Abstract

Future Writers@Work Presenters: A Recommendation Report

Prepared by: Andie Foley, Catawba College 17
Writers@Work is an informative series held biannually at Catawba College. These sessions began
in 2015 and strive educate the Catawba College campus on successful workplace writing. Writing
techniques are utilized and presented by a variety of different local professionals. To date,
Catawba has featured Mike Arning, founder of PR firm True Speed Communication with
significant rapport in the NASCAR community, Emily Ford, a communication specialist with the
Murdock Study, and Father Robert Black of St. Luke's Episcopal Church. Prospective speakers
were evaluated against the demographics and interests of the current Catawbas student body.
Findings indicated that the ideal candidate should be a woman in the field of business or
performing arts. Ideally, this professional would represent a racial or ethnic minority. With these
factors in mind, Debra Plousha Moore, the chief human resources officer and executive vice
president of Carolinas HealthCare System, was recommended.
 Introduction
On March 28, 2016, Dr. Margaret Stahr, Associate Professor of English at Catawba College,
invited Professional and Technical Writing students to compose a recommendation report
regarding future Writers@Work speakers. The Writers@Work series began in 2015 and provides
the Catawba community opportunity to learn the writing routines of local professionals. Presented
by the professionals themselves, these biannual seminars complement professional and technical
writing coursework.

To date, Writers@Work has featured three experts from a variety of fields: communications,
public relations, and pastoral leadership. The esteem and experience of these individuals brought
great value to their presentations, and it is in effort to continue this value that students have been
asked to personally recommend future presenters.

Knowing that prestige and life experience are key factors of an effective speaker, an appropriate
candidate must possess:

An authoritative knowledge of his or her industry

A conveyable affinity, familiarity, and process for workplace writing
An apparent command of written and spoken word
A relatable personal history

Potential Writers@Work presenters were evaluated according to the above factors. Special
consideration was given to the demographics and interests of current Catawba College enrollees.

Methods

To select the appropriate candidates for prospective Writers@Work presentations, I broke the
project into three tasks:

1. Identify the demographics and interests of Catawba College enrollees.

2. Evaluate underserved careers and ethnicities.
3. Analyze data and recommend professionals in the identified areas of need.

In the following discussion of the processes used during each task, I explain the reasoning guiding
my research.

Task 1: Identify the demographics and interests of Catawba College enrollees.

In order to continue to engage Writers@Work attendees, faculty must carefully select
speakers who mirror the interests and cultural backgrounds of the student body. I consulted
recent informational materials of the college to evaluate the demographics and interests of
Catawba students. These brochures provided current enrollment numbers, gender ratios, and
popular areas of study. Racial demographics were taken from Forbes website.

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Task 2: Evaluate underserved careers and ethnicities.
Information provided during Task 1 outlined the gender and ethnic ratios of presenters needed
to adequately reflect those of the student body. Using the list of popular studies, I was also
able to identify related career choices that have yet to be addressed.

Task 3: Analyze data and recommend professionals in the identified areas of need.
With lacking genders, career paths, and ethnicities identified, I consulted local news sources
to identify successful individuals who fit our areas of need. Specifically, I searched the
Salisbury Post and Charlotte Observer websites to find individuals who met the outlined
criteria.

Results

In this section, I present the results of my research. For each of the outlined tasks, I define the
most important information acquired and calculated.

Task 1: Identify the demographics and interests of Catawba College enrollees.

The current Catawba College admissions viewbook describes the campus as having an
enrollment of 1,309 students. Of these, 47% are male and 53% are female. An overview
brochure lists popular areas of study as environmental science and studies, accounting,
business administration, athletic training, sports management, popular music, worship arts,
and theatre arts. Finally, Forbes describes the Catawba enrollee population as being nearly
70% Caucasian, with our minority population including 1% American Indian or Alaskan
native, 1.1% Asian, 20.8% African American, 2.9% Hispanic, and 1.4% two or more races.

Task 2: Evaluate underserved careers and ethnicities.

Using the above information, the gender ratio of Writers@Work professionals should be 1:1,
equally male and female. These individuals should ideally hold a 1:2 ethnicity ratio, with
approximately one speaker of minority decent for every two Caucasians.

Writers@Work has featured one Caucasian female speaker and two Caucasian male speakers
to date. Of these, students have learned about writing in the field of science, the field of
sports, and the field of religion. By generalizing popular areas of study for Catawba students
into science, business, sports and athletics, and performing arts, we see that the fields of
business and performing arts are yet underserved. Accordingly, the next featured professional
should be a person of color in the field of business or performance. Ideally, this individual
would be a woman.

Task 3: Analyze data and recommend professionals in the identified areas of need.
The Charlotte Observer proved most useful to identifying area professionals of esteem. Recent
news stories described three individuals of note: William Wilson, an entrepreneur business
owner and designer; Debra Plousha Moore, chief human resources officer and executive vice
president of Carolinas HealthCare System; and Eva Noblezada, a stage performer with lead
roles abroad and on Broadway.

William Wilson is the owner and designer of William Wilson Clothing in Charlotte. Wilson is
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 an African American and has been a business owner since before the 2008 market crash.
Connections he had made through his failed construction business frequently paid him for
style consultation services, and it is with this clientele that he entered the mens clothing
business. He has since designed been worn by both local and national celebrities alike.

Debra Plousha Moore is a military wife and mother of African American descent. She started
her career as a kindergarten teacher and would later become associate dean of students at the
University of Dayton. It was there that she received her counseling and human services
masters degree, before making the leap to the business world. She has been with Carolinas
HealthCare System since 2008, and won the 31st Queens University of Charlottes
BusinessWoman of the Year award in March of 2016.

Finally, Eva Noblezada is a 21-year-old Charlotte native with a familial ties to Mexico and the
Philippines. She was attended the Northwest School of the Arts, and was discovered her
senior year by producer Cameron Mackintosh. To date, she has performed abroad on the West
End, and in the United States on Broadway and with the Charlotte symphony.

Conclusion

While Eva Noblezada more closely meets our criteria of minority female professional, her current
employment status in London would make her both difficult and expensive to entertain on the
Catawba Campus. For this reason, we must eliminate her from consideration and focus solely on
Wilson and Moore.

Wilson has a very relatable background, as his path to success has been neither linear nor easy.
He has faced and overcome financial hardship, all while building the personal brand that would
lead to his eventual success in the style industry. He also has a wide social media presence, with
over 100,000 followers across Twitter and Instagram. Catawba students could greatly benefit
from information regarding the growing and powerful platform of social media.

Moore, however, has an equally relatable background. She speaks of undervaluing herself as a
worker, and currently strives to make sure the employees in her care never do the same. Her work
ethic and dedication to inclusion and diversity have resulted in remarkable career gains and
success. Her work in Charlotte would make a commute to Catawba well within reason, and video
of her awards acceptance speech shows she is a powerful and engaging speaker.

Recommendation

I recommend that the next Writers@Work speaker be Debra Plousha Moore. Not only does she
meet a need for minority and female presenters, but she also possesses a level of esteem that is
sure to keep attendees interested and engaged. She has a history of desiring to motivate, and her
wide and varying professional experience is sure to give her valuable insight into workplace
writing. Finally, her prowess in the business sector could extend Writers@Works value to an
increasing number of majors and studies, ensuring the series sees continued growth and impact
for years to come.

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 References

Bolling, Cristina. "Charlotte designers creating homegrown menswear." Charlotte Observer. 07

Jan. 2015. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Bolling, Cristina, and Helen Schwab. "Meet 9 of Charlottes most-followed on social media."
Charlotte Observer. 07 Apr. 2016. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.
Catawba College. Admissions Viewbook. Salisbury: Catawba College, 2015. Catawba College.
Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"Catawba College." Forbes. Forbes Magazine. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Catawba College. Overview of Catawba. Salisbury: Catawba College, 2015. Catawba College.
Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Peralta, Katherine. "Carolinas HealthCare System Exec Named BusinessWoman of the Year."
Charlotte Observer. 09 Mar. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
Toppman, Lawrence. "Charlottes highest-profile stage star ever? Shes 19 and already an
international smash." Charlotte Observer. 04 Feb. 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.
"Writers@Work Series." Catawba College. Catawba College, 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2016.

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