Elizabeth Spiescompleted her Ph.D. from UC Riverside in June 2010 in American Literature and Poetry with a specialization in marketing and advertising. During her interim at UCR, she served as the Assistant Director of Applied Intermediate Composition. Also during her doctoral work, she served a fellowship at Ludwig Maxmillian Universitat in Munich, Germany. She was a Dean's Fellow at UCR and a Duke University Hartman Center for Advertising and Sales Grant Recipient. Also at UCR, she was awarded the University's Outstanding Teaching Award. Spies did her undergraduate work at UC Irvine on an NCAA Division I full tuition soccer scholarship. She has presented at NEMLA and PAMLA and has published articles on Allen Ginsberg, Ishmael Reed, Amy Lowell, 9/11, and 21st Century American Literature.