Technical Communication Advisory Board

Technical Communication (TComm) is an undergraduate and postgraduate program within the English department that teaches students how to write for professional settings—that is, how to write and design documents for private, nonprofit, and public organizations.

To understand more about the TComm program and its Advisory Board, we reached out to Charlie Kostelnick, a founding member of the TComm program here at ISU. Kostelnick, who has been with the English department since the 1980s, was involved in initiating the TComm program at the undergraduate level and for several years served as chair and assistant chair of the English department. Kostelnick has acted as the liaison to the Advisory Board, which was also assembled by TComm program faculty members Abram Anders, Gloria Betcher, Jo Mackiewicz, and Samantha Robinson-Adams. Newly hired professor Jessica Jorgensen-Borchert is also currently working with the Advisory Board. The TComm Advisory Board brings together individuals who have experienced the TComm program and/or hold high-level professional positions worldwide. “Most of the people we asked had some experience at Iowa State. Some of them are recent graduates and some graduated 10 or 15 years ago. It’s a wide variety of people from different levels of experience and different kinds of jobs,” Kostelnick said.

The TComm Advisory Board was a long time in the making, taking years to gather momentum and acquire the right people for th job. The Board was assembled primarily so that TComm faculty could consult with its people in the field today for their guidance when structuring the program. Secondarily, board members could offer TComm students internships and/or pathways for entering the workforce. Kostelnick also discussed the possibility of asking board members to collaborate with client-based projects and speak to the TComm student group.

The future of the TComm program looks bright as new faculty have been brought in to boost the program’s technology expertise. Additionally, plans
have been set to grow the Advisory Board as new experts are invited to participate. These changes are targeted at getting more students to enroll in the TComm program and spreading the word about this growing profession/field of study. Kostelnick hopes to educate incoming students about what the program can offer them: “You might think of it as a practical English major; you’re studying language but also visual and electronic forms of communication.”

The board’s current members include:

• Tom Drake, Salesforce – Chicago, IL
• Sarah Heilman, Workiva – Ames, IA
• Tom Lindsley, HubSpot – Des Moines, IA
• Joy Robinson, Google – Mountain View, CA
• Levi Storjohann, Danfuss Power Solutions – Ames, IA
• Jessi Strawn, Berkshire Hathaway Energy – Story County, IA
• Ramsey Tesdell, Sowt Media – Jordan
• Sharon Wiederanders, Garmin – Olathe, KS