Our student leaders are agile, passionate, practitioners of literary art and have cross-disciplinary skills they graciously share to help grow the collective and champion the work of its members.
Yla Williams
President, 2025-Present
Creative Writer, Fiction
Yla is a San José State University MFA student specializing in fiction. She began her career as an author writing fanfiction on Wattpad. She loves romance novels and fantasy series and believes that children of color should always be able to see themselves in books. Yla hopes to end up on the New York Times bestseller list someday.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Carrmine Arredondo
Treasurer, 2025-Present
Creative Writer
Carrmine is an undergraduate creative writing student at San José State University who plans to script worlds and characters into stories that captivate gamers. He has thoughts of someday, upon graduation, working as a storyteller at the VALVe gaming corporation or another studio that platforms up and coming storytellers.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Carmen Saleh
Managing Editor, 2020-present
Treasurer, 2023-2025
Carmen is currently working on her doctorate. She is an author and alumna of San José State University where she earned a MFA in Creative Writing, 2021. Years prior to that she earned a BFA from the University of San Francisco. She is now a practitioner of both the written and visual arts. They inform her career and the DPWC’s mission. Follow her @carmenestelakennedysaleh.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Okunyi Bëhree
Archivist, 2023-present
Okunyi is thriving as a librarian in the Northwest and is a celebrated San José State University alumna of the MLIS Program. She was once a Gonzaga University undergrad, focused on Creative Writing where she double-minored in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies. Okunyi’s literary artistry now blossoms through the creative writing programming she designs for aspiring authors. She says this work helps her channel her talents and feed her soul.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Gabriel Evans
Journalist, Photo Journalist, 2024-present
Gabriel is a San José State University alumnus: 2025. His focus was Political Science and Journalism. He now combines these to write about and analyze policy at local and state levels. He has published feature articles with the Spartan Daily and has written for Update News. Gabriel has a keen interest in racial justice, environmental equity, and philosophy.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Keenan Norris
Emeritus Advisor, 2020-2025
Dr. Norris is a novelist and essayist: keenannorris.com.
He holds a PhD from the University of California, Riverside, and a MFA from Mills College. He was a 2017 Marin Headlands Artist-in-Residence, and he has garnered a Public Voices fellowship (2020), a Callaloo fellowship (2016) and two Yerba Buena Center for the Arts fellowships (2017, 2015). Norris serves as a guest editor for the Oxford African-American Studies Center, and he teaches at San José State University.
Email: keenan.norris@sjsu.edu
Israel Archie
President Emeritus, 2024-2025
Israel is a journalist and a San José State University alumnus: 2025. He served as the president of this club during the 2024-25 academic year. Israel served as a reporter for the DPWC as well as SJSU’s Spartan Daily and the Spear. His journalistic interests include sports, politics, and global affairs.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Leah Tyus
President Emeritus, 2023-2024
Leah earned a MFA in Creative Writing from San José State University. She is also a CAL Berkeley alumna. She is a talented writer whose focus is fiction, and she says she takes inspiration from the many sun filled landscapes and interesting people who live, work, and play in and around her home in Southern California.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
Felipe De La Rosa
President Emeritus: 2022-2023
Felipe is an educator, poet, and alumnus of San José State University: Creative Writing MFA. He would also add that Southern California is his home and it is where he finds much of his poetic inspiration. In fact, you can find him at California State University, Dominguez Hills, where he’s shaping the future of education with his curriculum and literary take on life.
Email: DPWC2020@gmail.com
DIASPORIC PEOPLES WRITING COLLECTIVE 