"Kites"-Ando Hiroshige, 1797-1858
GMU's Nonfiction Writing Programs
Academics Genres Resources Employment Sponsors Universe Home
Nonfiction Writing Faculty at GMU

Name and Link to Bio/Pic
E-mail Address
dbeach@gmu.edu
sberg1@gmu.edu
rfischer@gmu.edu
dgallehr@gmu.edu
bhawk@gmu.edu
lathbury@gmu.edu
blowry@gmu.edu
wmiller@gmu.edu
cthaiss@gmu.edu
dyoung6@gmu.edu
tzawacki@gmu.edu

 

RALPH BAXTER has served as volunteer editor of Bob Ryan’s Almanac and Guide for the Weatherwise.  An annual publication directed by Bob Ryan, chief meteorologist and weather forecaster for Channel 4-TV, NBC, Washington, DC, the Almanac is a popular guide for the TV viewing audience in the DC area and a successful fundraiser for children’s medical charities. Over the past 15 years Dr. Baxter has also been closely involved as a writing consultant in the new hire training of one of the big four accounting firms, Ernst & Young , and of its recent new technology spin-off, Intellinex, Inc. He has consulted with a number of federal and state institutions such as the Smithsonian and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) , and with major firms such as American Management Systems , the MITRE Corporation , and Xerox . But much of his consulting work has been with associations such as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development , the National Contract Management Association, and more recently with the International Association of Fire Fighters .
DAVID BEACH specializes in composition/rhetoric, visual rhetoric, writing across the curriculum, and linguistics within the context of instructional technology. As Assistant Director of the English Composition Program, he helps students and faculty navigate
first year and advanced composition. David has taught composition, business communication, technical writing, ESL, and literature at GMU since 1996 and first-year composition at American University for three years. He taught business English and management at the Czech Management Center near Prague and at seminars in Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to his career in academia, David developed and managed educational products at the National Geographic Society and before that was a corporate trainer at MCI. A doctoral candidate in instructional technology, David’s research involves examining written and visual rhetoric within culture and education. He is an avid traveler and biker, an okay gardener, a skillful poker player, a rabid hockey fan, and a thespian wannabe.
SCOTT BERG received a BA in Architecture from the University of Minnesota, an MA in English from Miami University in Ohio, and an MFA in Fiction from George Mason University. At Mason, he acts as Assistant Director of the University Writing Center and teaches composition, literature, and Nonfiction writing. Scott also regularly writes feature articles for the Weekend and county weekly sections of The Washington Post.
RUTH OVERMAN FISCHER, a visiting assistant professor in English, earned her Ph.D. in English with emphasis on Rhetoric and Linguistics from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Her dissertation investigated the long term effects on teachers of their participation in a summer institute of a National Writing Project site. She has presented at the conventions of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, the National Council of Teachers of English, the Modern Language Association, and the Council of Writing Program Administrators and at Writing Across the Curriculum 3rd, 4th, and 7th National Conferences.  She is a faculty member in the Women's Studies Program, a member of the GMU chapter of the National Coalition Building Institute, and a Teacher/ Consultant with the Northern Virginia Writing Project.  Her scholarly/research interests include Writing Across the Curriculum, Computer/Information Technology and Composition, and Writing Program Administration.
DONALD R. GALLEHR teaches advanced Nonfiction writing, the teaching of writing, and theories of composition, as well as freshman composition, advanced composition, and independent writing. His most recent articles include: "Portfolio Assessment in the College Writing Classroom," in Process and Portfolios in Writing Instruction, NCTE, 1993; "Wait and the Writing Will Come: Meditation and the Composing Process," in Presence of Mind: Writing and the Domain Beyond the Cognitive, Heinemann, 1994; and "What is the Sound of No Hand Clapping: Using Secularized Zen Koans in the Writing Classroom," in Spiritual Empowerment and Pedagogy, Heinemann, Boynton/Cook,1996. His research interests include learning beyond the cognitive and its application to the classroom. He currently serves as associate-chair of NCTE's Assembly on Expanded Perspectives on Learning. In addition, Professor Gallehr is Director of the Northern Virginia Writing Project, Director of the Virginia Writing Project, and serves on the National Writing Project Board of Directors and Task Force.
BYRON HAWK is an Assistant Professor of English at George Mason University. He received a Ph.D. from The University of Texas at Arlington in Rhetoric/Composition and Critical Theory (2000). His primary research interests are in histories and theories of rhetoric and composition and rhetoric and technology. In addition to teaching courses in rhetoric, writing, and new media, he is also editor of Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture. He has published review articles in Enculturation, Post Script, and Technical Communication Quarterly, hypertexts in Kairos and Pre-Text Electra Lite, an entry in the new Routledge Encyclopedia of Postmodernism, and has forthcoming articles in an edited volume entitled The Terministic Screen: Rhetorical Perspectives on Film and Technical Communication Quarterly.
JIM HENRY teaches courses in nonfiction writing, collaborative writing, technical and report writing, composition theory and practice, and organizational ethnographic analysis, among others. He has many years' professional experience as a technical writer, primarily as a writing consultant to the railway industry and government, and he is founding partner of Powerwriters. He has published in College English, College Composition and Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and Technical Communication. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication and Business Communication Quarterly. His book Writing Workplace Cultures: An Archaeology of Professional Writing (Southern Illinois University Press, 2000) was chosen the Distinguished Publication for 2001 by the Association for Business Communication. His current hobby is this web site.
ROGER LATHBURY, whose interests include early American fiction, modern British poetry, especially that of W. H. Auden, has an M. A. from Indiana University and has published five books of his own: a novel, a collection of poems, a gathering of limericks (*Pith and Vinegar*), an editing workbook, used in the graduate course he most regularly teaches, Editing (English 503), and a critical study of *The Great Gatsby.* Since 1983, he has published 100 books by other writers, many of them collections of original poetry, with his publishing company, Orchises Press. Lathbury is a thoroughly delightful conversationalist; his imitations of fascist leaders and extinct mammals are renowned the world over. He does card tricks, can yodel in six non-European languages, and has a collection of linoleum that is the envy of several backwater museums.
BEVERLY LOWRY has published Crossed Over, a nonfiction memoir about the murder committed by Karla Faye Tucker in Texas, and several books of fiction including The Track of Real Desires: A Novel, Breaking Gentle, The Perfect Sonya, Daddy's Girl, Emma Blue, and Come Back, Lolly Ray. Her short stories have appeared in the Boston Globe, Playgirl, the Mississippi Review, Redbook, Houston City Magazine, and the Texas Humanist. Her essays, profiles, and book reviews have been published in the New Yorker, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Granta, and many other journals. Lowry has received awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Black Warrior Review, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters. She received her bachelor of arts from Memphis State University in 1960 and has taught at the University of Houston, the University of Montana, and the University of Alabama.
BILL MILLER regularly teaches the computer-assisted publications writing and design course, and he supervises student internships in writing and editing. He also writes fiction, and teaches undergraduate courses in crafting original fiction and in contemporary American literature. He is a former journalist and Washington correspondent and earned his bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his M.F.A. in creative writing from Mason.
CHRISTOPHER THAISS, Professor and GMU faculty member since 1975. Thaiss (PhD, Northwestern) currently chairs the Department of English. He regularly teaches courses in advanced composition, the writing of nonfiction, the teaching of writing and literature, and theories of composition . Past administrative posts have included director of English composition and director of writing across the curriculum (WAC). He coordinates the National Network of Writing-across-the-Curriculum Programs and serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Language and Learning across the Disciplines and the electronic journals Academic.Writing and Inventio. Thaiss has authored or edited ten books, most recently WAC for the New Millennium: Strategies for Continuing Programs in Writing across the Curriculum (with Susan McLeod, Eric Miraglia,and Margot Soven)(1998) and a series of discipline-specific writing guides in psychology, theatre, and law enforcement (1999-2000) that he co-wrote with faculty in those fields. He is the acting director of composition.

DENNIS YOUNG (Ph.D. Iowa) teaches a wide range of writing and literature courses, including First-year Composition, Advanced Composition, Introduction to Non-fiction, Technical & Report Writing, American Autobiography, and Greek & Biblical Literature.  He has published and presented over two dozen papers, mostly concerned with teaching writing and literature.  Two recent articles, "Re-visioning Psychology in the Writing Class" and "A Poetics of Student Writing" attend to the psychological dimension involved in college writing. He received the George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award in 1999.

TERRY MYERS ZAWACKI directs the Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) Program and the University Writing Center and regularly teaches nonfiction writing, writing ethnography, freshman and advanced composition, and the teaching of composition. She is currently co-authoring, with Chris Thaiss, Alternative Discourses and the Academy: Reports from the Field, forthcoming from Heinemann Press. Other publications include articles on writing assessment, writing in the disciplines, writing in learning communities, and feminism and composition. She is also a Women's Studies faculty member.

 

©2003 GMU's Nonfiction Universe • Webmaster GMU Main • English Department Main