Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Ph.D., Communication and Rhetoric
- Completed one of the first “born digital” webbed dissertation in the U.S (as cited in Chronicle of Higher Education, 2005), a cyberculture ethnography that can’t be reproduced on paper and doesn’t read the same twice.
- Interviewed about project in New York Times article on cult TV, 2000.
- Permanent site, www.nutball.com/dissertation, has been required in grad seminars both within & outside the U.S.
- Rensselaer Founders’ Award 1998 (highest award at RPI). Master Teaching Fellow, Rensselaer 1995-96.
- Macromedia Director Poetry, Animation & Photography Projects won multiple McKinney creative writing awards at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1994-97.
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
M.F.A., Creative Writing, Poetry
- Felix McKeon Award for Poetry, M. Blair Hart award for creative non-fiction, University of Arkansas 1990.
- Runner-up Lily Peter Fellowship, Poetry. University of Arkansas 1988.
University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
B.A., Journalism
- Third Place Persuasive Speaking; Third Place in Dramatic Interpretation, and Fourth Place in After Dinner Speaking at Novice Nationals, Omaha, NE, 1982. Seven additional awards for Persuasive Speaking, After Dinner Speaking, and Prose Interpretation while on UWEC Speech Team 1981-83. Qualified for NFA and AFA Nationals in 1982 and 1983.
- Photo Editor, The Spectator, student newspaper,1983-84.
- Harry E. Polk Memorial Award for best-designed special page, second place, UWEC, 1984. Arthur L. Murray Scholarship for outstanding contributions to a campus publication, The View alumni magazine, UWEC, 1985. First place, color photography, Society of Professional Journalists-Sigma Delta Chi, UWEC, 1985.