Meet the Team
Mandisa Haarhoff
Mandisa Haarhoff is a South Africa born Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Penn State. Along with my academic training, I am a playwright, choreographer, and actor. I have toured my award-winning one-person show, “Crush-hopper,” across South Africa and the United States, and I’m currently working on a new play that will debut at the Omnye Nomnye Theatre Festival in 2025. I enjoy hosting curated open mic’s. During my time in Gainesville, Florida, I successfully hosted Mandisa Mondays at The Bull and the Borrowed Mic at Third House Bookstore. Offering my energy to sustainable life-giving community centered spaces like The Print Factory is an expression of purpose that gives meaning to why I show up in the classroom. I also enjoy tending to my younger self through writing children’s stories.
Andrea Miller
Originally from rural Sullivan County, Pennsylvania, Andrea Miller teaches Telecommunications and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State. In their research and teaching, they focus on histories of race, gender, technology, and empire. Before arriving at Penn State, Andrea taught at Florida Atlantic University from 2020–22 after living and working in the Appalachian foothills of South Carolina and Georgia for nearly two decades. During their time in the Southeast, Andrea gained experience in inclusive community organizing and programming that they are excited to bring to their work with the Print Factory and communities of Central Pennsylvania.
Kathy Pletcher has lived in Bellefonte for 30+years; she got married here and raised her two children in Happy Valley. She currently works in administration at Penn State and she and her children are enrolled tribal members of the Band River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in Wisconsin. She is excited to link her passion for cultural diversity and community enrichment and education with the Print Factory’s mission.
Kathy Pletcher
Elena Quiñones is an MA/PhD student in the Department of Comparative Literature at Penn State. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in Latin American Studies in 2021 then moved to State College to start her graduate program. Elena is passionate about community involvement and volunteers to support local arts programming with 3 Dots in downtown State College and regional LGBTQ+ advocacy with the Centre LGBTQ Support Network. She is excited to be linking her interests in literary studies and community involvement in her work with the Print Factory.
Elena Quiñones
Dara Walker is an Assistant Professor of African American Studies, History, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. She is currently writing her first book, High School Rebels: Black Power, Education, and Youth Politics in the Motor City, 1966-1973. Growing up in Wahington D.C., she learned to love history and books as a portal into worlds of possibility. She is ecstatic to realize The Print Factory's vision and its support of Central PA communities.
Dara Walker
Jonathan Eburne
Jonathan P. Eburne has lived in Bellefonte with his family since 2003. Hailing originally from Massachusetts, he teaches literature at Penn State, where he is Professor of Comparative Literature, English, and French and Francophone Studies. He is the author of a number of published scholarly books, essays, and interviews, and has been dreaming of opening a bookstore since moving to Centre County twenty years ago.