instagram.
KATHY COOPMAN
treasurer

Many years working with nonprofits; many more years than that writing code to do double-entry bookkeeping (too lazy to do it by hand). As to calligraphy, I spend way too much time on engineering the structure — three dimensions, anything to avoid a normal frame — rather than writing the letters…
LINDA MARSHALL
vendors

JACK BLUM
volunteers

Jack Blum admires the calligraphic arts and adores the co-chair of the volunteer committee, Carole Johnson. Jack spent most of his teaching career puzzling over the interdependence of rhetoric and critical reasoning (a topic not unrelated to calligraphy) in the Writing Program at USC, where his administrative duties including devising schedules each semester to match a dozen courses, scores of instructors, and two thousand students, few of them volunteers.
CAROLE JOHNSON
volunteers

As a Foreign Service spouse, Carole studied calligraphic practices on five continents, beginning solo in the jungle capital of the Central African Republic. Much later, after inviting Carole to lead the first ever calligraphy seminars in Argentina, the University of Buenos Aires integrated calligraphy into its curriculum. Carole served as the administrative assistant for Sheila Waters, on-call calligrapher at the U.S. Department of State, and Executive Office calligrapher for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
BARBARA LANDE
website & brand design

Thoroughly seduced by the moniker, “The Look and Feel Committee,” I eagerly joined to help guide the brand design for the conference. I functioned as publication director for two international conferences, Experiment and The Passionate Pen. My connection to Friends of Calligraphy dates back to the late ‘70s, eventually serving on the council and then as VP. My love of letters is foremost in my graphic design work as well as my social calendar. You may have seen my name on a few FOC flyers. Career highlights include working on capital campaigns, philanthropic fundraising, branding, and book design.
NANCY NOBLE
welcome bags

I am a longtime member of Friends of Calligraphy and editor of the Bulletin. I attended my first conference six years ago. Wow, what an amazing experience — I haven’t missed one since. Teaching full time, raising three children, and all the other demands in life kept me busy, until I realized I could and should make time available for more calligraphy and conferences. The creativity, camaraderie, encouragement, and opportunities are endless. I’ve met many wonderful, talented, fun people and look forward to catching up with them each year.