Anita Verna Crofts is Artist in Residence at the Department of Communication with interests in personal narrative, auditory storytelling, and the ethnography of food. As faculty with the Communication Leadership program, her courses address community-building, listening as a leadership tool, and long-form professional writing and platforms.

Her writings have appeared in ColorsNW, Saveur, and Gastronomica. Her collections of essays, Meet Me at the Bamboo Table: Everyday Meals Everywhere, was published by Chin Music Press. In addition to her work at the UW, Anita is on faculty at Maine Media, where she teaches life story writing through personal objects, as well as non-fiction essay writing across a variety of publishing formats.

Anita is a German Marshall Memorial Fellow and Thomas J. Watson Research Fellow. She has an MPA from the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and served as a book judge for The James Beard Foundation.