Gina Shaffer

A playwright and poet, Professor Shaffer has enjoyed teaching creative writing, literature, and composition courses at Saddleback College since joining the English Department in 2010. She serves as faculty advisor for WALL Literary Journal, an award-winning campus publication featuring the short stories, poetry, personal narratives, art, and photography of students. She also serves as Committee Chair for Word Fest OC, a literary festival at Saddleback College that she developed as a sabbatical project. A graduate of UC Irvine, where she received a Ph.D. in English, Shaffer formerly taught at UCLA Writing Programs.

Her background includes working as a reporter for the Daily News in Los Angeles, the Miami Herald, and the Orange County Register. She also served as a magazine editor and theater critic. Shaffer has written several plays that have been staged in theaters throughout Southern California and off-Broadway. Her one-act play War Spelled Backwards was published in an anthology titled The Literary Experience.