Alumni
2011 Alumni
Patty D. Johnson Winston (Ph.D. TECH, 2011)
Todd Kelsey (Ph.D. TECH, 2011)
Peter Posen (M.S., IARC, 2011)
Ed Scott (M.S., IARC, 2011)
Brenna Scurlock (M.S., TCID, 2011)
Cong Sun (M.S., TCID, 2011) has accepted a position as Web Content Manager at Navistar in Warrenville, IL.
Eva C. Wilhelm (M.S., TCID, 2011)
2010 Alumni
Laura Batson (Ph.D., TECH, 2010)
Rodrigo M. Canales (M.S., TCID, 2010)
Joseph A. Carbon (B.S., PTC, 2010)
Jason Chin (B.S., PTC, 2010)
Brad J. Dalrymple (M.S., IARC, 2010)
Richard A. Glover (B.S., HUM, 2010)
Linda K. Goldstein (B.S., PTC, 2010) recently accepted the position of junior developer at ThoughtWorks. She reports that the position has all the attributes which her mental model of a dream job contains.
Catherine Keich (M.S., IARC, 2010)
Kyle J. Knopp (B.S., ICOM, 2010)
Anushka Pansare (M.S., IARC, 2010)
Vince Danae Rivera (B.S., HUM, 2010)
Colin M. Scheer (B.S., HUM, 2010)
Shimoni Sheth (M.S., IARC, 2010) has been working as a user interface designer consultant at JPMorgan Chase since September 2010. After doing some research and talking with various companies, she learned that there is a great demand for information architecture and usability specialists, especially in the financial industry. She believes the most important factors in landing her current position were communication skills and self-marketing, and that the process of obtaining her master’s of science at IIT greatly helped with this. She wishes to pass on the message to her fellow students and colleagues that the IARC M.S. program is extremely useful and that an entire industry is waiting for talented graduates.
Steven Edward Siwek (B.S., PTC, 2010) recently found employment at Phonak in Warrenville, Ill., as a software support specialist.
Alison Ishihara Somilleda (M.S., TCID, 2010)
April Wedekind (M.S., IARC, 2010)
Amanda Zhang (M.S., TCID, 2010)
2009 Alumni
Anica Jovanova Arrizon (M.S., IARC, 2009) is a user experience specialist at User Centric.
Marijke Bochantin (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Nikita Dashputra (M.S., IARC, 2009)
Kevin Franke (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Evan Kruger (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Christopher Lam (Ph.D., TECH, 2009) has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position with the University of North Texas Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication beginning fall 2011.
Cynthia Jill Laughlin (M.S., TCID, 2009) is a technical writer at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Susan Mallgrave (B.S., PTC, 2009)
Michael Martinez (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Andrew Mehr (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Monica Smith (B.S., HUM, 2009)
Stephany Filimon Wilkes (Ph.D., TECH, 2009) lives and works in San Francisco, where she is currently a senior director of software engineering for Capitol Records, part of EMI Music. She is responsible for the design and delivery of new products and for "big data" efforts: ingesting, cleaning, storing, and mining public and internal data about their artists and releases in order to obtain insights about how to change their behavior and make the best use of marketing funds. When she's not working, she is either rock climbing, knitting, or volunteering at The Crucible, a nonprofit arts organization with classes and studio spaces devoted to woodworking, welding, glass and jewelry making, and much more. She is also a paid freelance writer for the blogs of FineWoodworking.com and StartWoodworking.com.
Yu Zhang (M.S., TCID, 2009)
2008 Alumni
Keshia Garnett (M.S., IARC, 2008)
Gordon Scott Gehrs (Ph.D., TECH, 2008)
Elaine Felts Haugh (M.S., TCID, 2008)
April Cox Jackson (M.S., TCID, 2008)
Anna Kalata (M.S., TCID, 2008)
Alison R. Keilty (M.S., TCID 2008)
Patricia Kungie (M.S., TCID 2008)
Heajin Lee (B.S., PTC, 2008)
Yi-Chun (Jackie) Lin (M.S., TCID, 2008)
Joseph Anthony Norton (M.S., TCID, 2008)
Stephanie Rozborski (B.S., HUM, 2008)
Kwaku Sarpong (M.S., IARC, 2008)
Heather Selby (B.S., HUM, 2008)
Samantha Staley (B.S., PTC, 2008)
2007 Alumni
Yamini Bammi (M.S., TCID, 2007)
Esteban Barraza (B.S., ICOM, 2007)
Julia Campana (B.S., PTC, 2007)
Julia A. Chase (M.S., TCID, 2007)
Philip A. DiGiacomo (M.S., IARC, 2007)
Thorsten Froehlich (Ph.D., TECH, 2007)
Marina Lin (M.S., IARC, 2007) The Society for Technical Communication (STC) magazine, Intercom, published Lin's article "Localizing Sans Clichés" in the February 2008 issue. Intercom describes the feature article: "[a]ll too often, we instinctively turn to old methods of researching group culture, rhetoric, and preferences so that we can appeal to people on their own terms. Our intentions are good, but our outcomes may not be. Special care must be taken not to approach the process of localization in a way that results in a cultural parody."
Julia Lee-Kim (M.S., TCID, 2007) The STC magazine, Intercom, published Lee-Kim's article "Keep Your Site Competitive" in the March 2008 issue. Intercom describes the feature article: "To gain a competitive edge—or even survive—in a world gone flat, a company must assert a level of uniqueness. Companies creating global Web sites can use competitive analysis and landscape analysis to analyze the market; Lee-Kim details how to add cultural analysis to this mix." Read the article... (773 KB pdf). Lee-Kim's article, "Netnography Simplified: A Guide to Tracking Consumers' Online Behavior," was the lead article in the April 2007 issue of Intercom, pp. 4-7. Read the article... (277kb pdf).
Robert Logisz (B.S., HUM, 2007)
James Maciukenas (M.S., TCID, 2007)
Ginnifer L. Mastarone (M.S., TCID, 2007)
Jeri Siragusa (B.S., PTC, 2007)
Candace Stoakley (M.S., TCID, 2007)
Catherine Warren (B.S., PTC, 2007)
Kejun Xu (M.S., TCID, 2007) is pursuing a Ph.D. in Technical Communication at the University of Washington. She was awarded an STC International Scholarship and has interned as an information architect in an online marketing firm in Santa Barbara, CA.
Byung Hwa Yoo (M.S., IARC, 2007)
2006 Alumni
Anica Jovanova Arrizon (B.S., ICOM, 2006) completed her M.S. in IARC in 2009 and is a user experience specialist at User Centric.
Seema Bawani (B.S., PTC, 2006)
Bilyan Belchev (M.S., TCID, 2006) is a user experience designer at Webitects.
Sujan Bhattacharya (M.S., TCID, 2006)
Robert Brozyna (B.S., CS/HUM, 2006)
Niranjan Dhar (B.S., ICOM, 2006)
Lauren Joyce Hensel (B.S., PTC, 2006) is men's and women's volleyball coach at Robert Morris University.
Todd Kato (M.S., TCID, 2006)
Christopher Lam (M.S., TCID, 2006) completed his Ph.D. in TECH in 2009 and has accepted a tenure-track assistant professor position with the University of North Texas Department of Linguistics and Technical Communication beginning fall 2011.
Almond Loh (M.S., IARC, 2006) works as a Data Visualization Specialist for the Chicago office of DRAFTCB, a creative marketing agency with offices worldwide.
Renée Mercuri (M.S., TCID, 2006) and her husband Joshua Tusin completed an extended journey through southeast Asia and India; they did volunteer work at various organic farms during their travels. You can read about their adventures at www.pastabroccoli.net. In January 2008, renée started work with the Retired Teachers of Ontario as their communications associate. In this role, renée is responsible for many aspects of the organization's communications, in particular the membership magazine, Website, and newsletter. She reports that the skills she developed in the TCID program are invaluable in her everyday responsibilities with the RTO.
Evans Ogbebor (B.S., HUM, 2006)
Sumana Ravilla (M.S., TCID, 2006)
Jyothi Shankar (M.S., TCID, 2006) is a UI designer and training designer at the Chicago regional office of Infogix, a software company.
Mindy Sherman (M.S., TCID, 2006)
Joshua Tusin (M.S., TCID, 2006) and his wife Renée Mercuri completed an extended journey through southeast Asia and India; they did volunteer work at various organic farms during their travels. Joshua now works as a document management and publishing associate at the Canadian headquarters of GlaxoSmithKline. He reports that his mix of writing and editing skills and his science background prepared him well for the position. Since moving to Toronto in 2008, Joshua has also become an active contributor to blogTO.
Edith R. Villanueva (M.S., TCID, 2006)
Other Alumni News
Don Cunningham (Ph.D., TECH, 2005) accepted a position starting fall 2007 as an assistant professor in the English Department at Radford University, Radford, VA. He is teaching business writing and technical communication. He served from 2005-2007 as an assistant professor at University of Wisconsin-Stout.
Odin Jurkowski (Certificate, M.S., TCID, 1997) is a tenured associate professor at the University of Central Missouri, Warrensburg, MO, and chair of the Department of Career & Technology Education.