About the Author

Kathryn Rentz

Dr. Kathryn Rentz is a Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati. She taught her first business writing class as a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the early 1980s and has been teaching workplace writing ever since. She helped establish the University of Cincinnati’s professional writing program and has served as its coordinator. She has also won the English Department’s teaching award, directed the department’s graduate program, and helped direct the composition program.
Dr. Rentz’s affiliation with the Association for Business Communication goes back to her beginnings as a business writing teacher. She has performed many roles for the ABC, including serving on the board of directors and chairing the publications board. She served two terms as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Business Communication and was Interim Editor from 2000–2001, for which she won the Francis W. Weeks Award of Merit. In 2008 she won the ABC’s Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award. In 2011 she was elected Second Vice President for the association. She served as President in 2013–2014 and Past President in 2014–2015.
Dr. Rentz has published articles on business communication pedagogy and research in such journals as Business Communication Quarterly, the Journal of Business Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, and the Journal of Business and Technical Communication. She has participated in many professional meetings and seminars over the years and is always learning from her colleagues and her students.

Paula Lentz

Dr. Paula Lentz is an associate professor and academic program director in the Department of Business Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She teaches Business Writing and Advanced Business Writing and develops and teaches online communication courses for the University of Wisconsin MBA Consortium program.

Dr. Lentz is particularly interested in qualitative research that explores narratives and organizational cultures, genre theory, and writing a pedagogy in online environments. She has developed numerous online courses and online materials for hybrid and flipped classrooms. In addition, she has published and presented frequently on topics of rhetoric in business communication and continues to do freelance writing, editing, and consulting. Dr. Lentz's professional activities include involvement in the Association for Business Communication, where she chairs the Academic Environment Committee. She received a BA from Coe College, an MA from UW-Eau Claire, and  PhD in Rhetoric and Scientific and Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota.