Leaders

Marion Mitchell Wilsonin memoriam, founder/board member emerita

Marion Mitchell-Wilson was Inlandia Institute’s executive director from its founding in 2007 until 2012 when she stepped down to focus on her health. Before her passing in 2015, she returned as a board member and executive director emeritus. Upon her passing, the Marion Mitchell-Wilson Endowment was established in her memory.


2024-25 Inlandia Institute Board of Directors

Inlandia is led by a talented and committed Board of Directors with input from an inclusive and diverse regional Advisory Council. The work of the organization is accomplished by a strong committee system of the board and advisory council and a small, dedicated group of staff and volunteers.

To reach a member of the Board of Directors, email Inlandia@InlandiaInstitute.org.

Minerva Canto is a longtime journalist whose work explores the places where politics, policies and people converge. She is a former editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times and has been a staff reporter for various newspapers and The Associated Press. Minerva writes fiction and non-fiction and is currently working on a memoir titled, “Geography of Longing.” A native of Mexico City, she grew up in Santa Ana, Calif. She speaks fluent Spanish, has lived in the IE for nearly 20 years and earned a MFA at the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast Creative Writing program. 

Patricia Smith-Hunt is Vice President of the Inlandia Institute board of directors. She is the retired Head of Preservation Services at the University of California Riverside library. She holds a Masters degree in library & Information Science from Clark Atlanta University, and a PhD in Counseling & Higher Education from Ohio University. She is a member of the American Library Association, and serves as an officer for the UCR Retirees Association. Prior to coming to UCR she led the preservation services initiatives at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Hong-My Basrai is Treasurer of the Inlandia Institute board of directors and the author of Behind the Red Curtain, a memoir about her seven years living inside fallen Saigon, Vietnam under communism. At 22 years old Hong-My immigrated to Southern California. She speaks and writes Vietnamese, English, and French, and shares a home with her Indian husband who is fluent in Gujarati and two other Indian languages, besides English. Hong-My is also a member of the Writer’s Club of Whittier and PIVOT, The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization.

Kristie Camacho is Secretary of the Inlandia Institute board of directors. She is a professor at College of the Desert, teaching composition, fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction. Her works in progress are a memoir with the working title “A Life of Verse” and an open educational resource with the working title, “Small Groups Create Big Change.” She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from California State University, San Bernardino and her Master of Arts degree in English from National University, La Jolla. She is a doctoral candidate at Kansas State University.

Tiffany Elliott is an asexual, neuroatypical, and disabled woman and mental health professional who received her MFA from New Mexico State University. Her debut collection, Bones Awaiting the Blaze, was awarded the 2022 Hillary Gravendyk Prize, and her work has appeared in Typehouse, Spectrum, and other journals. Her works explore the mythologies we experience, those we create for ourselves, issues of abuse and trauma, and how people can remake themselves. 

Lisa Henry is curator for The Riverside Art Museum based in Southern California and Chair of the Blacklandia Steering Committee. Henry was formerly Assistant Curator for American Art at the Newark Museum. She has been a guest curator and art consultant for institutions on both the east and west coasts including The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, The High Museum of Art, The California African American Museum, Leica Gallery New York, The UCLA Hammer Museum, The Japanese American National Museum, and The California Museum of Photography.

Tanya Humphrey is chair of the Black Women’s Leadership Forum in Riverside, a Civil Rights and Community Activist, and a proud UCR Alumni. Tanya was co-owner of Indigo Afrikan Art, Books & Gifts. She organized citywide Kwanzaa Celebrations, and currently assists with the Riverside Juneteenth Celebration. Ms. Humphrey was a founding member of the Riverside Coalition for Police Accountability and served on the Riverside Community Police Commission. She also served one year on the Riverside Civil Grand Jury. She currently acts a community advisor on the UCR School of Medicine Health Disparities Committee. 

Jonar Isip is a Marketing Resource Specialist who is a huge supporter of the arts, especially when it comes to literature. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing at UCR and his writing has been published in Inlandia: A Literary Journey, as well as Irvine Valley College’s “The Ear”. He also enjoys photography, and some of his photos have also been published by The Ear. Jonar currently lives in Corona, California with his dog and strawberry plant.

Richard T. Rodríguez is Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside. The author of Next of Kin: The Family in Chicano/a Cultural Politics, which won the 2011 National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies Book Award, and A Kiss across the Ocean: Transatlantic Intimacies of British Post-Punk and U.S. Latinidad, he is currently completing Undocumented Desires: Fantasies of Latino Male Sexuality.  He currently serves on the PMLA Advisory Committee. His show, “Dr. Ricky on the Radio,” can be heard weekly on KUCR. 


Board Members Emeritus

Johnny Benderin memoriam, board member emeritus
Elio Palacios Jr.board member emeritus
Frances J. Vasquezboard member emerita
Ellen Estilaiboard member emerita
Larry Burnsboard member emeritus
Jeff Krausboard member emeritus


Cati Porter has been executive director of Inlandia Institute since 2013. She is the author of eleven poetry collections and chapbooks, including most recently small mammals (Mayapple Press, 2023). She is the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the California Arts Council. She received her MFA in Creative Writing with a concentration in poetry from Antioch University Los Angeles. Cati Porter lives in Riverside where she is editor and publisher of Poemeleon: A Journal of Poetry.

cati.porter@inlandiainstitute.org

Janine Pourroy Gamblin is programs and marketing coordinator. Janine grew up in Riverside and graduated from UC Riverside to become a teacher of elementary and middle school students and the writer of several books about film- and television-related topics. She is the author of The Making of WaterworldBehind the Scenes at ER, and Shooting Star: The Ewan McGregor Story and co-author of The Making of Congo and The Art and Making of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Janine now serves as publications and marketing coordinator for Inlandia Institute.

programs@inlandiainstitute.org

Erin Michaela Sweeney (she/her) writes, speaks, and teaches about the healing potential of mindful creative self-expression. She supports writers and artists as managing editor (since 2022) of Inlandia: A Literary Journey, the Institute’s online literary journal, and writes Inlandia’s free weekly 100 Rejections Club newsletter to encourage creatives to embrace rejection. For twenty years, Erin was an editor on the east coast but returned to inland Southern California in 2011 to hang out at City of Hope for spa days (aka life-saving blood cancer treatments). Yes, there’s a memoir. She loves her child unconditionally and forever humbly serves Rexi the cat queen.

journaleditor@inlandiainstitute.org

Connor Robert Ryan is the Inlandia Literary Journeys volunteer newspaper column coordinator. He is a recent graduate of California Baptist University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Creative Writing / Journalism and New Media. During his tenure at CBU, he was the managing editor of the school newspaper, “The Banner” (Lancer Media Group).

ILJcolumns@inlandiainstitute.org

Rachel Beronia is the 2024-25 Inlandia Books intern. Rachel grew up in Mountain View, CA before moving to the Central Valley of Modesto, CA in 2020. She received an Associates Degree in English at Modesto Junior College. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in English with a concentration in Creative Writing at Cal State-San Bernardino. 


The land of the Inlandia region belongs to the Cahuilla [ka-wee-ahh], Tongva [tong-va], Luiseño [loo-say-ngo], and Serrano [se-ran-oh] peoples and all of their ancestors and descendants, past, present, and future. Inlandia Institute respectfully acknowledges and recognizes our responsibility to the original and current caretakers of this land, water, and air. Today the Inlandia region is home to many Indigenous peoples from all over the world and we express our gratitude to them for allowing us the opportunity to live and work on their homelands. 

Black Lives Matter. Inlandia Institute stands against white supremacy and condemns police brutality and violence against all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities everywhere. We memorialize here our core values of equity and representation and shall endeavor on all fronts to ensure that they are adhered to. Read our full statement here. In response to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police on May 25, 2020, the Inlandia community founded Blacklandia, a steering committee and events series. Learn more about what Blacklandia is doing in the community.

Accessibility. We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability. To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. To access website accessibility settings and to view our full statement, click the blue circle icon in the lower left corner of your screen. All virtual public events are closed captioned. ASL interpretation is available upon request. For this and other accommodation needs, please contact Cati Porter at 951 790 2458 or cati.porter@inlandiainstitute.org.