Amy Brooks, a Communications and Public Relations Associate at central Appalachian arts and media center Appalshop, is a 5th-generation West Virginian. She is the former Humanities Director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival and the former Program Director and Dramaturg for Appalshop's Roadside Theater. In 2015 Amy co-founded @RuralArtsWeekly, a two-woman Twitter forum for artists, educators, media producers, funders, public sector employees, entrepreneurs, and cultural advocates to discuss pressing issues in rural creative placemaking. Amy is the executive VP for Conferences of the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas and a 2018-19 fellow of the Intercultural Leadership Institute, a year-long training program for artists, culture bearers and other arts professionals co-led by Alternate ROOTS, P’AI Foundation, First Peoples Fund, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures. She holds a BFA in acting from West Virginia University and an MFA in dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she co-founded and produced the first two seasons of the UMass New Play Lab.