Founder and Executive Director

Sue Guiney
Founder and Executive Director

Writing Through was founded in 2014 by the writer and educator, Sue Guiney. The program grew out of her experiences, positive and negative, from a volunteer trip to Cambodia with her family in 2006. That trip led to her writing the first in her collection of novels set in modern day Cambodia, A Clash of Innocents. After the publication of that novel, Sue was determined to bring the fruit of her inspiration back to the people who inspired her. The Writing Workshop now known as Writing Through is her way of giving back to a people and country she has grown to love. From that first workshop grew this international non-profit targeting underserved and at-risk populations worldwide, both children and adults, students and teachers.

Ever since the first workshop was run in the Siem Reap educational shelter, Anjali House, Sue has devoted her writing and much of her teaching to Cambodia. From 2011-2013, she was Writer-in-Residence in the SE Asia Department of The University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), the world’s leading institution for the study of Asia, Africa and the Middle East. She has traveled around the globe discussing her experiences in Cambodia and drawing attention to that country’s needs. She also lectures on the role of the arts in social charge and the importance of creativity. Her Cambodian novels are among the only literary fiction written for an English-speaking audience about modern day, post Khmer Rouge Cambodia. The second in the collection, Out of the Ruins, was published in 2014. The third novel completing the trilogy is to be published in 2024.

Sue is an internationally recognized poet. Besides her own poetry collections, her work has been widely published in literary journals and anthologized in collections devoted to global human rights issues. She is also an accomplished amateur violinist, and a novice drummer.

Directors

Wendee Wolfson

Wendee Wolfson is a Leadership Coach and Consultant to both experienced and emerging leaders in corporations and startup enterprises. She has also worked with non-profit boards to develop strategic initiatives and implement leadership transitions as a consultant and as a board member.

Wendee has a particular interest in working with social entrepreneurs, both as a coach to Fellows in the Halcyon Incubator for Social Entrepreneurs, in Washington, DC, and in her role as a lead advisor to the Next Wave Impact Fund, which invests in early stage, high growth social enterprises. She also coaches students in the Georgetown University Executive Masters in Leadership program.

She has worked with entrepreneurs starting high growth organizations for twenty years, advising them on business models, financing, and a variety of management challenges.

Wendee was a co-founder of both Women’s Growth Capital Fund, a venture capital fund that invested exclusively in women entrepreneurs, and WomenAngels.net, a professionally managed fund of active women angel investors. She is currently one of the lead advisors to the inaugural Rising Tide Fund. She also coordinates and facilitates the annual International Exchange of effective practices among the leaders of angel groups in developed and emerging countries, through the Angel Capital Association.

Wendee began her career and spent several years in the financial services industry. She has an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Certificate in Leadership Coaching from Georgetown University.

Trisha Craig

Trisha Craig is Dean of International and Professional Experience at Yale NUS, Yale’s new liberal arts college in Singapore. Previously she was director of Wheelock College Singapore. Prior to moving to Southeast Asia, Trisha spent a decade as director of the Centre for European Studies at Harvard University. Trisha is a political sociologist with a focus on institution building and has worked as a policy advisor and taught in many countries including El Salvador, Spain, the United Kingdom, Qatar, China, India, Thailand and South Africa. She is co-author of the book, The Quality of Life in Rural Asia, published by Oxford University Press, the author of many articles and a frequent contributer to the Straits Times and TODAY on issues of early childhood education, demographic trends, education and globalization. Trisha holds a PhD from Yale University and has served on the boards of a number of non-profit organizations and government commissions.

Jen Flynn

Jen Flynn is the Director of Clubs and Shared Interest Groups at the Harvard Alumni Association, where she helps Harvard’s 248 alumni organizations around the world build leadership strength and organizational capacity, define strategy, and tackle tough challenges. Prior to Harvard, she was the Director of Educational Programs and Partnerships at EF Education, developing digital content and new media initiatives, designing academic programs, and building strategic relationships between EF and other educational organizations, including Apple, PBS, and Advanced Placement of the College Board. For more than six years, she worked at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University in a number of positions, most recently as Director of Advancement Outreach and Alumnae Affairs. She has advised universities in Brazil, Poland, China, England, Scotland, the Middle East, Australia, and around the US in alumni engagement strategy and organizational capacity-building, and has served as a presenter at many professional conferences.

She received her Master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, with a dual concentration in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, and in Technology, Innovation, and Education; and received her Bachelor’s degree with a double major in English Literature and Performing Arts from Colby College.

Don Guiney

Don Guiney is a US lawyer who practiced in London for twenty-six years, representing issuers and underwriting banks in a wide range of complex cross-border capital raising transactions. He currently serves as a consultant to Impact Shares, a non-profit social impact investment fund platform. He is an advisor to Dyme Earth, an eco-friendly gift card platform that uses its profits to fund direct investment in solar and reforestation projects in the US. Prior to returning to the US, Don served as Senior Counsel at Baker & McKenzie, the global law firm. Prior to joining Baker & McKenzie, Don was a partner for sixteen years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, a major international law firm based in London. Don has been involved in volunteer and pro bono work throughout his career. He has been the leader of the largest youth baseball and softball organization in the UK for over twenty years. For his service to the cause of youth sports in the UK, Don was named a torchbearer in the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. He has served as the President of the Harvard Club of the United Kingdom, the largest Harvard alumni organization outside the US. He is a board member of ClassACT HR78, a social impact accelerator focused on the Harvard alumni community. Don is a member of the Board of Directors of Anjali House, an educational shelter based in Cambodia. He is a board member of Amity Island Running Club, Inc. a nonprofit running club on Martha’s Vineyard in the US. Don received his AB degree from Harvard College and his JD degree from Columbia Law School.

Kenneth S. Williams

Since March 2012, Williams has been the Executive Director and CEO of the Entertainment
Technology Center at USC, a technology think tank which brings together the top
entertainment, technology and consumer electronics companies to better understand and
collaborate on the impact of new technology on all aspects of the entertainment industry.
A media-industry veteran, Williams spent 18 years with Sony Pictures Entertainment including
Treasurer of Columbia Pictures Entertainment and Executive Vice President of Sony Pictures
Entertainment, culminating as President of Sony’s Digital Studios Division.
He was president and CEO of Ascent Media Group which, at that time, was the world’s largest
independent provider of media content services to film studios, broadcast and cable networks,
advertising agencies and other media creators and distributors, and has also previously held
positions as President of Technicolor Digital Cinema and Vice President of Chase Manhattan
Corporate Banking Division for filmed entertainment lending.
Most recently Williams has been an investor and President/CEO of Health Club Media Network,
the largest operator of media in over 4,000 health club facilities nationwide. Williams currently
serves on the Boards of several companies, including World Health Networks, Inc. and Digital
Fusion.
Williams is a graduate of Harvard College and holds an MS in Business Policy from Columbia
University. He is a voting member of both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
and The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has served on the Boards of the Music
Center Foundation, the LA Master Chorale, UC Riverside, the Buckley School, the Los Angeles
Conservancy, the Harvard Alumni Association and currently serves on the Board of the Music
Center Foundation, LA Channel 36 Public Access Channel and the Harvard Club of Southern
California.

Votey Cheav

Votey Cheav is a US-licensed corporate and commercial lawyer, specializing in international dispute resolution. She is a Cambodian-American daughter of refugees who survived the Khmer Rouge and was born in the Khao I Dang refugee camp, immigrating to the United States as a child. She has practiced law in the US and Cambodia.

Votey is based in Paris and is currently pursuing her Executive MBA at HEC Paris with a specialization in startups and entrepreneurship. She received her Juris Doctor degree from DePaul University and both her Master of Education in Secondary English Education and Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the Ohio State University.

Votey is passionate about creative writing and how language reflects our collective consciousness. She is an avid writer and reader of poetry, and has been published in various international journals and anthologies of poetry and prose.

Special Advisors

Amy Stillman

Amy Stillman was Director, Communications, of GIIN (Global Impact Investing Network) where she led the development and execution of the communications strategy to advance the GIIN’s mission and brand. 

Prior to joining the GIIN, she was Director of Communications at Impetus – The Private Equity Foundation, the pioneer of venture philanthropy in the UK, where she was responsible for both external and internal communications, and policy. Previously she was Head of Communications and Public Engagement at Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), the world’s leading independent international development organization that uses volunteers to fight poverty and reduce inequality. Her background includes senior marketing and communications roles at commercial organizations, including Merrill Lynch and WATG, as well as marketing consulting at the Commonwealth Group.  She moved to the social sector in 1999 as Marketing Director of global leadership development organization Common Purpose. Amy was based in the United Kingdom for 25 years before returning to New York in 2014. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Linda Rappaport

Linda Rappaport is an internationally respected U.S. attorney. She is presently Of Counsel at Shearman and Sterling LLP, where she was a partner for over thirty years, and a former member of the Executive Committee. Her legal and business background is global, with substantial transactional and advisory experience in the U.S., Europe and Asia.

Linda also has extensive experience with corporate and Not‐For‐Profit Boards of Directors, serving as a member or advisor to numerous Boards of Directors. She is presently Chair of the Board of Trustees of The New School, and a member of the Board of Governors of Mannes College of Music. She has also served as a Board member or Advisor of the Legal Aid Society of New York City, the New York Women’s Foundation, and  served as Trustee of Wesleyan University from 2011-2016.

Linda has a J.D. from New York University and a B.A., magna cum laude from Wesleyan University. She is also an accomplished flutist and performs with orchestras throughout the New York City area.

Staff

Kristin Schuster – Deputy Director

Kristin is from Montreal, Canada but has spent the last 12 years living, working and traveling across three continents. After completing her university studies in Psychology with a special focus in both developmental psychology and behavioural neurobiology she decided to take a break a see a bit more of the world. This led to a new career as a tour guide and tour leader, making history come alive for thousands of guests. During a European winter she volunteered as an English Teaching Assistant in a college in Hanoi and fell in love with South East Asia relocating here permanently in 2013. She has lived with her husband in Siem Reap, Cambodia since 2016 working in fundraising and communications and as a science teacher. She is thrilled to pass on her love of public speaking and to help students explore their creativity.

Bryony Rice (Bee) – Operations Coordinator

Bee is from a small village in Devon, England. She has been living and working in Cambodia for just over 12 years. She has held many different positions over the years from the personal assistant to a Thai businessman, to a sales manager in a small shop, volunteer coordinator and up until recently a full-time English teacher. Her love affair with Cambodia began before she’d even set foot here and continues to this day. She comes from a family of writers and loves to write in her free time. She now lives in Siem Reap with her wife. She has greatly admired the work of Writing Through for years and is thrilled to join the team.

Kim Dibbs – Accounts Manager

Kim Dibb is from Vancouver Island, Canada. She is the Chief Financial Officer for Mustimuhw Information Solutions, Inc., a company providing health record software and virtual outreach solutions to First Nations across Canada. Prior to this role, she worked for over a decade with the Cowichan Tribes First Nation as the Comptroller and, in her early career, she served as a Logistics Officer in the Canadian Forces and in total spent twelve years with the Department of National Defence.

In 2015, she went on her first pro bono assignment to Siem Reap, Cambodia through the organization Accounting for International Development. She would return there in 2016 and 2017 to assist NGOs in developing financial management competency. She has been the Accounts Manager for Writing Through since 2019.

Kim is a Chartered Professional Accountant with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Guelph.

Facilitators

Most of the Writing Through workshops are delivered by specially trained volunteer Facilitators. A Facilitator does not have to be a creative writer nor a teacher. All it requires is someone who enjoys engaging and communicating with people, particularly with young people, has a respectful and open-minded attitude, and a sense of humor.

To become a Writing Through Facilitator, one must complete the 6-session on-line course where trainees will also receive a wide range of materials including manuals and videos. Periodic refresher sessions are run enabling trainees to ask questions and keep their skills fresh. Once trained, a Facilitator is shown how to set up workshops in their own communities, and are fully supported as needed by the Writing Through staff.

Volunteers

The lifeblood of Writing Through is its volunteers. You do not need to make a commitment to travel in order to become involved in the Writing Through family. We understand that not everyone is comfortable or interested in actually facilitating a workshop. But there are many other ways that a volunteer can help, no matter where they are, no matter where they live. We are a small, volunteer-led organization but our small size does not reflect the large amount of tasks required to deliver our programs. For example, we are always looking for assistance with:

  • Administration, report writing, financial oversight
  • Outreach and client cultivation
  • Website and social media management
  • Public relations and promotion
  • Fundraising
  • Monitoring and Evaluation supervision
  • Volunteer coordination

to name a few. Our volunteers come from all over the world and are all ages. Do contact us if you have an interest, some available time and skills which you believe can be useful.

CHANGE A LIFE TODAY

Writing Through changes lives, but we cannot do it without your support.