Poet Laureate Task Force

2025 Task force Members

Dr. Nikki Smith, Chair

Experience Research Manager, Enterprise Mobility

Dr. Nikki Smith is passionate about all things people and creating unique and unmatched experiences. Serving in diverse roles in the tech innovation space, Nikki is a confident leader who is adamant about bringing the voice of the customer into the boardroom and ensuring the technology we create is inclusive, accessible, and equitable. She is a co-conspirator in driving realized positive impact in the Black community.

She received her BA in Strategic Communications from the University of North Texas, her MBA in Market Research from Webster University, and her Ph.D. in Business Management with a concentration in business model innovation and experience design. Dr. Nikki is also a published writer and career development coach. Dr. Nikki also serves as a globally recognized and sought-after public speaker who has graced the stage of several innovation conferences and also leverages her skill sets in her own consulting firm, addo consulting.

---

Ann Haubrich

Director of Grants and Programs, Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis

Ann Haubrich is the Regional Arts Commission’s Director of Grants and Programs where she strives to establish a more equitable and efficient experience for local artists and arts organizations. She has an extensive history in the nonprofit arts sector as a grantmaker and grant seeker.

Her work history includes leadership roles with River Styx, the Writer’s Voice (a national literary arts project of the YMCA), Prison Performing Arts, and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis. In 1997, she co-founded RAC’s Community Arts Training Institute. She has been adjunct faculty with Webster University’s Arts Management & Leadership MFA program, teaching Community and Cultural Policy, as well as serving on boards of numerous local arts organizations. Ever interested in the St. Louis community, she is a graduate of Leadership St. Louis and for 20+ years, she co-produced and co-hosted a literary arts program on a St. Louis community radio station (Literature for the Halibut).

---

Pamela Garvey

Professor, St. Louis Community College at Meramec

Pamela Garvey, an English professor at STLCC since 2001, is the author of the collection of poetry Seven Miles Deep (Five Oaks P, 2017). Her poetry, prose and book reviews have appeared in Esquire, Missouri Review, Margie, Spoon River Poetry Review, The North American Review and many other journals.

Honors include being a semi-finalist for the “Discovery”/The Nation prize. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Things Impossible to Swallow (2River Press, 2013), and Fear (Finishing Line Press, 2008), a finalist for the New Women’s Voices Competition. She is currently working on a memoir under a pen name.

---

Kaylyn McKoy

Student, St. Louis Community College
Brave New Voices Youth Poetry Slam Champion (2019, 2020)

Kaylyn McKoy is an emerging poet, dramatist, and performer. A two time youth poetry slam international champion with the award-winning St. Louis Slam team fostered solo performances at the Missouri History Museum, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, the St. Louis Art Fair, and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Kaylyn served as the UrbArts Youth Poet in Residence and is a two time reigning Grand Slam Champion of the St. Louis Adult Poetry Slam Team.