The SIGDOC Board consists of volunteers who help actively advance the organization and its endeavors. Throughout its history, SIGDOC has benefited greatly from the many volunteers who have served in various capacities. SIGDOC is seeking active participation from members; if you would like to get involved, please contact us at sigdocacm@acm.org.
SIGDOC Executive Committee
| Name & Affiliation | Role | Bio |
|---|---|---|
| Luke Thominet Florida International University | Chair | Luke Thominet is Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Florida International University in Miami. He has published articles in a range of writing studies, technical communication, and rhetorics of health and medicine journals, including Patient Education and Counseling, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Communication Design Quarterly, and Technical Communication Quarterly, as well as several edited collections. He has ongoing research projects on patient and physician framing of cancer progression, the design of grading systems, the construction of disciplinary identity through academic websites, and qualitative research methodology in AI-assisted projects. He previously served as SIGDOC Communications Manager (2019-2021). |
| Kathie Gossett Brigham Young University | Vice Chair | Dr. Kathie Gossett is an assistant research professor in the Office of Digital Humanities at Brigham Young University. In addition to teaching classes in web design/authoring and user experience, she works with faculty to design and build applications and websites to further their research. Kathie has published in journals such as Kairos and Communication Design Quarterly , has contributed book chapters to collections published by the MLA and Open Book Publishers, and has also authored several white papers for projects funded by the NEH Office of Digital Humanities. In addition to her time in academia, Kathie spent several years working as a professional and technical writer in the Bay Area during the dotcom bubble and, more recently, was a founding partner of Dearadh Consultancy, where she led industry projects in UX/UI research and design. Kathie has previously served as the Secretary/Treasurer of SIGDOC and as the Program and Conference Chair for several SIGDOC conferences. |
| Andrew Mara Arizona State University | Secretary-Treasurer | Andrew Mara is an Associate Professor in Technical Writing and Communication at Arizona State University. Andrew has been teaching UX, innovation rhetoric and technical writing at universities for over twenty years. His research interests include UX, digital practices, posthumanism, technical writing, and institutional innovation. Andrew formerly worked for Sandia National Laboratories as a communication specialist and continues to work with local and regional nonprofits to create more ethical user ecologies. Andrew has started two UX Labs, created an event-driven arts app, written a book, edited a special issue of Technical Communication Quarterly, and has published over forty other chapters, articles, and conference proceedings. |
| Huiling Ding North Carolina State University | Past Chair | Huiling Ding is a professor of English and Director of Labor Analytics and Workforce Development at the Data Science Academy at North Carolina State University. She teaches technical communication, responsible AI, writing in the disciplines, and writing for publication. Her research focuses on artificial intelligence and society, health risk communication, technical communication, labor market analytics, intercultural communication, and social justice. |
SIGDOC Advisory Board
| Name & Affiliation | Role | Bio |
|---|---|---|
| Quan Zhou Metro State University |
Member at Large | Quan Zhou is a Professor in the Department of Technical Communication and Interaction Design at Metropolitan State University in the Twin Cities, MN. He directs the Design of User Experience graduate certificate. Quan’s research examines the effects of cognitive biases in user experience and communication design. His scholarly work can be found in Technical Communication, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, Communication Design Quarterly, etc. |
| Daniel P. Richards Old Dominion University |
Member at Large | Daniel P. Richards is an associate professor and associate chair of English at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. His research focuses on environmental rhetoric, risk communication, the public understanding of science, and the politics of higher education. |
| Angela Pennington Texas Tech University |
Website Manager | Angela Pennington (she/they) is a PhD student in Technical Communication and Rhetoric at Texas Tech University, specializing in patient experience design for income-constrained populations. Her research interests include user experience/user interface design, human-centered design, and normative ethics. Outside of her academic work, Angela works as a content developer at Healthconnect Texas, where she applies her technical communication expertise to support the Texas statewide health and community information exchange. |
| Abigail Bakke Minnesota State University, Mankato |
Communications Manager | Abigail Bakke (she/her) is a professor of Technical Communication in the English Department at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Her research and teaching interests include user experience, health and medical communication, and information literacy. |
| Timothy Amidon University of Rhode Island |
Editor-in-Chief, CDQ | Amidon is an Associate Professor in the Professional and Public Writing Department within the Harrington School of Communication at URI. His research program spans the fields of digital rhetoric, technical and professional communication, and public health. His scholarship has appeared in journals such as Technical Communication Quarterly, Kairos, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, and Communication Design Quarterly. Additionally, he has nearly 25 years of industry experience in fire and emergency services. |
| Bradley Dilger Purdue University |
Student Research Co-Chair |
Bradley Dilger (he/his/Dilger) is Professor of English and Director of Writing at Purdue University. He studies writing networks, programs, and transfer, using mixed empirical methods. Dilger is one of the co-leaders of Crow, the Corpus & Repository of Writing—the first learner corpus linked to a repository of pedagogical texts. He is invested in creating digital tools to study writing and developing sustainable practices for interdisciplinary collaboration in the humanistic social sciences. With Neil Baird, he is building an online toolkit supporting the use of text-based interviews in writing research. |
| Allegra W. Smith Georgia Institute of Technology |
Student Research Co-Chair |
Allegra W. Smith (she/her/hers) is Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on designing communication for access and equity, including improving technological experiences for older adults aged 60+, as well as building and iterating technical and professional communication (TPC) courses through learner experience design (LxD). |
| Ashley Hardin Red Hat |
Industry Liaison | Ashley Hardin is a Content Strategist at Red Hat, who has experience in project management, structured authoring, web content strategy, science and medical writing, and is a regular contributor to open-source project documentation. |
| Kat Reierson Docusign |
Industry Liaison | Kat Reierson is a Manager on the Product Documentation team at Docusign, where she leads a team of technical writers creating user-friendly product documentation across Docusign’s solutions. Her work focuses on how technical communicators navigate a field where content increasingly serves both human readers and machine systems. She values strong working relationships with the engineering, UX, and developer teams she builds documentation standards alongside, and speaks regularly at industry conferences. |
| Carlos J. Costa Universidade de Lisboa |
Chair of EuroSIGDOC | Carlos J. Costa is Associate Professor at ISEG (Lisbon School of Economics and Management), University of Lisbon (Universidade de Lisboa). Carlos is a member of IEEE and ACM. Carlos holds a PhD in Information Sciences and Technologies in the field of Information Systems and Databases from ISCTE. His research interests include Information Systems Theory, ERP, gamification and Free and Open Source Software. Carlos has more than 200 publications. |
Past Chairs
- Huiling Ding: 2023–2026
- Daniel P. Richards: 2019–2023
- Emma Rose: 2018–2019
- Claire Lauer: 2016–2018
- Liza Potts: 2013–2016
- Rob Pierce: 2012–2013
- Brad Mehlenbacher: 2005–2012
- Scott Tilley: 2003–2005
- Kathy Haramundanis: 1997–2003
- Nina Wishbow: 1993–1997
- R. John Brockmann: 1989–1993
- Diana Patterson: 1980–1989
- Tom D’Auria: 1977–1980
- Joe Rigo: 1975–1977