English Department News
New Faculty Member Specializing in Technical Communication
May 2009—The UMass Dartmouth English Department recently announced the appointment of Karen Gulbrandsen as Assistant Professor English. Professor Gulbrandsen, a recent Ph.D. recipient from Iowa State University, will focus her courses on business and technical communications.
While at Iowa State, Professor Gulbrandsen worked for several years as managing editor and writer for ISU's Virtual Reality Applications Center on a variety of print and electronic materials. She became interested in technology transfer—the movement of intellectual property from a university or private research lab to its development in industry—through her job at ISU's Virtual Reality Applications Center. She worked with faculty and staff to articulate the value of the center's research to external stakeholders, such as industry partners and governmental funding agencies.
This newly found interest led Professor Gulbrandsen to analyze the discourse structures of research organizations that reach across disciplinary and university boundaries as a way of doing business to provide for the innovation economy.
She directly ties this work and her interest of technology transfer to her teaching and teaching philosophy. She focuses on the ways working professionals convey information to multiple audiences with different needs and goals. Her classes often examine a variety of workplace examples for audience, purpose, and context. Students discover the importance of effective communication beyond the classroom, especially when business and technology merge. She will bring this innovative and professional minded teaching philosophy to the UMass Dartmouth students.
Familiar with the area, Gulbrandsen is also a graduate of Northeastern University, where she received her Master's Degree in Techincal & Professional Writing. Professor Gulbrandsen owns a small graphic design studio specializing in print design for the health care industry, with her husband. He other professional writing experience includes managing publications for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, WI and editing grant proposals for the Nonprofit Finance Fund in Boston.
Professor Gulbrandsen looks forward to teaching many courses in technical and business communications at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
