Verna Dreisbach is the founder and president of Capitol City Young Writers, an organization that began because of her own daughter’s passion for writing.  Verna is the editor to the Seal Press anthology, Why We Ride: Women Writers on the Horse in their Lives.  Her writing has been featured in books, literary journals, magazines, and newspapers.  Through her agency, Dreisbach Literary Management, Verna represents both fiction and non-fiction authors. She teaches college level English courses in Sacramento, CA. Active in the community, Verna is a long-time Girl Scout leader, a graduate of the Sacramento Metro Chamber Leadership Class of 2010 and appointed to the El Dorado County Child Abuse Prevention Council.  

Deborah LeBlanc
Board Member

Bob Yehling is the author of seven books and owner of Word Journeys, Inc., since 1996 a full writing services provider to fiction and non-fiction authors and writers throughout the United States. After beginning his professional career at age 16 as a newspaper journalist, Bob went on to edit a variety of magazines for nearly 20 years, including American Idol Magazine and One Giant Leap for Mankind, NASA's official 25th anniversary commemorative publication of Apollo 11. He has taught writing workshops since 1999, has worked with many young writers, and has organized and taught summer library writing programs to children and teens in four states. He is the author of the award-winning Writes of Life: Using Personal Experiences in Everything You Write, and the forthcoming The Write Time: 366 Exercises to Fulfill Your Writing Life and The Voice. He is co-creator of The Write Time Teens 'N Twenties Writers Conference, which will feature periodic conferences around the country, beginning April 11 in Bloomington, IN. Bob is a high school track and cross-country coach. His hobbies include photography, organic gardening, wakeboarding, landscaping, playing music and competitive distance running. In 2009, he will compete in the Boston Marathon for the fourth time. 

Bob Yehling
Board Member

Michele Scott is the author of Murder Uncorked, the Wine Lover's Mystery Series as well as the Horse Lover's Mystery Series published by Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin). Michele began writing at 9 years old as has never stopped. After twelve years of pursuing her passion, she signed her first book deal with Berkley. Her debut novel Murder Uncorked, nominated for a best first mystery award by Romantic Times BookClub, hit the Barnes Nobles mystery bestseller list and the Independent Mystery Bestseller list. Her third book in her equine series, Tacked To Death, will be released February 2008. Michele is currently under contract for eight books with Berkley. Michele has been featured in The Writer, Romantic Times, San Diego Magazine, and Touring Tasting. She graduated from The University of Southern California with a degree in communications where she studied journalism and hoped to be a reporter. Michele lives in San Diego, California, with her husband and three children!

Alexa Rivadeneira has been with Capitol City Young Writers as a youth advisory board member since its inception in 2007 and has now become a board member after graduating from high school in 2010.  She has taken part in many CCYW programs including the Master Mentor Program, A Day in the Life of a New York Editor internship program and earned a Writer’s Digest Conference scholarship.  Alexa is an avid writer having self-published her fourth YA novel, Confessions from the Heart of a Teenage Girl, at an early age of fourteen. She also took part in a teen author panel and for the Reading Specialists Council of Suffolk in January, 2010, and was invited to speak about her book and her writing at a school in Westchester, New York. Alexa has been working with published author Shirley Jump on her fifth manuscript, A Blessing in Disguise, as part of the CCYW Master Mentor Program. In the fall of 2010, Alexa will be attending the University of Delaware where she will major in sociology and minor in Spanish and journalism.