Linda has provided writing, research, meeting planning, and project management services to MMS and its clients for over 20 years. She was formerly on the faculty at West Virginia’s Shepherd University (as a tenured full professor) and the University of Denver’s writing program. Linda’s commitment to teaching excellence in her 26 years in higher education was recognized in 2004, when she was named the West Virginia Professor of the Year. Linda has also led numerous professional development workshops for K-12 teachers, spoken at state, national, and international education conferences, and taught targeted writing courses for professionals in technical fields. She now teaches as part of the University of Denver’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI).
Through her company, Tate Communications, Linda has written and edited reports, white papers, magazine articles, academic journal articles, web content, curriculum and training materials, fact sheets, brochures, blog posts, enewsletters, video and webinar scripts, academic and trade books, meeting proceedings, press releases, and more. She has even written the descriptive text for gourmet chocolate made in Ghana!
Linda has three books to her name, including A Southern Weave of Women: Fiction of the Contemporary South (U of Georgia P, 1994) and Power in the Blood: A Family Narrative (Ohio UP, 2009). She has been awarded a prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Humanities Fellowship at Marshall University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Gender in Appalachia; residencies at Norcroft: A Writing Retreat for Women (Minnesota) and Ucross Foundation (Wyoming); numerous research grants; and spots in three juried workshops, including a workshop with acclaimed poet and memoirist Mark Doty.
Linda holds a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with a minor in computer science and curriculum & instruction). She received her BA and MA in English from the University of Missouri-St. Louis.