The October 12, 2011 Chapter Meeting

Van Shackelford worked his way up from Novice Technical Writer out of San Jose State University, to Director of Publications at both Visa International and later at Aircraft Technical Publications. He was the President and sole proprietor of Vash Consulting, a Technical Writing company, for 7 years and is currently Manager of English Technical Communications at EFI, Inc. in Foster City. Van holds a B.S. degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco.

Valerie Steele has been a manager of small Technical Publications teams for over 15 years. She has extensive experience managing remote technical writers and enjoys the different perspectives and cultural diversity each writer brings to the job. She has worked with localization of technical documentation but still has a lot to learn. Valerie has been a Senior Member of STC since 2000.

Katherine Wenc has been Developer Publications Manager at Apple since 2001. She manages writers who produce reference documentation and conceptual guides for the iOS, Mac OS X, Safari, and iAd JS Developer Libraries. This work includes coordinating with cross-functional teams to devise documentation strategies and interacting with editors and art directors to ensure adherence to departmental standards and guidelines.

Prior to Apple, Katherine was Technical Writing Manager at Avaya/Lucent and worked as a technical writer at ViewStar, cc:Mail, and other technology companies. Her first job in California was Press Research Assistant for California Governor Jerry Brown, in the second term of his first administration.

Katherine studied Science Communications at Boston University School of Public Communication and received her Bachelor of Science, in Biology, from Simmons College. She currently lives in Berkeley with her pampered pets Glinda and Teresa and travels to the East Coast frequently to visit family and catch the latest Broadway plays.