Elaine P. Maimon is the first author of several widely used texts--"A Writer’s Resource", "The McGraw-Hill Handbook", "The Brief McGraw-Hill Handbook", and "Writing Intensive"--all published by McGraw-Hill, with the intention of helping students become independent writers. In the 1970’s, she initiated and then directed the Beaver College writing-across-the-curriculum program, one of the first WAC programs in the nation. With a Ph.D. in English from the University of Pennsylvania, where she later helped to create the Writing Across the University (WATU) program, she has taught and served as an academic administrator at Haverford College, Brown University, Queens College, and Arizona State University. She was Chancellor of the University of Alaska Anchorage, and is now President of Governors State University, the only public university in the south suburbs of Chicago.