Education

Ph.D., English, 2009
Texas A&M University
Dissertation:"Hypertextual Ultrastructures: Movement and Containment in Texts and Hypertexts"
Supervisor: M. Jimmie Killingsworth

M.A., English, 1998
The University of Texas at San Antonio

B.S., Computing and Information Sciences, 1981
Trinity University

Research Interests

• cybercultural studies, humanities computing, digital humanies, textual studies, scientific and technical communication, discourse studies
• history of technology, alphabets, nomenclatures, encoding methods, artificial languages, software
• illustration, visualization, captioning, tagging, markup
• electronic publication, human-computer interfaces, digitization, resistance to digitization, post-digitization processes
• collaborative authorship, community newspapers, non-territorial communities, translation, censorship, publication as resistance
• short fiction, short poetry, ancient poetry, early science fiction
• newspapers in literature, science in literature, religion in literature
• 19th-century U.S. literature, African American literature, Jewish literature, oral tradition, repetition with variation

Current Employment

October 2010 - March 2016
Technical Writer
    GlobalEnglish
Technical communications supporting Business English education.

• creation and maintenance of documentation for Customer Success

January 1998 - present
Freelance Writer and Webmaster
    Scribionics
Client list includes Kinetic Concepts, IBC Bank, Elsom Research, Leo Baeck Temple, Global Java, Fine Landscaping, and other small businesses and individuals.

• technical writing: user guides, online help, support procedures, disaster recovery plans
• document design, graphics design
• editing technical documents, scholarly articles, academic projects, business communication
• regulatory and legal documents
• business proposals, client presentations, brochures, packaging, labeling, usage instructions, warning inserts, advertising, and other customer-contact material
• website creation and maintenance, electronic publishing
• e-commerce setup and support
• onsite and remote technical support
• instruction, tutoring, coaching

Previous Employment

October 2010 - March 2016
Technical Writer, Senior Technical Writer,
Manager Technical Communications,
Senior Information Developer
    Rackspace Hosting
Technical communications supporting hosting services.

• creation and maintenance of Application Programming Interface (API) documentation for Rackspace Cloud services
• development of standards, styles, and best practices
• editing proposals, presentations, and other technical documents supporting Software Architects and Software Developers
• development of departmental knowledgebase
• development and coordination of the writing team

March 2010 - October 2010
Contract Technical Writer
    TEKsystems
Two placements at Rackspace Hosting.

• in Rackspace Enterprise Services: development of departmental knowledge base, including logical network diagrams and network security configurations, for Network Security Engineers, Account Managers, and Systems Administrators
• in Racker Technical Services: project leadership, document design, data management, and analysis of results for survey of internal users

January 2007 - June 2007
Technical Project Coordinator
    TEFTEC Corporation
Leadership of short-term project to design and develop FDA-compliant documentation supporting medical device manufacturing.

• manufacturing work instructions
• user manuals
• service manual
• parts manual

May 2005 - November 2006
Technical Writer
    BioNumerik Pharmaceuticals, Inc. — Information Systems and Technologies Department
Technical communications supporting pharmaceutical development.

• design and development of FDA-compliant documentation to support clinical trials management software
• online help, single-sourced for printable user manuals
• training material: course designs, presentations, handouts, evaluation forms
• software requirements
• validation plans and reports, implementation plans and reports
• project plans
• standard operating procedures
• business presentations

August 2001 - May 2005
Lecturer
    Our Lady of the Lake University — Department of English
Teaching undergraduate students.

• "Composition I" in computer classrooms
• "Composition II" in computer classrooms
• "Honors Composition II" in a computer classroom with focus on sociolinguistics
• "Introduction to Poetry and Drama" with online course management
• "Introduction to Fiction" with online course management and focus on African American literature
• "Technical and Professional Writing" in a computer classroom as a service-learning course

August 2001 - May 2004
Instructor
    Temple Beth-El — Religious School
Teaching elementary students and supporting departmental publishing projects.

• teaching Hebrew and Judaica classes for elementary students
• management of school website

January 2002 - August 2003
Programmer Analyst II
    Texas A&M University — Department of English
Development and maintenance of software and publications.

• maintenance of departmental websites
• development of database application
• production of bi-weekly online newsletter

August 1998 - December 2001
Graduate Assistant
    Texas A&M University — Department of English
Teaching undergraduate students and supporting departmental publishing projects.

• "Technical Writing" as a distance course
• "Scientific and Technical Writing" in a conventional classroom with supplemental website
• "Rhetoric and Composition" in conventional and computer classrooms with supplemental website
• supporting new Graduate Assistants in their creation of personal and course-related websites
• preparing the annual departmental report (Harrison Meserole Editorial Assistantship)
• design and construction of website supplemental to discourse studies book (Reinventing Identities)
• maintenance of organizational website (South Central Modern Language Association)

June 1982 - February 1998
Systems Programmer (III, II, I), Senior Systems Programmer,
Staff Systems Programmer,
Staff Information Technology Planner
    USAA Information Technology Company — Computer Center
Technical support, systems management, and project management in high-availability financial-services data center.

• installation, testing, maintenance, and support of mainframe and midrange operating systems and utilities
• creation and maintenance of procedures and documentation
• leadership of task groups and project teams
• development and presentation of technical training, status reports, project plans, management proposals
• leadership of meetings and workshops
• development, documentation, and testing of methodologies for system maintenance and disaster recovery methods
• coordination between technical staff and internal and external business partners
• selection, implementation, and support of technology to support online procedures, intelligent printers, voice response, automated operations, continuous availability, massive parallelization

December 1981 - June 1982
Systems Programmer
    Santa Rosa Medical Center — Data Center
Technical support and utility software maintenance in hospital data center.

May 1981 - December 1981
Assembly Language Programmer
    Software Consulting Service
Utility software development for financial-services software vendor.

May 1979 - May 1981
Programmer, User Consultant
    Trinity University — Computer Center
Application programming and helpdesk support for faculty and business clients in university data center.

Publications

• 2005-present, Journal of Topical Formulations. General editor and features writer.
• 2005, with Elishalom Yechiel, "From Ancient Potions To Modern Lotions: A Technology Overview and Introduction to Topical Delivery Systems." Delivery System Handbook for Personal Care and Cosmetic Products: Technology, Applications and Formulations. Meyer. R. Rosen, ed. William Andrew Publishing.
• 2003,"American Mercury." Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, Fitzroy Dearborn.
• 2001, "Biculturalism." Encyclopedia of American Studies, Grolier.
• 2001, "Suffragist Period."Encyclopedia of American Studies, Grolier.
• 2000, "Fighting Speech With Speech: David Duke, the Anti-Defamation League, Online Bookstores, and Hate Filters." Proceedings of the 33rd Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences Volume 3, IEEE Computer Society.
• 2000, "La Llorona y El Grito / The Ghost and The Scream: Noisy Women in Borderlands and Beyond." Womenwriters.net.

Presentations

• October 2005, "It Takes One to Know One: Student Audience Analysis as a Curriculum Design Tool."
  South Central Modern Language Association, Houston TX
• April 2002, "Violence, Temperance, and the Woman's Place in Poe's 'Hop-Frog'."
  Ohio Academy of History, Cincinatti OH
• November 2001, "Queen Vashti: Figures of Royalty and Refusal in the Literature of Black Women‘s Resistance."
  South Central Modern Language Association, Tulsa OK
• April 2001, "In time they shall come to possess the land, but not in my time": White Blood and Red Resistance in Jack London's "The God of His Fathers."
  The Ethnic Community in History : The Seventh Annual Multicultural Conference at San Antonio College, San Antonio TX
• February 2001, "The work of my life is in ashes": the physican, the attorney, and the loyal servant in Chesnutt's The Marrow of Tradition and Dixon's The Traitor.
  Hate: The 11th Annual Mardi Gras Conference on Language and Literature at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge LA
• October 2000, ""The Racial Movement is not a ‘boys club'...": White Racist Women Define Themselves Online."
  Performances of Identity: Interdisciplinary Conference on Language and Literature, College Station TX
• March 2000, "'Or telle him why this song was in usage': Silencing the Prioress."
  Silence and Expression: Histories of Permission and Censorship, College Station TX
• January 2000, "Fighting Speech With Speech: David Duke, the Anti-Defamation League, Online Bookstores, and Hate Filters."
  33rd Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences, Maui HI
• December 1998, "'a man nobody wouldn't be ashamed of': Drinking and Temperance in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
  Modern Language Association, San Francisco CA
• August 1997, "Huckleberry Finn in a lonesome place: Adventures of a Child of an Alcoholic."
  State of Mark Twain Studies Conference, Elmira NY
• August 1996, "Creating a Time Machine: A Y2K Testing System."
  SHARE Conference, Anaheim CA
• July 1996, "Implementation of Highly Parallel Coupled Systems."
  IBM Top Gun Academy, Guest Instructor
• October 1993, "Early Sysplex Implementation Experiences."
  IBM Enterprise Technical Update Seminars, Guest Instructor
• November 1992, "Merging Forms and Data using XICS."
  XPLOR Conference, Orlando FL

Service

• 2003, Our Lady of the Lake University African American Read-In, Moderator
• 2003, Temple Beth-El Adult Education Series, Presenter on Anti-Antisemitism
• 2000, Texas A&M University Interdisciplinary Conference on Language and Literature, Document Designer
• 2000, Texas A&M University Spokenword Week, Workshop Leader
• 2000, HICSS 34 Persistent Conversation Mini-Track, Reviewer
• 1999, Texas A&M University Rewriting Literacies Conference, Webmaster and Document Designer
• 1998, University of Texas at San Antonio In Search of the Indo-Europeans Symposium, Webmaster and Volunteer

Awards

• 2001, Center for Humanities Research Graduate Travel Award, Texas A&M University
• 1998, Department of English Graduate Student Travel Grant, Texas A&M University
• 1997, College of Fine Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Grant, The University of Texas at San Antonio
• 1978-1981, National Merit Scholar, Trinity University