Briana Westmacott

Briana Westmacott is a Continuing Lecturer in the English for Multilingual Students program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, her alma mater. She completed her graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles and has been teaching for over twenty-three years. She develops and instructs undergraduate and graduate level courses designed to support multilingual students’ academic reading, writing, and speaking strategies. In addition, she has been a columnist for over ten years and has published her work in a variety of magazines and newspapers. Recently, she co-authored two projects based on peer mentorship and teaching higher education: The article Empowering Teachers to Write: An Innovative Online Framework for a Community of Practice in the Chronicle of Mentoring & Coaching (2022), and a book chapter, Fishing for Online Engagement in Better Practices (WAC Clearinghouse 2023). Traveling the world with her husband, two daughters, a camera, and a great book is her favorite pastime. Ms. Westmacott was the Jan Frodesen Award for Professional Engagement Recipient, 2023    

What do students have to say?

• “Linguistics 12 with Mrs. B has been one of the most emotionally reflective and creatively fulfilling experiences I’ve had at UCSB. Through the two major writing projects, I explored what it means to belong not just in a new country or on a busy campus, but in the quiet corners of my own identity. Writing about the struggles of international students helped me better understand my own adaptation and made me realize how much support, empathy, and inclusion matter in academic spaces. I’ve learned that sometimes, the most powerful stories are the soft ones, the ones we carry quietly until we find the courage to speak them.
• "In writing about home, love, and memory, I realized that home is not a fixed location. It's a relationship, a feeling of being heard and seen. I’ve grown not just as a writer, but as someone who can translate deep emotional experience into language that others can connect to. Looking ahead, I hope to keep writing about cross-cultural experiences, identity, and connection. I want to combine my background in engineering with storytelling, maybe even one day using tech or design to help others share their voices. My goal is to continue building a life that feels whole, where both my creative self and my technical self can flourish. Most of all, I hope to build a future that includes the people I love and the values I’ve discovered this quarter. Honesty, reflection, and the courage to speak even when your voice shakes.”