Mary Hickernell, LRC Writing Coordinator, is also a writing instructor in the UMBC English
Department. She has been teaching writing for over thirty years. For the past four years, Ms.
Hickernell has been coordinator of the Writing Center and trains all writing tutors through an
academic course. In addition, she administers the creation and scoring of the writing placement
test for incoming students and participates in the CRLA certification of tutors.

Ms. Hickernell graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University with a B.A. degree in English. She
received her Master’s Degree in Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, concentrating in
Literature and the Humanities. Besides teaching at UMBC since 1987, she has also taught
writing and literature at The Community College of Baltimore County–Catonsville.

Ms. Hickernell believes in the importance and power of language that individuals use to
communicate effectively with each other, to be part of the world community of those who
actively think and then share their ideas. She is very proud of the writing tutors who work with
students to reach this goal.

John Keats, an English poet, wrote these words when he was 24 in a letter to a friend:
“I am convinced more and more day by day that fine writing is next to fine doing
the top thing in the world.”