Carolyn Koesters 

United Way of Southwest Virginia, Childhood Success Coordinator

Carolyn Koesters joined the United Way of Southwest Virginia's Childhood Success Team in 2016, coordinating Virginia Quality, is certified as an Infant, Toddler, and PreK Class Specialist, and currently serves as Virginia's state lead for the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading. In 2011, she relocated from the heart of Cleveland, Ohio to beautiful Abingdon, Virginia with her theatrical husband and daughter. For over 20 years, she has discovered the powerful therapeutic benefits through expressive writing that have been studied and proven to reduce stress and promote feelings of well-being. Earning her credential as a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator through the International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy in 2006, Carolyn loves sharing her passion for and extensive knowledge of personal writing with beginning writers and life-long journalers alike. Carolyn has taught various workshops on all kinds of journaling, as well as other creative pursuits such as zen-doodling, visioning, gratitude journaling, creative lettering, and in the last 6 months of 2020, she raised monarch butterflies from caterpillars in her backyard.