A lecturer in the English Department at CSU Bakersfield, Matthew Woodman has been a voice and mentor for creative writing. He edits and publishes a “Local Poets” chapbook in coordination with an annual poetry reading featuring campus poets as well as those from the Kern County community.  Additionally, he has begun an annual ongoing collaboration with the Bakersfield Museum of Art’s “Art After Dark” series whereby CSUB students write and perform ekphrastic poetry inspired by the museum’s exhibits.  Finally, as the founding editor of the literary journal Rabid Oak, he has created a medium for CSUB students to gain editing experience. Woodman demands excellence and nurtures courage and confidence in his students; his classroom is a place of creative risk-taking.