Y-WDA Committee Members

Cathleen Balid is a teen writer from Queens, New York. She is the Founder and Co-Editor-in-Chief of HaluHalo Journal, an international literary and arts journal highlighting Southeast Asian youth. She was the first person from her high school to win a Scholastic Writing Award, and her work has been recognized by the New York Times, Adroit Prizes, Columbia College Chicago, Roanoke Review, and Polyphony Lit, among others. She attended the Adroit Summer Mentorship Program and Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and she also interned with the U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, where she focused on researching book ban and transgender rights cases. 

Sophia Hall represents her hometown, Washington DC, as the 2023 Youth Poet Laureate. She lives a double life: 18-year-old poet by day, secret agent by night. She was selected as a 2023 Presidential Scholar by President Biden and Dr. Jill Biden. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, the Library of Congress, Button Poetry, and several other organizations. Her poem “Multiple Choice,” won grand prize in the Sixteen River Press’s Youth Poetry Contest and was subsequently nominated for the Pushcart Prize. In 2022, she won the Smith College Poetry Prize for High School Girls, selected by Leila Chatti. Sophia is also the Art and Social Justice Fellow at Strathmore  and Woolly Mammoth Theater. Her haiku, selected from 2900-plus submissions from 71 countries, have been displayed in prominent locations in the Washington DC Business District. She is featured as a spoken word artist in a commercial for Giant Foods. She posts her writing and artwork on her instagram account @estelleuphoria, reaching an audience of over 100k users. She attends the University of Pennsylvania, where she was recruited for creative writing. 

Elizabeth Hsu (she/her) is the 2023-2024 Houston Youth Poet Laureate. She was a semifinalist for the 2023-2024 National Student Poet, as well as a Poetry Mentee in the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship. She currently edits poetry for the Upper New Review. When she’s not writing, she’s singing. She has won awards from the Schmidt Vocal Competition, the Bach International Music Competition, and the World Classical Music Awards, among others. She has four cats.

Lark Jeffers (they/them) is a youth writer and sophomore in high school. They are passionate about using art to bring new awareness to the most important issues of our time and most recently directed a world premiere play about gun violence at a regional playhouse. They’re currently working as a founding member of the Maryland branch for March For Our Lives and working on their Girl Scout Gold Award about accessibility in performing arts. Lark is also a volunteer citizen archivist and nationally recognized filmmaker with C-SPAN StudentCam. 

Gabrielle Ouellette was born in Ontario, Canada, and has been studying Theater at Interlochen Arts Academy for the past two years. She loves taking writing classes and reading and writing poetry. She previously served as the president of her school’s Dramatic Arts Association and as the vice president of her school’s student government. When not writing or acting, she can likely be found doing special effects makeup, crocheting, or spending time with family and friends.

June Oh (she/her) is a writer from Los Angeles, California. She primarily practices poetry and screenwriting but will never miss the opportunity to explore hybrid genres. Her work has been recognized by the New York Times, Cultural Daily, Scholastic Art & Writing, and LA Student Film Awards, among others. June is a graduate of the Kenyon Young Writers' Workshop and carries her passion for writing wherever she goes. In her free time, she volunteers at dog rescues and enjoys dancing like nobody’s watching. 

Lucía Ramos Calleros is a Mexico-native and first-year student at the University of South Carolina Honors College with a passion for public service, youth empowerment, and civic engagement. She is a fierce advocate for empowering marginalized communities, and she is committed to upholding the promises of American democracy. For Lucia, writing is not just an outlet–it’s an extension of her and her fight for justice, ringing true radical change across America. When she is not emailing her representatives, Lucia enjoys musical theatre (performing and listening), any matcha latte, and crafting!

Lily Scheckner is a high school senior and writer residing in Silver Spring, Maryland. She is the 2025 Montgomery County, MD Youth Poet Laureate and is the winner of One Teen Story, the Pulitzer Center's Fighting Words Poetry Contest, and more. Her work is published in The Penn Review, The National Poetry Quarterly, and the Harvard Advocate, among others. In her free time, Lily enjoys matcha lattes, oxford commas, and listening to Sufjan Stevens.

王潇/Evan Wang is the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania and a 2024 National YoungArts Winner in poetry. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, The Journal, RHINO, Frontier Poetry, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. He has performed at various venues such as the Miami Book Fair, Love Park, the Oval XP, and The Rotunda at the University of Pennsylvania. Evan is the editor-in-chief of Hominum Journal and has been featured by Button Poetry, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Montgomery County Community College, the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation, and more.

Yishak Yohannes Yebio is the 2024 Washington D.C Youth Poet Laureate and has earned invitations to perform at the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, MLK Memorial Library, and more. He was selected from over a thousand applicants to serve as the Arts and Social Justice Fellow at the Strathmore and Woolly Mammoth theatre. He was selected as a panelist for the D.C. Commission of Arts and Humanities. His writing has been featured in the Nowhere Girl Collective, the Eunoia Review, the Inflectionist Review, The Shore, the Delta Poetry Review, and elsewhere.