Technical Communication
Instructors
Susan Dakin is an independent consultant in scientific and technical writing and editing, document design, and desktop publishing, with over thirty years of experience. She has taught writing classes for Duke Continuing Studies since 1982 and has presented well over 100 courses and workshops in scientific, technical, or business writing for companies, government agencies (including EPA and NIEHS), and other organizations. Dr. Dakin holds a Ph.D. in zoology from Duke and has written and edited documents in a wide range of disciplines in the life, environmental, and physical sciences and engineering, as well as on nontechnical subjects. She has special expertise in proposal writing and has served as proposal editor and coordinator for numerous large federal contract and grant proposals.
Gregory Eller is an information developer currently working for Lockheed Martin, on contract to the US Environmental Protection Agency in Research Triangle Park. Previously, Greg worked at IBM/Lenovo as a software engineer and team lead helping develop the ThinkVantage suite of software. He has degrees in journalism and theater, and has been writing professionally for nearly twenty years as a journalist, financial writer, and technical writer. After driving a NYC taxi cab for awhile and working as a campus minister, Greg spent a year teaching English in Brooklyn, NY to inner-city students at a vocational high school, and then two years trading Lira on Wall Street. Greg brings his broad range of work and social experience to his role as host of the Introduction to Technical Communication discussion.
Ann-Marie Grissino participates as an information engineer at NetApp. She has won awards for technical communication and e-learning authorship, is an invited guest speaker at conferences, and has written articles for the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and e-learning developers' journals. For 10 years, she was the manager of the regional STC Technical Communications Competition. She is an STC Fellow and has served as a judge for both international STC competitions and Brandon Hall e-learning and innovative technology competitions. Ann-Marie participated in the Technical Communication Delegation for the People to People Ambassador Program to China. Previously, Ann-Marie was president of Keypoint Consultants, Inc., an award-winning technical writing firm specializing in user documentation, e-learning, and online communication.
Larry Kunz is a project manager and information architect with Systems Documentation, Inc. (SDI) Global Solutions. Having more than 30 years' experience as a writer, manager, and planner, he has managed both technical writing projects and marketing projects. He holds a Masters Certificate in Project Management from the George Washington University. He is a Fellow in the Society for Technical Communication (STC) and in 2010 received the STC President's Award for leading the Society's strategic planning effort.
Robert Perry is a Technical Writer for SAS Institute in Cary, N.C., where he documents JMP, a desktop statistical discovery software application. He has a BA in Chemistry, a MS in Technical Communication and over twenty years of experience as a writer, manager, and trainer in the software, pharmaceutical, environmental and financial industries. An active member of STC, he has served as a judge for both local and international competitions, and won the Distinguished and Best of Show Award in the Publications Contest. He has served as Treasurer, and NCFUN SIG leader in the Carolina chapter, and was founder of the Financial SIG and served as Program Manager and Vice President for the New York Metro chapter. Robert brings his broad range of work and experience with varying technical communication tools in user documentation, e-learning, and online communication to his role as instructor for the tools overview course.
Jim Sheedy has been working in the software industry for over 25 years. He currently works as a Documentation Specialist for SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, where he documents the programming interfaces to SAS graphicscomponents. For over 15 years he has also worked for the North Carolina Writers' Network, promoting, coordinating, and teaching writing workshops onsite for North Carolina businesses.