TAMRA ROSS
CURRICULUM VITAE
JANUARY, 2019

Athabasca University
Simon Fraser University
My LinkedIn Profile
My Editors Canada Profile

EDUCATION

Master of Science, Information Systems (MSc IS)
Current student, thesis track. Athabasca University

Graduate Certificate, Computer Based Information Systems (CBIS) (Honours)
University of Victoria, Continuing Education
Major focus: website design (XHTML, CSS), web programming (PHP), database development and design, SQL, systems analysis, security, and networking.

Bachelor of Arts (English) (Great Distinction)
Athabasca University
Course highlights: psychology, philosophy, medical anthropology, women's studies and women's health, ethnobiology, and assistive technology.

Certificate, Computing and Information Systems (expected completion, 2019)
Athabasca University.

University Editing Certificate
Simon Fraser University

Simon Fraser University
Selected honours courses, English literature

WORK EXPERIENCE

Leximortis inc. / Cobweb Text and Design, 2014 - present
Owner/Partner
A corporation offering web development services, writing, editing, and development of dynamic web and print documents, training materials, manuals, reports, and document templates. Writer, editor, layout designer, programmer.

Athabasca University, 2015 - present
Research Assistant
PHP Programmer, developing/enhancing a software tool to generate SQL queries based on a user-friendly wizard interface, with the intent to provide access to education log data for teaching and course development staff. See the AAT Project Web Site for more details.

Athabasca University Students' Union, 2002 - 2014
Executive Director/Communications Coordinator
Duties: Board governance, HR management, publication development and design, website development and design, database management, web server management, financial policy and budget development.
Skills: policy and bylaw development; financial management; hiring, supervising, and assessing staff; graphic design; writing, research, and editing; web server management and site design, development, and maintenance; project development for print (offset and digital press) and web; collaborative, distributed work environments.

The Voice Magazine, 2002 - 2014
Editor in Chief
Duties: Set direction and editorial style; develop website and pdf publication; layout and design; web programming; server administration; article selection; substantive, stylistic, and copy editing; proofreading; staff hiring, supervision, and management; writing copy; fact checking.
Skills: Editing; writing; knowledge of publication law; financial management; hiring, supervising, and assessing staff; graphic design; writing, research, and editing; web server management and site design, development, and maintenance.

Calgary Law Offices, 1995 - 1998
Legal Assistant/technology consultant
Drafting legal documents from templates and dictation, drafting invoicing and billing for client files, advising the firm on the purchase and installation of new computers, software, and networking (upgrade from old DOS systems to a Windows environment with networked printers and server), created new document templates after the computer upgrade, training staff on new systems.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Editors Canada Webinars
Sessions include:
STEM Editing, WordPress A-Z, Effective Technical Editing, Creating and Maintaining In-House Style Guides, A Linguists Guide to Grammar, How to Evolve Your Writing from Print to Online, Plain Language Success, and Eight Step Editing

Kelby Training
SuperCharged Photoshop, Introduction to Adobe InDesign CS2, Mastering Layers in PhotoShop

NON-PROFIT, VOLUNTEER, AND BOARD PROJECTS

Editors' Canada
Volunteer of the Month, January, 2018

• Active Voice task force, 2017
  Webinar trainer and host, 2016-
  Training and Development Committee, member (2016-17); chair 2017-
  Chair, Awards Committee, 2015-2017
  Member at Large, Calgary, 2012
  Layout and Design of Active Voice, the EAC's quarterly print magazine, 2009-2011
  (Graphics, layout, design, and new InDesign templates for French and English articles.)
  Layout and Design of Latest Edition, quarterly PDF newsletter, Prairie Provinces branch, 2008-2009
  Member, Prairie Provinces Branch, 2008-
  

AU Students Union, 2002 - 2004, 2015 - 2016

• Councillor, Academic Committee (chair), Web Committee, Groups and Clubs Committee, Executive Compensation Committee.

Athabasca University

• Student Academic Appeals Committee, 2009 - 2012
  Reviewed student appeal submissions, rendered decisions.
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education, task force 4: admissions, retention, and support, 2009 - 2010
  Developed a chapter of the AU Institutional Self Study for submission to MSCHE for continued accreditation.
• MyAU Student Portal Steering Committee, 2006 - 2009
  Developed plans and policy for development of the student and staff intranet portals.
• Web Authors working group, 2006 - 2009
  Informal working group of web authors from various departments to share information, development tips, and discuss issues around collaboration, design, and security of web services.
• Middle States Commission on Higher Education, task force 5: student admissions, 2002 - 2005
• 1234 Committee, 2005 - 2007
  Developed a chapter of the AU Institutional Self Study for submission to MSCHE for consideration of US accreditation.
• Moodle Steering / Moodle Implementation Committees, 2006 - 2009
  Developed plans and policy for development of the AU Moodle installation and online courses.

SKILLSET

Software
Adobe Creative Suite [PhotoShop, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, FrameMaker, Premiere Pro, Captivate, InDesign (extensive use in developing templates for a wide range of media), Flash, Encore.]
ADP Pay@Work payroll management
Collaboration Tools [Office, Adobe, Google Docs]
Microsoft Office [Word, Excel, Outlook, Publisher, Access]
Simply Accounting

Programming and Server Management
AJAX, Apache, cPanel, CSS, Eclipse, Git, Java, JavaScript, JQuery, MailMan, MySQL, Moodle, PHP, PostgreSQL, SQL, (Sub)version, Vaadin, Webmin, WordPress, xHTML

Writing and Editing Skills
Structural, stylistic and copy editing, proofreading, copy writing, indexing, technial writing and formatting, document layout and design, document templating

Board governance, bylaws, procedures, and policies.

AWARDS, SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS, PRIZES, GRANTS

Editors Canada, Lee d'Anjou Volunteer of the Year Award, 2018
Tamra was recognized for outstanding contributions to the association.

Editors Canada Volunteer of the Month, January 2018

National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), 2017 – 2018
University Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) (4 month full-time work term programming a PHP driven software tool to generate complex SQL queries). For the project entitled: Facilitating research in learning analytics through expanding the Academic Analytic Tool

National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), 2016 – 2017
University Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) (4 month full-time work term programming a PHP driven software tool to generate complex SQL queries). For the project entitled: Advanced learning analytics – going broad

National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), 2015 – 2016
University Undergraduate Student Research Award (USRA) (4 month full-time work term programming a PHP driven software tool to generate complex SQL queries). For the project entitled: Advanced learning analytics by combining complex analytical functionality with enhanced usability

Athabasca University Academic Achievement Award
Second highest program GPA of all undergraduate students in the program year.

Athabasca University Honour's List
3rd year of study.

ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS

Special interest in database development, distance education, computers in education, developing stories and backgrounds for game worlds.

OTHER EMPLOYMENT

Columnist with student newspaper, 2001 - 2005. Published 135 articles on diverse topics.
Freelance writing coach, ongoing. Teaching university students how to write better university papers, submissions for publication, and proposals.

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

Editors Canada (previously the Editors' Association of Canada), member since 2005.
Society for Technical Communication (STC), member since 2017
CIPS Alberta, Member since 2017
National Association of Photoshop Professionals (Kelby One), member since 2004.
SWAP - the Section for Women in Psychology, Canadian Psychological Association.
Wise Women web developers, member since 2006.

ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS

Exploring the Role of Distance Education in Fostering Equitable University Access for First Generation Students: a Phenomenological Survey.
Simultaneously published in The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning (IRRODL), v9 n1 (2008), and in Distances & Access to Education, a special joint issue of six international education journals (2008). Lisa C. Priebe, Tamra L. Ross and Karl W. Low, Athabasca University
Read paper online.

REFEREED CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

The Academic Analytics Tool (AAT): Workflow and Use Cases.
Tamra Ross, Ting-Wen Chang, Cindy Ives, Nancy Parker, Andrew Han and Sabine Graf (accepted). Proceedings of the International Workshop on Technologies Assisting Teaching and Administration (TATA 2016), Springer, September 2016, Tunis, Tunisia.
Read paper

Improving the User-friendliness of AAT through a Staged Evaluation.
Tamra Ross, Ting-Wen Chang, Cindy Ives, Nancy Parker, Andrew Han and Sabine Graf (accepted). Proceedings of the International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT 2016), IEEE Computer Society, July 2016, Austin, USA.
Read paper

Students' Perspectives on Virtual Communication in Distance Education.
S. Barg, D. Jabbour & T. Ross. International Symposium on Educational Conferencing, Banff, AB (2002).
Read paper online

PEER REVIEW PANELS

HUMANIZE 2017, ICWL 2016, ICSLE 2016, LAK16, IEEE TCLT Bulletin, SPeL 2016, LAK17
Sub-reviwer, peer panels

HOBBIES, INTERESTS, LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Virtual communications/collaboration tools
Reading (literature, fiction, and non-fiction) and research
Horror literature (study of historical and modern themes, societal impact)
Gaming (story development and writing)
Puzzles (word based, puzzle based games)
Exploring/supporting local businesses, growers, artists, and vendors
Attending/supporting live theatre/opera
Animal welfare and environmental causes
Yoga and Weight Training
Collecting art (especially by local or emerging artists)

Citizenship: Canadian
Languages: English (understand written French)