Staff & Board

Executive Director: Tree Swenson
tree@hugohouse.org

Program Director: Brian McGuigan
brianmcguigan@hugohouse.org

Development Director: Rebecca Brinson
rebeccabrinson@hugohouse.org

Registrar & Volunteer Coordinator: Sara Brickman
sarabrickman@hugohouse.org

Facilities Manager: Garth Brewe
garthbrewe@hugohouse.org

Marketing Coordinator & Administrative Assistant: Christine Texeira
christinetexeira@hugohouse.org

Youth Program Coordinator: Becky Berryhill
beckyberryhill@hugohouse.org

ZAPP Manager

Join our mailing list.

Our Board

 John Burgess (President) grew up in upstate New York, worked on a survey crew in Montana, taught English in Japan and since 1985 has lived in Seattle, where he works corporate communications for PEMCO Insurance. He’s been a featured poet at bookstores, art galleries and coffee shops throughout the Northwest. Ravenna Press publishes his poetry: “Punk Poems” (2005), “A History of Guns in the Family” (2008) and “Graffito” (2011). He was a 2006 Jack Straw writer; co-founder of the original Burning Word Festival; and the 2008 Words' Worth curator for the Seattle City Council. He's currently editor for the online lit journal Snow Monkey, Board member at Richard Hugo House since 2009 and coconspirator with the Band of Poets. 

Connie Petersen (Vice President) is a strategic marketing consultant. Prior to owning her own business, Connie worked for Callison Architecture in Seattle, where she was Interim Marketing Director. Her career was founded with USG Corporation in Chicago, where she served in various sales and marketing management positions. Connie is also a writer and her published essays have appeared in “Ophelia’s Mom” (Random House, 2001), The Chicago Tribune, The Seattle Times and The Chicago Suburban Pioneer Press. She most recently completed a memoir, “The Taste of Rain,” and has served on the Board of Richard Hugo House since 2007. Connie also serves on the Steering Committee for Design in Public, a non-profit organization in Seattle, has been a Board member of AIA Seattle and is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Tomorrow.

Tim Lovell (Treasurer) (Bio coming soon!) 

Brad Meacham (Secretary) is a former business journalist who now provides strategic communications for major companies. He ran for a seat on the Seattle City Council in 2011 and currently lives in Columbia City with his wife and baby son. Brad, who joined the Hugo House board in 2007, wants more people to have a chance to engage in the craft of writing. His eyes were opened to reading and writing for the first time when he received a scholarship to a rigorous summer writing course in California during high school. The cormudgeon newspaper editors in his first jobs taught Brad that there is always more to learn. As Raymond Carver said: “If a writer has ‘fundamental accuracy of statement’ going for him, he’s at least on the right track.” 

Donte Felder is fueled and inspired by the students he teaches at Orca K-8, an alternative school in the south end of Seattle.  Besides exploring the formation of the United States and the philosophy of story, Felder is energized by the many possibilities that are presented when writing a screenplay.  Felder is a recent graduate of Goddard College and received his MFA in Creative Writing with a focus on screenplay.  Besides teaching and writing, Felder is happily married with three wonderful children.

Gary Gigot is a Seattle area marketing/technology investor and professional.  Additionally, he is actively involved in philanthropic work currently serving on the boards of Foster Promise and SeeYourImpact locally; having started the Out of Rain Homelessness Initiative at United Way; and sitting on the Mendoza College of Business Advisory Council at Notre Dame and on the advisory board on Notre Dame's Innovation Park.  His business background is primarily in advertising, software and angel and venture capital investing and he has diverse board of directors experience.  Gigot's current business focus is with a set of vertical Software as Service businesses.  Gary was one of the original benefactors of the Hugo House.  

Anne Jaworski lives in an old West Seattle farm house with her husband Tsering.  She has taken writing classes and attended events at Hugo House for over five years and joined the board in 2011. She writes fiction, poetry and essays in her spare time, and her writing has really grown through her association with Hugo House.  Anne is a production manager at Bio-Rad Laboratories, which manufactures medical diagnostic tests. She is happy to be a part of the Hugo House family.  

Isla McKetta is a novelist by night and managing editor of AIA Seattle’s Forum magazine by day. She earned a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Goddard College and worked in various capacities for the literary magazines Pitkin Review and Farfelu. In 2009, Isla was a guest reader with the Artsmith Salon Series in Doe Bay, Washington. A native of Moscow, Idaho, Isla’s undergraduate studies included Bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Washington and a certificate in literary fiction from UW Extension. Isla lived in Poland and Chile and speaks several languages.

Julie Villegas serves as associate director of the University of Washington Honors Program, a division of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, and is an affiliate assistant professor in the Department of English. As associate director, Julie develops and teaches programs abroad and seminars in the Honors Program at the UW. Julie's UW outreach includes departments and faculty across campus, as well as being a member of several cross-campus committees. In addition to her work with the Richard Hugo House, Julie serves as a board member for the Seattle Repertory Theatre and the MAVIN Foundation. Her dissertation, The Racial Shadow in Twentieth Century American Literature addressed mixed race identity politics and cultural studies related to immigration trends in the United States and Europe. Her research is grounded in interdisciplinary public scholarship and stems from both a personal and academic background in mixed race identity. In her spare time, Julie runs marathons, writes (prose, poetry, nonfiction), travels locally and internationally and spends as much time as possible with her two daughters, Marissa and Isabelle.