Matt Burriesci took over the duties from David Fenza after the AWP Board of Directors granted Fenza a one-year leave of absence in light of his twenty-one years of work as our association’s longest-serving employee. Matt Burriesci first joined the AWP staff in Membership Services in 1999, and he has served as Associate Director since 2002. Prior to his work at AWP, Burriesci served as Marketing Manager for Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Navy Pier. He studied Shakespeare at Oxford and received his MFA from George Mason University in 2002. Matt Burriesci’s fiction has appeared in several literary magazines, and three of his plays have been professionally produced. He was awarded the Shattuck Award for Excellence in Playwriting in 1996. Fenza became AWP’s Publications Manager in 1988, and then Executive Director in 1995. Fenza will use his year away from AWP to attend the Kennedy School at Harvard University, where he will earn a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.