By Christina Mayr, Immediate Past President

The world of technical communication is diverse and career paths can vary greatly. At STC Carolina, we cater to writers, editors, illustrators, user experience professionals, and content managers in high tech, healthcare, government, nonprofits, finance, education, and many more industries.

If you've ever wondered how to get into technical communication, now is your chance to ask some experts. On October 19th, we're hosting a panel discussion with four technical communicators. This is a free event, so register today!

Ingrid Towey, Senior Technical Editor, Red Hat

Ingrid Towey believes in the WriteUX. She combines technical writing with UX (User eXperience) skills to create documents that are easy to use and to design user interfaces that don't need tons of documentation. Ingrid has experience in many areas: technical communication, usability testing, UI prototyping, field interviews and ethnography (yes, there is a business use for an MA in Folklore), user-centered design, training, homeschooling, and more. She has dabbled in many things and is curious about almost everything. Ingrid works at Red Hat as a Senior Technical Editor and Writing Coach. Her motto is: "The best writing is invisible."

Susan Tacker, Past President, Triangle UXPA

Susan is a user experience advocate, technical content expert, and certified scrum product owner. Susan has been a writer, editor, reviewer, and instructor. She is also the founder of the Houston chapter of the User Experience Professionals’ Association (UXPA), past President of Triangle UXPA, and past co-organizer of Ladies That UX - Durham. Susan has masters degrees in Human Factors in Information Design and Journalism, and a Bachelor's of English from East Carolina University.

Michael Harvey, Principal Technical Writer, SAS

Michael Harvey serves as the documentation project leader for risk management solutions and for the Internet of Things (IoT). Previously, Michael worked as a manager and a writer for EMC. Michael has served in various leadership positions for STC Carolina and has presented at local and international STC conferences. He was honored to be named an STC Fellow in 2011. As an instructor for the Durham Technical Community College Technical Writing program in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Michael worked to overhaul the curriculum, emphasizing the importance of developing technical curiosity and acquiring technical expertise. Michael has a BA in English and Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MA in Experimental Psychology from Duke University.

Ernie Hood, Freelance Science Writer

Ernie has been a freelance science writer since 1999, focusing on contemporary science, including environmental health, genomics, evolutionary medicine, bioinformatics, toxicology, biotechnology, energy, and minority health. a long career in television and video and audio production within the pharmaceutical, medical, health care, information technology, and agricultural sectors. Since 2006, Ernie has been host and producer of a weekly, hour-long science interview radio show, "Radio In Vivo: Your Link to the Triangle Science Community" on all-volunteer community radio WCOM-FM in Carrboro, NC. Learn more about Ernie and his work at https://erniehood.contently.com.



Christina Mayr can be reached at pastpresident at stc-carolina dot org. Read more articles by Christina Mayr.