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Bio

Cynthia Whitesel has over 30 years of training and teaching experience in workplace and classroom settings using different technologies, during which time she has also worked as a professional writer, editor, information systems analyst, and consultant. She has trained extensively in technical and business writing, editing, proposal writing, corporate communications, briefing, writing computer user documentation, and other areas. Currently, she consults in Distance Education and teaches part time online and in the classroom.

She has been teaching writing to faculty and students since 1970, and has taught and consulted on writing and other communication skills in the workplace for Washington-Baltimore-Annapolis area firms, including IIT Research Institute, Printing Industries of Maryland, Allied Signal, Department of Defense, and Health Care Financing Administration. During the last decade, she expanded her interests in teaching to distance learning.Whitesel has published the Online Guide to Writing and Research, written for UMUC students and faculty, and made content contributions to the Virtual Teaching Resources site, developed with a grant from Verizon.

With experience in various distance delivery technologies, she consults in training, development, and instructional design for distance programs. As faculty training and development specialist, she trains faculty to use virtual classrooms, develop course materials, and deliver courses online. She assisted in the development of online programs at University of Maryland University College, Park University Bellevue Community College in Bellevue Washington, and Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold Maryland, and designed and taught the pilot class (Writing for Executives) for the American Society of Association Executives successful desktop training program. She is a frequent speaker and presenter at distance education conferences.

Whitesel's research interests include teaching and learning online. She presents her phenomenological research at the Society for Phenomenology and Human Science (SPHS) research conference.

Whitesel has been teaching for UMUC since 1976 and was appointed Professor of Practice of Communication Studies in 1999. Currently, she is Visiting Lecturer in English and Mass Communication at Lincoln University, Lincoln University, PA.

As online adjunct professor for Park University, she designed and taught Technical and Scientific Writing, and currently teaches Modern Literature. As online adjunct professor for UMUC, she has designed and taught several courses in the Communication Studies program and now teaches Seminar in Technical Communication, a capstone course in the major.

She resides in Amish country in Pennsylvania where she lives in the woods in a magical rural community of rare wonders. In her spare time, she searches out Appalachian music and sings and plays in a bluegrass band called Crabgrass.

Download a copy of my resume in PDF format.