Amy Wheeler

Amy Wheeler’s passion for collaboration and creativity fuels her work as a nonprofit arts leader and consultant, educator, theatre artist, writer, and creative entrepreneur. In all these spheres, she is deeply committed to equity and empowering the voices of artists of all ages and lived experiences.

Amy had the remarkable experience of leading Hedgebrook, the renowned writer’s residency on Whidbey Island, through a transformative 17 years as a board member and Executive Director. In that time, the organization evolved from a private foundation to a nonprofit, producing programs locally and nationally, and as far away as Tuscany and Goa, India. Hedgebrook’s prolific alumni coalesced into an influential global community of female-identified writers authoring change in the arts, culture and social justice. Celebrating the culmination of her tenure, Seattle Arts & Lectures recognized Amy with the 2020 Prowda Literary Champion Award for “demonstrating true commitment to the Pacific Northwest’s community of readers and writers.”

Currently, Amy consults with arts nonprofits locally and in California, teaches creative writing and research at Cornish College of the Arts, and arts leadership in Seattle University’s Arts MFA program. As a working playwright, she is collaborating with artists across the country on plays and musicals, and champions new theatrical work through her venture Play Club: a book club with a theatrical twist.

Amy holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from Cornish College, an MFA from the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, and a BFA in theatre from the University of Kansas. She sits on the national board of the Artist Communities Alliance and is a Yaddo fellow and Hedgebrook alum.

Amy lives in a historic dancehall on Whidbey Island, lovingly restored by her wife and creative partner Kate Buzard.