Head of Academic Outreach Colleen Abel is a Chicago-area native who has worked as a teacher, editor, librarian, bookseller, and writer, all of which allowed her to fulfill her passion for making sure that great ideas find an audience. Her creative work has appeared in over fifty journals, including The Southern Review and Colorado Review. A former Diane Middlebrook Poetry Fellow at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Institute for Creative Writing, she earned an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, and a PhD from UW-Milwaukee. She is the author of a chapbook of poetry, Housewifery, which appeared in 2013 from dancing girl press. Why I love working for Hippo: Hippo brings the stories of innovators to a wider audience, and creates connections between people interested in making a difference. My favorite academic work: I’m a huge fan of Mary Beard. Classical Rome and Greece are fascinating to me, and a book like The Fires of Vesuvius just fills your head with unforgettable details. In another life, I’d be a: Detective. Preferably assigned to cases that involved secret staircases or old clocks. Aside from the mighty hippo, my favorite animal is the: The armadillo—tough and tender.
