Name: Amy Diehl
Title: ESL Computer Teacher and Freelance Web Designer
Website/Blog: Under Construction – how lame!
Location: Northampton, MA

Tell us about your educational/professional background.
I studied English and Film as an undergraduate at the University of Michigan and my work trajectory has always been directed by my love of narrative. I received my Masters in Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing at Michigan State University in 2006, and while studying at MSU I worked as a digital writing consultant at the Michigan State University Writing Center and then later as a Research Assistant at WIDE (Writing in Digital Environments) and at the MSU Usability and Accessibility Center.

While I work with computers both as a teacher and a designer, it was not the technology that attracted me to the work, but the ways in which as someone who loves to write, one could write in a such a diverse and exciting way with computer technology – whether it be on a website, digital video, digital photography, animation, or writing and printing a story or paper. Through my work at WIDE, I became a passionate advocate for ensuring access and training for digital composition to everyone. The sheer power of digital composition should not be squirreled away by those with the resources and power to use it. It should be open and available to each of us to use if we wish to – and I think many of us would if we really knew what it was capable of.

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Name: Stephanie Pendrys
Title: Depends on the time of day and where I am. Marketing
Writer/Assistant to Program Director/Varsity Track and Field Coach/Mildly Obsessed Runner
Website/Blog: I’m on Twitter and MySpace, and do some blogging for work. I don’t write as much as I would like or probably need to. Sometimes I forget that I toiled in all those creative writing workshops in college.
Location: Upstate New York

Tell us about your educational/professional background.
Bachelor of Arts Degree: History and English with Creative Writing Emphasis from Albion College

Master of Mass Communications (Integrated Marketing Track) from University of South Carolina

Tell us about your current job.
At the moment, I am employed by the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley. I spend half my time as an assistant coach/assistant to the Program Director. The other half is spent as a Marketing Writer for the YCCA (YMCA Center for the Creative Arts). I’m also a varsity track and field coach and assistant basketball coach for the Special Olympics.

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