Welcome from the Chair

In this issue of Between the Lines, we bring you news about how we are creating a strong future by renewing, updating, and strengthening the English department. During the past two years, we have worked together to create a strategic plan and five action teams to serve as mechanisms for enacting developments and changes. Each action team targets a critical dimension of sustaining the English department and its academic majors for today’s and tomorrow’s students. Many of the stories in this issue illustrate work associated with themes of these action teams, but we start by sharing a few words from our alumni.

Breehan Gerleman, a senior manager of communications in the College of Engineering, describes how she credits her career as a technical communicator to the skills that she learned in her classes here in the department. Laura Dolan also shares a note about her life’s work as a writing instructor and a writer, along with the accident that brought her to Iowa State almost 40 years ago. And soon to join the ranks of English department alumni, Kelsey Vargason describes how she discovered her passion for technical communication by taking English department courses, advising students to let their interests drive their academic choices.

These students’ reflections on their learning and their lives demonstrate the significance of the work carried out by English department faculty as they prepare, update, and teach the curriculum. The Superior Teaching Action Team was formed to promote continuing attention to the significance of teaching, and several articles in this issue illustrate how this theme manifests in daily work. Jenny Aune describes how the faculty teaching advanced writing courses engage in continuous processes for updating the curriculum, and Samantha Robinson-Adams explains what prompted her to develop her new linguistics course, Animal Communication, to be offered for the first time in spring 2026. Kristin Stoner and Jacob Dawson each share their experience with mentorship practices that build community among teaching faculty through sharing experiences, resources, and new ideas.

The theme of community extends beyond the intellectual to the physical in the strategic plan. Jayme Wilken, Karla Ruden, and Nicole Salo explain how the Inspiring Environments Action Team has begun to ideate, decorate, and renovate our shared space into fertile ground. Natalie Meyer explains how the Marketing and Recruitment Action Team is spreading the word about the English department’s undergraduate majors in English, linguistics, and technical communication.

One final story is about Bethany Gray, who served for seven years as director of Graduate Education (DOGE) for all the graduate programs in the English department. The jurisdiction of this role extends throughout the intellectual and physical community of the department and encompasses the marketing and recruitment of graduate students. With sincere gratitude, I acknowledge the exceptional contribution that Bethany has made to the department through her leadership as DOGE.

I hope you enjoy these updates from our alumni and snapshots of our current activities in the department.