GSOLE 2020 Elections: Candidate Personal Statements
- All elections are for two-year terms starting 1 July 2020.
- GSOLE Members will received links to ballots via an e-mail message in mid May, 2020.
Vice President
- Play a pivotal role in administrating the organization and determining its direction
- Work with other Executive Board members to organize the annual online conference
- Serve on the Nominating Committee
- Serve as the next President of GSOLE (2-year term)
1 Candidate for 1 Opening
Cat Mahaffey: Candidate for Vice President
Link to Abridged CV
Cat Mahaffey is a Senior Lecturer in the Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies (WRDS) Department at UNC Charlotte. She teaches first-year writing and courses such as Digital Design Theory and Practice and The Rhetoric of Digital Design. Cat is also a PhD student at Texas Tech University in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR) program. She currently serves as a Quality Matters Master Reviewer for the university, as well as the Associate Chair of the CCCC’s Online Writing Instruction (OWI) Working Group. She is also an active member of the Carolina’s Writing Program Administrators. Her research interests include online privacy, accessibility, digital rhetoric, and technical and professional writing. Her work and research are published in Next Steps: New Directions for/in Writing about Writing (2019) and Emerging Technologies in Virtual Learning Environments (2019)
Cat Mahaffey is a Senior Lecturer in the Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies (WRDS) Department at UNC Charlotte. She teaches first-year writing and courses such as Digital Design Theory and Practice and The Rhetoric of Digital Design. Cat is also a PhD student at Texas Tech University in the Technical Communication and Rhetoric (TCR) program. She currently serves as a Quality Matters Master Reviewer for the university, as well as the Associate Chair of the CCCC’s Online Writing Instruction (OWI) Working Group. She is also an active member of the Carolina’s Writing Program Administrators. Her research interests include online privacy, accessibility, digital rhetoric, and technical and professional writing. Her work and research are published in Next Steps: New Directions for/in Writing about Writing (2019) and Emerging Technologies in Virtual Learning Environments (2019)
Treasurer
- Play a pivotal role in administrating the organization and determining its direction
- Manage all organization financial activities including budgeting, reconciling bank account, monthly reporting to board, and yearly tax reporting
- Work with entities to estimate costs and process funds for organization's various initiatives
1 Candidate for 1 Opening
Theresa Evans: Candidate for Treasurer
Link to Abridged CV
Dr. Theresa Evans (Tess) is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English at Miami University of Ohio. She teaches in the Professional Writing Program, provides academic advising to undergraduate Professional Writing majors, and mentors graduate student teachers. Tess teaches a range of courses in Technical and Professional Communication, including face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online sections.
A lifetime member of GSOLE, Tess presently serves on the GSOLE Executive Board as Secretary. She has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and work with other GSOLE leaders. Tess would like to continue to build on Cat Mahaffey’s work as treasurer, to ensure that GSOLE continues to manage its finances well and operate efficiently. By moving into a new role, she also hopes to develop a broader perspective of the organization to enhance her ability to serve GSOLE.
Tess’s research interests include online writing instruction, professional and technical writing, commercial rhetoric, and contingency studies. Her work has been published in Rhetoric Review, The Proceedings of the Computers and Writing Conference, and OLOR.
Dr. Theresa Evans (Tess) is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Department of English at Miami University of Ohio. She teaches in the Professional Writing Program, provides academic advising to undergraduate Professional Writing majors, and mentors graduate student teachers. Tess teaches a range of courses in Technical and Professional Communication, including face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online sections.
A lifetime member of GSOLE, Tess presently serves on the GSOLE Executive Board as Secretary. She has thoroughly enjoyed getting to know and work with other GSOLE leaders. Tess would like to continue to build on Cat Mahaffey’s work as treasurer, to ensure that GSOLE continues to manage its finances well and operate efficiently. By moving into a new role, she also hopes to develop a broader perspective of the organization to enhance her ability to serve GSOLE.
Tess’s research interests include online writing instruction, professional and technical writing, commercial rhetoric, and contingency studies. Her work has been published in Rhetoric Review, The Proceedings of the Computers and Writing Conference, and OLOR.
Secretary
- Schedule, record minutes of, and disseminate information from executive board meetings
- Update lists of officers and executive board members
- Log information for new members and registrants for webinars and conferences
1 Candidate for 1 Opening
Jennifer Burke Reifman: Candidate for Secretary
Link to Abridged CV
As a writing instructor for the past 8 years, I have been consistently interested in how technologies play into the instruction of writing and literacy. In my time as a writing instructor, I have developed curriculum for training new online writing instructors, developed curriculum for and instructed both online and hybrid writing courses, and worked on several research projects regarding the use of digital tools in the writing classroom. Currently, I am a Ph.D. student at U.C. Davis who is developing research around the ways technology and digital tools are taken up in basic writing courses. I am interested in becoming the Secretary on GSOLE's executive board because I would like to play an active role in helping the organization, especially since informed discussions about online writing instruction and technology use are needed now more than ever. As a previous adjunct and current graduate student, I know that I have the organizational skills to make an excellent Secretary for GSOLE, and as a longtime writing instructor, I know I have great passion to lend to the organization to help it thrive.
As a writing instructor for the past 8 years, I have been consistently interested in how technologies play into the instruction of writing and literacy. In my time as a writing instructor, I have developed curriculum for training new online writing instructors, developed curriculum for and instructed both online and hybrid writing courses, and worked on several research projects regarding the use of digital tools in the writing classroom. Currently, I am a Ph.D. student at U.C. Davis who is developing research around the ways technology and digital tools are taken up in basic writing courses. I am interested in becoming the Secretary on GSOLE's executive board because I would like to play an active role in helping the organization, especially since informed discussions about online writing instruction and technology use are needed now more than ever. As a previous adjunct and current graduate student, I know that I have the organizational skills to make an excellent Secretary for GSOLE, and as a longtime writing instructor, I know I have great passion to lend to the organization to help it thrive.
Executive Board At-Large Member
- Attend Executive Board meetings to offer input and vote on initiatives and actions
- Serve on ad-hoc or standing committees to offer support and input
6 Candidates for 2 Openings
In alphabetical order:
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Jennifer Cunningham: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
As a member of the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) since 2018, I would like to reciprocate what I have gained from being a member, by increasing my participation and serving in a leadership role. Specifically, I am interested in the Executive Board At-Large position, which would afford me the opportunity to offer input at Executive Board meetings and to sit on potential ad-hoc or standing committees, more fully serving and supporting an organization that already serves and supports so many online literacy educators.
My areas of research and expertise focus on the ways that writing studies, sociolinguistics, and technology intersect, and with a decade of experience teaching online, I can offer theoretically driven ideas and practical knowledge related to language and learning in online environments. My role as a writing program coordinator who communicates among an eight-campus system situates as an organized and efficient administrator who remains mindful of different roles, responsibilities, and workloads throughout academia. I do my best to provide resources, materials, and support to all faculty teaching composition, from part-time instructors to graduate students and full-time professors. Given the recent shift to remote teaching, I more consistently have shared GSOLE’s resources, and so I want to give back to an organization on which I have relied during this current COVID-19 crisis. I have enjoyed being able to become more active in GSOLE by hosting five of the Walk-In Webinars and hope to continue to increase my participation within the organization as an At-Large Member.
As a member of the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) since 2018, I would like to reciprocate what I have gained from being a member, by increasing my participation and serving in a leadership role. Specifically, I am interested in the Executive Board At-Large position, which would afford me the opportunity to offer input at Executive Board meetings and to sit on potential ad-hoc or standing committees, more fully serving and supporting an organization that already serves and supports so many online literacy educators.
My areas of research and expertise focus on the ways that writing studies, sociolinguistics, and technology intersect, and with a decade of experience teaching online, I can offer theoretically driven ideas and practical knowledge related to language and learning in online environments. My role as a writing program coordinator who communicates among an eight-campus system situates as an organized and efficient administrator who remains mindful of different roles, responsibilities, and workloads throughout academia. I do my best to provide resources, materials, and support to all faculty teaching composition, from part-time instructors to graduate students and full-time professors. Given the recent shift to remote teaching, I more consistently have shared GSOLE’s resources, and so I want to give back to an organization on which I have relied during this current COVID-19 crisis. I have enjoyed being able to become more active in GSOLE by hosting five of the Walk-In Webinars and hope to continue to increase my participation within the organization as an At-Large Member.
Jude Miller: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
Jude Miller has been involved with GSOLE since early 2019. If elected, he hopes to bring his experience to the work he’ll be doing to serve the group, particularly in helping with communication and outreach. If the spring of 2020 has taught us nothing else as literacy educators, it is that we are all present to the possibilities of thoughtful online pedagogy, as well as the challenges of unplanned online pedagogy. He sees GSOLE as serving a vital role in supporting faculty of all stripes meet the present moment, as literacy educators worldwide become online literacy educators.
Jude is a Lecturer in Rowan University's Writing Arts Department, where he is the Course Coordinator for both CCII and Sophomore Engineering Clinic. He is currently an elected officer in the CCCC OWI Standing Group, where he facilitates working groups. In 2017, he received his college’s Excellence in Service Award. In 2019, he was awarded a grant to transition FYW courses to using Open Educational Resources. He created the curriculum for Rowan’s FYWP’s online courses and developed the first hybrid courses offered by his college. His recent conference presentations include the 2019 CCCC OWI SG Workshop as well as the 2019 GSOLE conference. He will also be leading an upcoming GSOLE webinar on hybrid course design. He was actively involved in the planning of—and was going to be co-facilitating—two different workshops at CCCC 2020: the CCCC OWI SG’s workshop on hybrid teaching and a workshop on OER. He also serves as the webmaster for the New Jersey Writing Alliance, which holds an annual conference for writing teachers in his home state. In addition to helping promote the conference, choose its theme, and determine its program each year, he maintains the organization’s website—administering registration, proposal submissions, and payment. His involvement with this organization has aligned with an increase in attendance.
Jude Miller has been involved with GSOLE since early 2019. If elected, he hopes to bring his experience to the work he’ll be doing to serve the group, particularly in helping with communication and outreach. If the spring of 2020 has taught us nothing else as literacy educators, it is that we are all present to the possibilities of thoughtful online pedagogy, as well as the challenges of unplanned online pedagogy. He sees GSOLE as serving a vital role in supporting faculty of all stripes meet the present moment, as literacy educators worldwide become online literacy educators.
Jude is a Lecturer in Rowan University's Writing Arts Department, where he is the Course Coordinator for both CCII and Sophomore Engineering Clinic. He is currently an elected officer in the CCCC OWI Standing Group, where he facilitates working groups. In 2017, he received his college’s Excellence in Service Award. In 2019, he was awarded a grant to transition FYW courses to using Open Educational Resources. He created the curriculum for Rowan’s FYWP’s online courses and developed the first hybrid courses offered by his college. His recent conference presentations include the 2019 CCCC OWI SG Workshop as well as the 2019 GSOLE conference. He will also be leading an upcoming GSOLE webinar on hybrid course design. He was actively involved in the planning of—and was going to be co-facilitating—two different workshops at CCCC 2020: the CCCC OWI SG’s workshop on hybrid teaching and a workshop on OER. He also serves as the webmaster for the New Jersey Writing Alliance, which holds an annual conference for writing teachers in his home state. In addition to helping promote the conference, choose its theme, and determine its program each year, he maintains the organization’s website—administering registration, proposal submissions, and payment. His involvement with this organization has aligned with an increase in attendance.
Beau Pihlaja: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
Urgency to meet the challenges facing online instructors and students has never been greater. The way forward for online writing instruction is and has always been to value, prioritize, and advocate for collaboration and mutual aid among instructors, students, and organizations in precisely the ways GSOLE has since it began. It is critical we advocate with and for online instructors and their students. It is imperative that we institutionally and culturally resolve to materially support instructors as they build and sustain online learning spaces without sacrificing their well-being or their students’ need for multi-layered instruction and well-designed digital environments. Now more than ever is the time to build supportive connections across organizations and writing specializations to develop not only research and practice-based guidance for online writing instruction, but better online learning environments, digital spaces designed by writers that support writers’ unique conceptual and material needs in instruction. I share GSOLE’s interest in supporting research critically examining the technologies used in OWI.
I have taught for nearly a decade, in both synchronous and asynchronous online formats, over 50 sections of writing courses, first-year experience seminars, and specific subjects in the humanities. Teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso from 2010-2017 sparked my desire to support student success, to recognize and cultivate excellence in active, accessible public education. Since 2017 and thanks to the mentorship of my colleagues and the insights of our accomplished students in Texas Tech University’s Technical Communication and Rhetoric program, I have continued to develop as an online writing instructor for graduate and undergraduate students. My experience positions me to work well alongside GSOLE’s leadership and its members to help support, improve, and advocate for online writing instruction, instructors, and students. For these reasons I am seeking the opportunity to serve GSOLE as an at-large executive committee member.
Urgency to meet the challenges facing online instructors and students has never been greater. The way forward for online writing instruction is and has always been to value, prioritize, and advocate for collaboration and mutual aid among instructors, students, and organizations in precisely the ways GSOLE has since it began. It is critical we advocate with and for online instructors and their students. It is imperative that we institutionally and culturally resolve to materially support instructors as they build and sustain online learning spaces without sacrificing their well-being or their students’ need for multi-layered instruction and well-designed digital environments. Now more than ever is the time to build supportive connections across organizations and writing specializations to develop not only research and practice-based guidance for online writing instruction, but better online learning environments, digital spaces designed by writers that support writers’ unique conceptual and material needs in instruction. I share GSOLE’s interest in supporting research critically examining the technologies used in OWI.
I have taught for nearly a decade, in both synchronous and asynchronous online formats, over 50 sections of writing courses, first-year experience seminars, and specific subjects in the humanities. Teaching at the University of Texas at El Paso from 2010-2017 sparked my desire to support student success, to recognize and cultivate excellence in active, accessible public education. Since 2017 and thanks to the mentorship of my colleagues and the insights of our accomplished students in Texas Tech University’s Technical Communication and Rhetoric program, I have continued to develop as an online writing instructor for graduate and undergraduate students. My experience positions me to work well alongside GSOLE’s leadership and its members to help support, improve, and advocate for online writing instruction, instructors, and students. For these reasons I am seeking the opportunity to serve GSOLE as an at-large executive committee member.
Alex Rockey: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
I am interested in serving as an executive board at-large member for GSOLE. As an online education scholar, I am particularly interested in the feedback students receive on their writing in online courses in the disciplines. I have worked as an instructional designer at a community college as well as with the instructional design team at a four-year research university. Across these instances and in my own research, I have seen the vital role that empirically-based pedagogy plays in supporting student learning in online courses. For this reason, I am deeply committed to serving the efforts of GSOLE to support peer-reviewed research and community development for online literacy educators.
I am interested in serving as an executive board at-large member for GSOLE. As an online education scholar, I am particularly interested in the feedback students receive on their writing in online courses in the disciplines. I have worked as an instructional designer at a community college as well as with the instructional design team at a four-year research university. Across these instances and in my own research, I have seen the vital role that empirically-based pedagogy plays in supporting student learning in online courses. For this reason, I am deeply committed to serving the efforts of GSOLE to support peer-reviewed research and community development for online literacy educators.
Meghan Velez: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
I wish to serve as an At-Large Executive Board Member, where I can draw upon my experience teaching online writing courses and leading an online communication center in order to support GSOLE’s mission. I began teaching online writing courses as a PhD student at Florida State University, and for the past two years, I’ve exclusively taught synchronous and asynchronous online courses as an Instructor of the Practice in Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide. At ERAU, I also serve as the Assistant Director of the Virtual Environment for Communication: Teaching, Outreach, and Research (VECTOR), a fully online center that supports communication teaching, learning, and research across the institution. In 2019, I built and launched our online communication center, the Virtual Communication Lab. I oversee daily center operations, including hiring and training faculty and student tutors, maintaining our virtual tutoring space, and communicating the center’s mission and services to faculty and students.
In addition to leading the Virtual Communication Lab, I also co-lead VECTOR’s Communication Across the Curriculum program to support faculty across disciplines in online communication pedagogy. As one of our first tasks in developing VECTOR, we secured an institutional GSOLE membership so that a large number of faculty could benefit from this professional community of teachers and scholars. I am now eager to take a more active role in this organization, and I believe that my experience in online teaching, tutoring and faculty development will be valuable to GSOLE’s Executive Board.
I wish to serve as an At-Large Executive Board Member, where I can draw upon my experience teaching online writing courses and leading an online communication center in order to support GSOLE’s mission. I began teaching online writing courses as a PhD student at Florida State University, and for the past two years, I’ve exclusively taught synchronous and asynchronous online courses as an Instructor of the Practice in Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide. At ERAU, I also serve as the Assistant Director of the Virtual Environment for Communication: Teaching, Outreach, and Research (VECTOR), a fully online center that supports communication teaching, learning, and research across the institution. In 2019, I built and launched our online communication center, the Virtual Communication Lab. I oversee daily center operations, including hiring and training faculty and student tutors, maintaining our virtual tutoring space, and communicating the center’s mission and services to faculty and students.
In addition to leading the Virtual Communication Lab, I also co-lead VECTOR’s Communication Across the Curriculum program to support faculty across disciplines in online communication pedagogy. As one of our first tasks in developing VECTOR, we secured an institutional GSOLE membership so that a large number of faculty could benefit from this professional community of teachers and scholars. I am now eager to take a more active role in this organization, and I believe that my experience in online teaching, tutoring and faculty development will be valuable to GSOLE’s Executive Board.
Pavel Zemliansky: Candidate for Executive Board At-Large Member
Link to Abridged CV
In this time of crisis when so many educators are forced to move their teaching from face-to-face classrooms to Zoom, Canvas, and other online platforms, we must remember two things. Firstly, teaching and learning are highly contextualized and culture-specific activities. Just like it is impossible to take an existing face-to-face course and “put it online,” it is also impossible to assume that student behaviors and attitudes will be the same in online learning environments as they were in face-to-face ones. Secondly, student attitudes and expectations will differ depending on previous educational experiences and understanding of a given academic culture. This became obvious to me after I began teaching in Norway and had to adjust some of my long-held beliefs and habits I had developed while teaching in the US. In today’s globalized educational environments, understanding these ideas and acting upon them is very important.
If I am selected to the GSOLE board, I want to help the organization promote an important value. That value is placing the learner at the center of our work as teachers and of any learning designs and instruction methods we employ. As I argued in my keynote presentation to the 2020 GSOLE conference, student-centered design should become a cornerstone of our work as online educators, both because it places student needs at the center of the teaching process and because it allows us to become more context and culture aware as course designers and as teachers. Those are indispensable qualities for global online literacy educators.
In this time of crisis when so many educators are forced to move their teaching from face-to-face classrooms to Zoom, Canvas, and other online platforms, we must remember two things. Firstly, teaching and learning are highly contextualized and culture-specific activities. Just like it is impossible to take an existing face-to-face course and “put it online,” it is also impossible to assume that student behaviors and attitudes will be the same in online learning environments as they were in face-to-face ones. Secondly, student attitudes and expectations will differ depending on previous educational experiences and understanding of a given academic culture. This became obvious to me after I began teaching in Norway and had to adjust some of my long-held beliefs and habits I had developed while teaching in the US. In today’s globalized educational environments, understanding these ideas and acting upon them is very important.
If I am selected to the GSOLE board, I want to help the organization promote an important value. That value is placing the learner at the center of our work as teachers and of any learning designs and instruction methods we employ. As I argued in my keynote presentation to the 2020 GSOLE conference, student-centered design should become a cornerstone of our work as online educators, both because it places student needs at the center of the teaching process and because it allows us to become more context and culture aware as course designers and as teachers. Those are indispensable qualities for global online literacy educators.