Founding director of Lit Youngstown Karen Schubert holds a B.A. in Professional Writing & Editing and an M.A. in English from YSU, and an MFA in creative writing from the Northeast Ohio Master of Fine Arts at Cleveland State. She has taught writing in the community and on several campuses, including YSU. Karen has published five poetry chapbooks; The Compost Reader is her first full-length collection (Accents Publishing 2020). Her awards include an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council and residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center. The Andrews Avenue Memory Mural is Lit Youngstown’s third major collaboration with the YSU Art Department.

Dragana Crnjak is a Serbian-American interdisciplinary artist and Professor of Art at Youngstown State University.  She holds a BFA from Myers School of Art at University of Akron in 2002 and MFA in Painting and Printmaking from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia in 2004.  She is a recipient of Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards in Visual Arts, Distinguished Professorship in Scholarship at Youngstown State University and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Professional Fellowship.  Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and is collected by numerous private and public collections. She lives with her husband and their three children in Boardman, OH.  

Ryan Lantz is a Graphic & Interactive Designer who holds a BFA in studio art with a focus in Graphic and Interactive Design from Youngstown State University. He previously worked for Youngstown State University at Web and Creative Services, and is now currently working for the Butler Institute of American Art Museum as their Graphic & Web Designer.  He currently lives in Austintown OH, with his partner and 4 beautiful dogs, and soon plans to pursue his MFA.