About Us
Meet Your Instructors
Lauren Frey, M.A.
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The New Commons was founded in 2026 by Lauren Frey, a writer, editor, and experienced facilitator with a passion for dialogue and love for the humanities. She serves as Founding Director and Instructor, teaching both classical and contemporary literature, designing curriculum and book cohorts, and fostering an active online reader community.
Previously, Lauren had a six-year career in public health communications and project management, where she worked with top executives at both the federal and state levels, specifically supporting Long COVID research, Medicaid funding, and behavioral health network grant cycles.
She earned her M.A. in English with Distinction from Georgetown University, 2019, where she was a Lannan Poetry Fellow, Research Assistant, one-on-one English tutor, and guest teacher in undergraduate English courses, with a focus on creative writing and revision practices.
During her time at Georgetown, she also served as a Project Manager of the Connected Academics Andrew W. Mellon Grant, where she helped develop the curriculum for a new Certificate — now Master’s Degree — in applied humanities under the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In her academic work, she specialized in global modernisms and archival research. Her scholarship was published in Textual Cultures, a leading international journal interested in textual interpretation, archival analysis, and editorial theory.
She earned her B.A. in English from Biola University in 2017, where she was a visiting student at Oxford University, and graduated with distinction from Torrey Honors College. She is also the co-founding editor-in-chief of Copytext, a magazine that publishes creative work in the context of revision.
She lives with her husband in a forested neighborhood of Portland, OR.
Marisa Lainson, M.F.A.
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Marisa Lainson is a writer, editor and educator with a passion for media literacy, rhetorical argument and both classic and contemporary literature. She is a Founding Instructor of The New Commons.
She holds an MFA in English from the University of California, Irvine, where she graduated summa cum laude in 2022 and taught writing, rhetoric and research as a graduate instructor. Courses taught include:
Writing & Rhetoric: Argument and Research, the capstone writing seminar for all non-humanities majors;
Beginning Poetry writing, a course focused on fundamental craft technique and close reading; and,
English 11: Society, Law and Literature, an upper-division class that brings dystopian literary classics into conversation with First Amendment legal theory.
While at UCI, she also served as the Poetry Editor of Faultline Journal of Arts & Letters. She earned her BA in English with a minor in Spanish from Biola University and is an alumnus of the Torrey Honors College.
Beyond teaching at UC Irvine, Marisa recently worked as head of marketing for a global audio company, spearheading brand messaging, market research and media relations across both domestic and international markets. She also previously served as a one-on-one English tutor in the Learning Resource Center at Cypress College, focusing on basic to advanced grammar, diction, research and argumentation.
Marisa is an award-winning writer whose poems have appeared in Poetry Northwest, Harbor Review, The Journal, The Pinch, Frontier Poetry and elsewhere. A Best of the Net nominee, Marisa has received support from Community of Writers and was selected as second runner-up for the 2024 Rising Poet Prize by Palette Poetry. She currently serves as the co-founding and Managing Editor of Copytext Magazine.
Julian Mammano
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Julian Mammano is an experienced educator with nearly a decade of dedicated service in both public and private education, with a passion for innovative curriculum, college readiness, and inclusion and equity. They are a Founding Instructor of The New Commons.
For the past five years, Julian has taught English classes at a STEM-specialized public high school in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). A California-credentialed secondary English teacher, Julian is committed to fostering rigorous, inclusive, and innovative learning environments.
They earned their teaching credential at Humboldt State University, and their B.A. in English Literature from Biola University, highlighted by specialized study at Oxford University.
With a strong background in core instruction, Julian has also led diverse elective offerings and taken on leadership roles, including:
Serving as English Department Head;
Developing and instructing courses in Sci-Fi Literature, Film as Literature, and Queer Literature;
Serving as an AVID instructor to enhance college readiness; and,
Designing differentiated learning pathways to ensure students with IEPs and 504 plans achieve their highest potential.
They are passionate about fostering personalized and collaborative learning through the tutorial process and Socratic discussion methods for college and career readiness. They live with their orange cat, Bunny, in LA.
What We Do, How We Do It, and Why
Our Program
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Spacious and Supportive Dialogue
Time with the Text
Practical Application
Visit our Program & Values to read the full scoop.
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Small Cohorts of Seven People
Expert Instruction & Clear Learning Objectives
Online Community
Guidance Materials
Visit Our Program & Values to read the full scoop.
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Promoting an Inclusive Curriculum
Supported Participation
Building a Reader Community
Visit Our Program & Values to read the full scoop.
Hi! I’m Lauren, the Founding Director of The New Commons, and a writer, editor, and educator living in Portland, Oregon.
The idea for The New Commons came about unexpectedly about a month after leaving my career in public health communications consulting in 2025. I’d felt an urgent sense of purpose to reinvent my career — to return to my roots and love for the humanities. Meanwhile, the world was rapidly changing (again), and particularly, there was a flurry of articles coming out about the impact of AI in English literature and composition classrooms.
These articles got me thinking about — and deeply appreciating — what I had loved most about my own education: a shared commitment to deep reading in small-group dialogue spaces and the mentorship within the Oxford tutorial system. I thought about experiences I’d had as a creative writer: workshops that set a tone for curiosity and teachers who helped me feel free to take risks. And I thought about what I enjoyed the most during my time in the corporate world: managing creative projects, fostering team cultures, and leading clients through dialogue to make clear, collaborative decisions.
This blend of professional experience, academic training, and passion for literature led me to start researching and building out The New Commons. I wanted to create a space where students would actually read full books and have the time to flip backwards and forwards to analyze the text on their own; and then, to show up to session expecting a rich, well-held dialogue where each voice would matter. It sounds simple — yet it feels so rare to come by this form of slower, more spacious pedagogy. And it isn’t always possible within current institutional learning environments.
The initial idea was to offer cohorts just to high school students, but as I talked to my community about how the work was going, nearly everyone said, “That sounds fun. I mean, I would do that, too!” One friend even said, “My mom wants to join, is that possible?” So, here we are: two tracks, one for High School Students and one for Adult Readers, and each with their own distinct cohort sessions, learning objectives, and online community spaces.
I’ve been joined by Marisa Lainson and Julian Mammano, two incredible teachers and friends, as Founding Instructors. Between the three of us, we bring years of teaching experience, literary expertise, and dialogue practice. We carry a strong shared commitment to support each of our cohort participants, no matter the age or stage of life, with a foundation in our shared program values.
We’d love to discuss the program with you to see if it’s aligned with your individual or group needs. Drop me a note if you have more questions, and looking forward to seeing you in a book cohort.