Rosemarie Dombrowski, Director

Rosemarie Dombrowski, PhD, is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Phoenix, AZ and the founding director of Revisionary Arts. She’s a Teaching Professor at Arizona State University (ASU) where she specializes in Medical Humanism and literature of the marginalized. She’s also the founder and facilitator of Verse for Vets, a poetic medicine program for veterans at ASU, and the founding editor of ISSUED: stories of service, a platform for veterans’ voices.

Additionally, she’s an Assistant Professor of Practice in Bioethics and Medical Humanism at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix where she serves as the faculty editor of Grey Matter, the school’s medical poetry journal. Finally, she’s the curator of the Pharmacy of Poems in the Compassion Center at Banner-University Medical Center in Phoenix.

Rosemarie’s work as a medical humanist and medical poet has been featured on Poetry Daily, poets.org, on local NPR affiliates, national NPR podcasts, the TEDx stage, Banner-University Hospital, the Mayo Clinic (Phoenix), and elsewhere.

Her literary arts programming spans more than 20 years and has birthed numerous community-facing projects. Her awards include an Arts Hero Award (2017), a Fellowship from the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics (2017), a Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets (2020), a Great 48 award from Phoenix Magazine (2020), an Arizona Humanities Speaker of the Year award (2022), and an Arizona Capital Times Leader of the Year award (2023).

Read more about her projects, publications, and press at rdpoet.com

Danae Barnes

Danae Barnes is a proposal editor currently based in Washinton, D.C. She has worked as a project and grant manager in academia and served on the boards of the NueBox Arts Collective (Phoenix, AZ) and the Yoga Society of San Francisco. She has an MA in Rhetoric, a deep love of subversive politics and perspectives, and a clear focus on social good.

Bonné de Blas

Bonné de Blas is a writer, poet, and visual artist currently in her fifth year teaching high school ELA at BASIS Scottsdale. A native and long-time of Arizona, she received her MFA in Poetry at Kent State University’s consortium NEOMFA program where she taught writing composition and rhetoric as well as creative writing. She received an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and a JD from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She is the author of two chapbooks The Act of Dwelling (NightBallet Press) and The Rule of Contraction (Kattywompus Press) and her essay in Older Queer Voices: The Intimacy of Survival, Lambert and Einstein, eds. (olderqueervoices.com) received a Best of the Net 2017 nomination.

Bonné is also the founder and former director of Art Books Cleveland, and her artists’ books can be found in the Special Collections of the Cleveland Public Library and museums in Paris and Guadalajara. Her work is exhibited throughout the Americas, Europe, and Australia. She has worked as an artist in the community collaborating with libraries, schools, and community centers teaching workshops in the book arts to young and old alike. She is glad to have returned to the Valley of the Sun.

Dale Larsen

Dale Larsen, Professor of Practice, Honor’s Faculty and Director of Community Relations & Engagement for the Arizona State University Watts College of Public Service & Community Solutions, has been an executive manager/practitioner, educator and public service advocate in public lands for a half century. Formerly the Director of the City of Phoenix – Arizona, Parks and Recreation Department, he teaches undergraduate and graduate level coursework in public lands management, leadership, civic engagement and community organization at ASU. He has co-authored university textbooks and authored publications on parks and recreation administration and community external leadership. Dale is a Past President and a distinguished Fellow in the American Academy for Parks and Recreation and served as a Chairman for the Commission for Parks and Recreation Accreditation. He is a member of the National Parks and Recreation Association, the Trust for Public Lands and City Parks Alliance. Dale served as a President and Board Member for the Camp Colley Foundation (Northern Arizona outdoor camp for inner city children) and serves on the White Tank Mountains Conservancy. He is the current Chairman for the Arizona State Parks Board. He is frequently called upon to comment and present on public lands issues and is often interviewed by the media on pertinent issues.

Cheryl O’Malley

Dr. O’Malley is the associate dean of Graduate Medical Education, a designated institutional official at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and a professor of Medicine. She has also served in numerous other significant leadership roles — including program director for the Internal Medicine Residency for 11 years, chair of the College Clinical Curriculum Subcommittee from 2010–2016, assistant dean of the Clinical Curriculum, and interim vice dean and LCME faculty accreditation lead during the college’s final stage of separate accreditation. Her clinical work is as one of the founding academic hospitalists at Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix, where she led the hospital medicine group and numerous quality improvement initiatives.

Throughout all her roles, creativity and connection drive her and create possibilities. In 2018, her mixed media art piece, “Hearts in Medicine”, exemplified this and was recognized as part of the National Academy of Medicine Expressions in Clinician Well-being. She has continued to focus on wellness, continuous quality improvement and compassion — speaking on these topics nationally and completing Stanford’s Applied Compassion Training in 2021.

Ellen Widoff

Ellen Widoff has served as the CEO of Habitat for Humanity (South Hampton Roads) and as the Director of The Arc of Montgomery County, MD. She is a recipient of Maryland Governor’s Citation for Advocacy and Innovative Programming for People with Developmental Disabilities, including developing the first Child Care Center for Children with and without Disabilities, the first Child Care and Training Center for Children with Chronic Medical Conditions and the first After School Program for young adults with Autism in collaboration with the Boys and Girls Club.

Ellen has also served as the Vice President of the National Council of Jewish Women, AZ, the President of Maryland’s National Organization for Women, and the President of the Brandeis National Committee, Phoenix Chapter. She earned an MS in Special Education at University of Maryland and an MA Child Development at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.