Meet our new team!

Mollie White, our Development Director, is a native Savannahian who briefly left to attend the University of Miami. She has spent most of her career working in Savannah-area nonprofits. She is an avid reader and Miami Hurricanes sports fan. She lives in Midtown with her husband, children, and her pup, Lulu, a Cockapoo. 

 Alexa LoSchiavo, our Marketing Operations Intern, is a senior writing major with a creative writing minor at SCAD. She lives in Savannah full-time now and is likely to be found wandering the cobblestone streets with her notebook and a bag full of books. She is greatly involved in the Savannah community, whether it’s the Poetry Co-op Open Mic Night or the Saturday Farmer’s Market– she’ll be there! Alexa is also involved in the SCAD writing community as Copy Chief of SCAD District, the student newspaper, and as Poetry Editor of Dogeared Literary Magazine, founded by SCAD students.

Over her time at SCAD, Alexa has developed an interest in creative nonfiction, journalism, and poetry. She has had several poems published in a variety of distinguished literary magazines, including District’s own Port City Review. She also publishes a column called Spots around Sav, featuring local Savannah spots. She created and released two songs, “Domestic Bliss (For You)” and “The Eventually Song,” which dropped on all platforms in September 2025. Recently, Alexa finished an internship with Women Writing For A Change, where she edited poetry for their newest anthology issue featuring art, poetry, and creative nonfiction.

Rachael Shaner, our Director of Festival Operations and Development Coordinator, won a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut after reading the most books in her fifth- grade class in the Accelerated Reader program at Gadsden Elementary School. She has been chasing that literary high ever since. As a Savannah native and Savannah Book Festival attendee, she is thrilled to support SBF’s mission.

A musician and artist by trade, she founded the UnderGo Festival in support of arts accessibility and education and has been a longtime advocate for arts and literacy in the Savannah community.  She earned her M.S. in strategic communications from Agnes Scott College (Go Scotties!) and her B.A. in writing and linguistics from Georgia Southern University. She most recently served as a professor of journalism and communications after working in politics as a director of operations for the state of Georgia.

When she’s not beating her PR in the NYT Crossword or working on her novel, you can find her bonding with her bees in her backyard or playing bass in her band, Lulu the Giant.