catacalos spent 1989 to 2003 in california, where she was first a stegner creative writing fellow at stanford university, then executive director of the poetry center/american poetry archives at san francisco state university (1991-1996). she was a visiting scholar at the institute for research on women and gender at stanford until she returned to san antonio in 2003 to become the executive director of gemini ink, a literary arts center. she retired from gemini ink in 2012.