Board of Directors

STC is governed on a Society level by an elected board of directors. In addition to the Society leaders, each of STC's more than 110 local chapters elects a set of officers.

Nicoletta A. Bleiel

Nicoletta A. Bleiel

President

Nicky Bleiel is an STC Senior Member with 17 years of experience in technical communication; writing and developing information for software products in the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation, and pharmaceutical industries. A popular conference speaker, she has presented talks at the STC Summit, WritersUA, tcworld, CIDM, and LavaCon on many topics, including embedded help, tools and technologies, user assistance design, single sourcing, wikis, social media, agile, and convergence technical communication.

Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra

Katherine (Kit) Brown-Hoekstra

Vice President

Kit Brown-Hoekstra is an STC Fellow, experienced professional, and small business owner with over 23 years of experience in technical communication. Her STC experience ranges from SIG manager and chapter president to international competitions manager, Society Nominating Committee, and Global Strategies Task Force co-chair, plus myriad other volunteer activities. As vice president, Kit would use her experience and industry knowledge to help STC chart and navigate the best course forward and to promote the profession globally.

Alan Houser

Alan Houser

Immediate Past President

Alan Houser has had a key role in planning the past five STC Summits, including serving as Program Manager for 2009/Atlanta and Conference Chair for 2010/Dallas and 2011/Sacramento. As a technical communication consultant, he deals with many different companies and business requirements, and as a popular conference speaker, he has had the opportunity to engage technical communicators from around the globe. Alan joined the the Society in 1993, is a past president of the Pittsburgh Chapter, and is an STC Fellow.
Jane Wilson

Jane Wilson

Treasurer

As STC Treasurer, Jane chairs the Finance and Investment Committee, which is responsible for the annual budget, financial reserves, and financial processes of the Society. Jane is a Senior Member of STC and belongs to the Atlanta Chapter, where she served as treasurer for five years. She is an information architect at GE Transportation Optimization Solutions, where she leads the information products group and is responsible for product documentation and training deliverables.

Alyssa Fox

Alyssa Fox

Secretary

Alyssa Fox is a senior manager of information development at NetIQ Corporation, an enterprise software company based in Houston, Texas. She has been involved in technical communication for over 15 years.

Bernard Aschwanden

Bernard Aschwanden

Director at Large

Bernard Aschwanden has worked with STC communities online and in person for over 15 years. During this time he has talked to countless members, presented webinars, hosted events with partners, and attended and spoken at conferences on a local, regional, and national level. He has worked with many of the STC partners as well to help develop software and service solutions for people in technical communications. Bernard joined STC in 1997 and is a past president of a community and an STC Associate Fellow.
Ray Gallon

Ray Gallon

Director at Large

Ray Gallon is the owner of Culturecom, a consultancy specializing in the marriage of user experience and user assistance. Culturecom offers clients a unified service that blends aspects of content strategy, information architecture, user experience and interface design, business analysis, and user assistance.

Deanne Levander

Deanne Levander

Director at Large

Deanne Levander became an STC Fellow in 2010 and has been involved in STC leadership at both the local and the Society level for most of her career. She is currently the managing editor of the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge (TCBOK). Her experience with local and Society activities includes chapter, conference, and competition leadership that started with her participation as a member.

Ben Woelk

Ben Woelk

Director at Large

Ben Woelk, architect and former team lead of the Community Affairs Committee Outreach Team, is a Senior Member and a past president of the Rochester chapter, where he held a number of admin council positions. Ben works in the information security office at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he’s responsible for policy development and security awareness communications and training. He teaches courses at RIT in cyber self-defense and effective technical communication, and is a past co-chair of the awareness and training working group of the EDUCAUSE Higher Education Information Security Council.