Debra Cumberland received her B.A. in English from Carleton College and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She taught at Creighton University and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln before coming to Winona in the fall of 2002. Her teaching interests include composition, creative writing, world literature, nineteenth-century British literature, women's literature, and creative non-fiction. Her short stories and articles appear in journals such as Hurakaan, American Literary Realism, Virginia Woolf: Texts and Contexts, and The Nebraska English Journal, among others.

 An avid theater buff, Deb has appeared in productions throughout the Twin Cities. She also served as a restaurant reviewer for The Omaha Reader and looks forward to sampling the culinary delights of breaded and fried food throughout southeastern Minnesota.