Sylvia’s three-decade career as a writer and independent journalist—and in senior communications and editorial roles in museums, foundations, higher education, and international development—cemented her belief in the power of narrative to intimately illuminate histories and transform public understanding. She is passionate about transdisciplinary, intergenerational, and publicly engaged modes of research, writing, teaching, and advocacy. Her work also finds expression in curatorial and photographic projects, further modalities of her public humanities practice. She fosters institutional partnerships and curates learning opportunities in the form of panel discussions, film screenings, literary readings, and creative workshops.

In 2016, Sylvia moved from her home in Altadena in Los Angeles County to pursue a creative writing MFA at Washington University in St. Louis. Graduating in 2018, she was awarded the Senior Teaching Fellowship in Creative Nonfiction. She then taught for three years as an adjunct faculty member in WashU’s University College and was named director of its Summer Writers Institute. Her own writing blends scholarly research and creative nonfiction, and her publications include peer-reviewed academic journals as well as literary journals and anthologies. Since entering the PhD program in 2021, she has presented her work at international meetings of the Memory Studies Association, the Austrian Studies Association, the Lesbian Lives conference, and emerging scholar workshops of the German Studies Association and the Mnemonics Network. Her research and public humanities practice has been supported by grants from WashU’s Center for the Humanities and the WashU & Slavery Project.

Sylvia is the recipient of fellowships including Lambda Emerging Writers, PEN Emerging Voices, NewGround: Muslim-Jewish Partnership for Change, and a Fulbright in Germany. A Pushcart Prize nominee, Sylvia has been published in anthologies including Sweeter Voices Still: An LGBTQ Anthology from Middle America (2020) and LAtitudes: An Angeleno’s Atlas (2015), and in literary journals such as Southeast Review, Creative Nonfiction, December, Waxwing, Foglifter, Nat. Brut, and Wildness. The daughter of German immigrants, she has volunteered as a Refugee Youth Mentor with the International Institute of St. Louis; as a mentor for MFA App Review, an initiative aimed at increasing access to fully funded MFA programs and building community among underrepresented writers; and as an elected Peer Mentor to fellow graduate students. Sylvia holds a BA in English from Bucknell University and an MA in Studio Art through a joint program of New York University and the International Center of Photography.