Name

Biography

Photo

Sahar Freedman

During her undergraduate studies in professional writing at UNM, Sahar interned at the neighboring hospital in something called “medical editing.” Now, almost 10 years later, she can probably call it a career. Sahar worked as a medical editor and program coordinator at UNM Department of Orthopaedics & Rehabilitation for several years. She left to finish her graduate degree in the rhetoric and writing program at UNM, earn her board certification as an editor in the life sciences, and dabble in freelance editing. Sahar currently works remotely as a senior medical editor at Vaniam Group, specializing in medical communications within hematology and oncology. She is excited to join the IAAT and give back to the community that jumpstarted her career in technical and professional communication.   

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saharfree/

Richard Johnson-Sheehan

Richard Johnson-Sheehan is a Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Writing at Purdue University. He researches and publishes on communications in science, technology, entrepreneurship, and healthcare. He is also the President of Phronesis, LLC, a communications and consulting company that produces and edits books, articles, and manuscripts in fields related to science, technology, entrepreneurship, and medicine. He specializes in technical proposals, grants, and business models for start-ups. Johnson-Sheehan has collaborated with and consulted for a broad range of enterprise and small businesses and organizations, including Intel, the Indiana Department of Transportation, Sumitomo, the United Way, Sandia National Labs, Lockheed, University of New Mexico Hospital, Pearson Educational, Integrated Robotics, among others. Currently, he is focusing his efforts on working with small start-up businesses. Johnson-Sheehan is the author of several popular college textbooks, including Technical Communication Today (7e), Writing Today (5e), Argument Today (2e), Technical Communication Strategies for Today (3e), and Writing Proposals (3e). He lives in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Antonia Cardella

Antonia (TJ) Cardella Biography

After 20+ years as a free-lance writer and illustrator, a bookseller, and a commercial real estate appraiser, I went back to school to get my BA in Professional Writing (with a minor in Medieval Studies), graduating in 2011. I was hired by the National Nuclear Security Administration as a technical writer soon after graduating, and then went to work for Sandia National. In 2020, with Sandia’s help, I graduated from UNM with my MA in Rhetoric and Writing (R&W). I have no doubt that my degree in professional writing helped me to get my first technical writing job, and my R&W degree helps me do my job every day.

Here is my LinkedIn address:https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-cardella-b46a898/

John German

John German joined Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as chief communications officer in February 2018, where he leads the central team of communications professionals that is projecting the Lab’s global scientific leadership and promoting an internal culture of shared purpose and values. As research communications director at Arizona State University's Office of the President, and before that as director of communications at the world renowned Santa Fe Institute, he designed and led strategic communications programs that advanced the scientific, cultural, and fiscal priorities of these institutions. Earlier in his career, for nearly two decades, he served in a variety of strategic communications roles at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque. During his career he has served as a science writer, employee communicator, spokesperson, emergency communicator, publications editor, technical writer and editor, and freelance journalist. Berkeley Lab is John's third U.S. national lab — while pursuing an undergraduate professional writing degree at the University of New Mexico, he spent two summers and one spring break as a science writing intern at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Peter Blemel

Joseph Bartolotta

Andrew Mara

Dr. Andrew Mara is an Associate Professor in Technical Writing and Communication at Arizona State University He studies writing practices in digital and new media ecologies, innovation behaviors in institutions, posthumanist philosophy, and user experience methods. Mara has been teaching technical writing, composition, user experience, innovation rhetoric, and technical writing for 20 years. Dr. Mara has been a Writing Program Administrator, Faculty Head, UX Lab founder, and technical communicator. He began his career in writing at Sandia National Laboratories as a communication specialist, and continues to work with local and regional nonprofits to create more robust and responsive user ecologies.

Denise Tillery

Dr. Denise Tillery graduated with a PhD from UNM's English Department in 1999. She has been at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, since 2004, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in business writing, technical writing, professional writing, and rhetoric. She has administered the Business Writing Program as well as the First-Year Writing Program, worked extensively on curriculum review and revision in the writing programs, and served as Associate Dean for the College of Liberal Arts for over six years. She has published over twenty articles and book chapters in environmental rhetoric, the rhetoric of science, gender and the history of science, and most recently on social media and scientific misinformation. She has authored a book, Scientific Discourses in Environmental Rhetoric, and co-edited a scholarly anthology, The New Normal: Pressures on Technical Communication Programs in the Age of Austerity. Her work with Dr. Emma Bloomfield, “Hyperrationality and Rhetorical Constellations in Digital Climate Change Denial: A Multi-Methodological Analysis of the Discourse of Watts up with That, published in Technical Communication Quarterly, was awarded the Christine L. Oravec Journal Article AWard in Environmental Communication in 2022. 

Danielle Stevens

Armed with an MA in English and a three-decade journey through technical writing and editing in various sectors, Stevens has developed a comprehensive professional repertoire. Working with the National Park Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service stands out as some of the most fulfilling periods of her career. Moreover, her most extended employment was an eight-year tenure as a quality assurance professional at a leading Mechanical Engineering Plumbing firm.

Outside of her career, Stevens finds pleasure in reading, playing the piano, and exploring nature through hiking. These activities enrich her life and provide a delightful counterpoint to her professional endeavors.

Anna Knutson