“Networking just kind of made it clear to me that teaching is a connection between humans and between thinking from different cultures, and that unless we hear the voices of different people in different situations, then we don’t get the full effect of what literature or culture is all about. And so we built on those kinds of things within the network.” —Susan Miera

In April, we recorded a conversation with Susan Miera (MA ‘97), a founding member of the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network (BLRTN). She retires this year from her role as the Writing Center Coordinator at Santa Fe Indian School. In that role, Susan also mentored BLTN NextGen students and What’s the Story? Youth filmmakers. 

In our conversation, Susan reflected on her transformation as a teacher as she discovered the power of connecting classrooms through BLRTN and on her subsequent learning in the network over more than three decades, including what she’s learned about how to coordinate a successful student-run Writing Center. 

Because it’s never been just about her, Susan invited writing center youth mentors Perletta Calvert and Julia Pérez, as well as, colleague Michael Martinez into the interview.

Here’s a 20-minute clip of our April, 2025 conversation. (The full transcript of the conversation can be found here.) We wish Susan all the best in retirement!