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Instructors

Instructors are practicing professionals and UW faculty who share their on-the-job knowledge with students.

Tracey Freel
Writer, Microsoft Corporation

Tracey has a master’s degree in Technical Communication and several years’ experience in the technical communication industry. She has worked in many roles—from technical writer to Web site designer. She currently works as a writer for Microsoft Press, helping to design book covers and other marketing collateral. Tracey is an instructor for the Department of Technical Communication and a former manager of the Marketing Communication Special Interest Group for the Society of Technical Communication.

Chris Holstrom
Technical Writer, Google

Chris is a technical writer at Google, where he writes and edits internal documentation for Google's engineers, develops documentation tools, and teaches documentation classes. Prior to working at Google, Chris wrote about DB2 for z/OS at IBM. He specializes in database systems, but has written about a wide variety of topics for software developers. Chris holds a Master's degree in Technical Communication and undergraduate degrees in Physics and English.

Pam Johnson
Technical Writing and Project Management Consultant

Johnson has more than 17 years experience in technical communication. She has taught courses in production editing, manual design, technical writing and project management for the University of Washington, Bellevue Community College and the Puget Sound chapter of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Johnson has received six awards from the Puget Sound Chapter of STC, recognizing her work. She currently works as a project manager for Chicago Science Group, developing science curricula for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. Johnshon is a graduate of the technical communication program at the University of Washington.

Jim Kramer
Freelance graphic designer (co-teaches TC 424)

Jim has over 20 years experience as a designer specializing in print media. After earning a BS degree in graphic design from Woodbury University in Los Angeles, CA, he has held positions within advertising, printing, engineering, and book publishing. As a corporate member of the STC Seattle chapter, Jim's book designs for Microsoft Corporation have won several recognitions in local book design competitions, and many of these designs have been included in national STC competitions. Jim is also an accomplished digital artist working in Photoshop and other applications. He has remained active in the artist community, and has served as Vice President and President of the Santa Clarita Valley Artists' Association (located in Southern California) where he earned several awards in Association-sponsored competitions.

Tina Loucks-Jaret
Public Information Specialist, Center for Engineering Learning and Teaching (CELT)

Tina prepares grant applications, journal articles, web content and other research oriented documentation in technology and engineering fields. She graduated from the University of Washington in 1999 with a Master of Science in Technical Communication. Prior to her graduate studies, she worked closely with science professionals to prepare and edit a variety of technical documents, including journal articles, private and federal grant applications and product documentation. Tina has also worked as a project planner in an environmental consulting office, where she researched and wrote a variety of environmental documentation for public dissemination.

Alex Thayer
User Experience Lead, Microsoft Corporation

Thayer has Master of Science and Bachelor of Science degrees in Technical Communication from the University of Washington, as well as more than ten years of professional information architecture and design experience. Thayer currently works as a User Experience Lead in the Hardware group at Microsoft, where he focuses on designing the next generation of computing peripherals and associated software. His early work at IBM on user interface design and document retrieval systems garnered an international patent.

Instructors are subject to change.