Jenny Winstead-Rodriguez is an AmeriCorps Page Turner for 916 Ink Read On! tutoring program. Jenny graduated with degrees in English and Theatre from the University of Kentucky and has since worked with youth and arts organizations, including Youth N.O.W, Shakespeare Society of America, and the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative.

Before moving to Sacramento in the spring of 2021, she worked with a private EdTech organization in Beverly Hills and most recently served as Administrative Director at the Sacramento Literacy Foundation. She is eager to get to work serving youth and looks forward to making a direct impact on students in the classroom. When not entertaining her Xolo puppy, she can be found reading, hiking with her husband, or up to her ears in a new craft project.

Doua Vang is an AmeriCorps Inspirator and Button Pusher. She has lived in Sacramento her whole life and went to Sac State where she got a BA in Family and Consumer Sciences. Doua took American Sign Language and Japanese class where she met her husband. Together they began travelling together to Korean and Japan then across the states. Doua was a Site Coordinator for Reading Partners a few years ago before she became part of ReadOn! and 916Ink. She loves good food, doing art (especially watercolor), reading (romance are my favorite) and loves writing stories of her own. Doua loves nature and music, all the arts of life really. Her hope in the future is to become a teacher. Doua loves the amazing people that she works with who also share the same goals, values, and love for writing/reading. She also enjoys her students and reading their work because it brings out her inner child and creativity.

Julie Donohue is an AmeriCorps Inspirator for 916 Ink. After a long break to raise her three kids, she’s happy to get back to work. BK (before kids), Julie worked for FOX TV in Salt Lake City, NBC and the BBC in London. Though life in television broadcasting was certainly exciting, she was happy to retire from the 24/7 lifestyle. Like Juan, Julie is also a potted plant who has moved around a lot. A Delaware native, she has lived in six states as well as living in England long enough to become a citizen.

Always a bibliophile, Julie enjoys being surrounded by large stacks of aging books. In fact, she currently has 3 stacks of books by her bedside alone. If not reading, Julie is often seen with a writing implement in hand, doodling. In addition to her love of mixed media art and sketching, Julie has volunteered with guinea pig rescues for the last 9 years, fostering over 30 pigs.

A somewhat recent transplant to CA, Julie mourns the loss of cold, rainy days, gray skies and the occasional snowstorm. She got her B.F.A in videography and screenwriting from the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Sha’Lena McCoy is an AmeriCorps Inspirator. She’lena chose this role because she wants to inspire! She was first introduced to 916 ink as a student and fell in love with expressing herself creativity in writing. She’lena’s ultimate goal is to be positive influence on her community.

Kyah Hurd serves as an AmeriCorps Page Turner for 916 Ink Read On! program. She recently graduated from Inderkum High School and is attending her first year at the American River College. Kyan plans to transfer and obtain her Bachelor’s in Business Administration. Kyah has been working since she was13 and has always had to work hard and learn to earn her way through this world. She also manages a Papa Murphy’s part- time and knows how to make the world’s best pizza (in case anyone was craving one.)

She is passionate about loving what you do in life, and not just living to survive, but striving for the purpose you want to bring into this world. She is happy to be a part of this 916 Ink community and has always used writing as a coping method and outlet to be grounded. Kyah wants to use her experiences and struggles she faced in school to help the kids who may be going through the same thing and be the guidance she didn’t always have.

Roxxy Schick serves as an AmeriCorps Inspirator. Growing up on five acres of land in the foothills of rural California, Roxxy was often found barefoot, catching tadpoles and digging up worms, telling themselves long, elaborate stories which were acted out with their siblings and friends. Though elementary and high school were difficult times due to undiagnosed neurodivergence, their love of reading and writing persisted. Their formal writing career began at eleven years old, every day after school writing in their first work-in-progress screen play, which was lost forever when the computer crashed. Nevertheless, they persisted, redrafting that same screen play into a short story, and then a YA novel. The story grew up as they did, and now that they have graduated, they hope to finally finish it and bring it to publication.

Roxxy graduated from Sierra College in Rocklin with an AA in LGBTQIA+ studies, before transferring to Sacramento State to pursue their BA in English and then their master's in creative writing, being awarded the Sacramento LGBTQ caucus scholarship as well as attaining membership in Sigma Tau Delta International Honor Society. In the future, Roxxy hopes to become a professor, and in the meantime is working on finishing a variety of creative projects, and hopes to inspire future generations to tell their own stories.

When Roxxy is not working, they are often found with their fiance at home, with their three dogs, four cats, bearded dragon, and a ball python, or as friends and family call it, "the zoo", baking delicious treats and reading at least three or four texts at a time.