Past Programs

Linda Shaltz, East Bay STC President, has worked as a professional technical communicator for 12 years and is currently employed at Chevron Corporation in San Ramon. Besides writing End User documentation, Linda also creates presentations, does web design, graphics, and meeting facilitation.

Her career serves as an example of how technical communication has changed over the past few years and how the writer must change with it.

Judith Herr, President/Principal of Well Chosen Words

Because of the unique combination of experience, training, dedication, energy, and humor that Judith brings to bridging the gap between extremely technical scientists and engineers and targeted audiences, her work is highly valued by managers, clients, and peers.

Professionally, Judith is a recognized expert in management of technical communication projects and teams including in science and engineering, environmental, occupational safety, healthcare, manufacturing, and information technology. Her business, Well Chosen Words, provides consultative support and management expertise to businesses proposing to provide services to government and corporate entities.

In March, 2005, Judith was elected as an STC Fellow.

Rolfe Dlugy-Hegwer, Technical Writer

Rolfe is the Senior Technical Writer at Symmetricom's Timing, Test, & Measurement division. He served the STC North Bay chapter for three plus years as President and Vice President. Currently, he is preparing a training module for new AuthorIT users that he would like to present to the STC community in Summer 2006.

Rolfe also blogs about his free-time interests, such as vegetable gardening and paddling rivers, at www.baynorth.com.

Marie Highby, Immediate Past President of the Silicon Valley Chapter

Marie is a life coach and co-founder of 2MULES, a political coaching and consulting firm that focuses on issues tied to strategy and messaging. Well-known in Silicon Valley for her work as a San Jose State University technical writing and communications instructor and program manager, Marie began her professional career as a marketing writer in the investment management industry in Boston and as a forecasting analyst in the banking industry in San Francisco. Marie's work in finance has also included serving as an Assistant Vice President and Senior Product Manager in Trade Finance with Bank of America and teaching Business Finance at San Jose State University.

Last Spring, Marie presented an abbreviated version of this workshop at the STC International Conference in Seattle where she also spoke at a progression on the role of managers as they "facilitate the emerging future." In addition, Marie is a popular speaker on the subject of the future of technical communications, having made presentations on that subject in San Diego, the East Bay, and Silicon Valley as well as at the 2003 International STC Conference in Dallas.

A senior member of the STC, Marie is the Immediate Past President of the Silicon Valley Chapter and Treasurer of the STC Management Community. An MBA from the Colgate Darden School of the University of Virginia, Marie also holds an MA from Duke University in English and an advanced certificate in coaching from the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

Hillary Russak, Technical Writer and Editor for Genentech

Hillary works at Genentech, Inc. in South San Francisco where she collaborates with manufacturing customers to design, draft, and revise regulatory-controlled documents, then generates the documents using a validated electronic data management system.

Hillary also participates on projects to develop and improve documentation systems and standards within the regulatory guidelines of current Good Manufacturing Process (GMP).

Mira Wooten, Client Business Manager for Lasselle-Ramsay, Inc.

Mira works for Lasselle-Ramsay, Inc., a professional services company that creates content and learning solutions for new products, business initiatives and regulatory information.

Mira has over 20 years of experience of working with documentation and training projects for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Siebel Systems, and Boston Scientific. She has completed graduate work at Golden Gate University in Telecommunications Management.