Evan Lerner

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

Evan teaches professional communications to undergraduates in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Drawing on his background in science journalism and media relations, Evan’s approach incorporates the elements of narrative story structure to help audiences understand complex topics. Evan holds an M.S. from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and previously served as the Director of Communications for the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. He also works as a communications specialist in the Dean’s Office.

Holli Burgon

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

Cecile Paskett

CLEAR Associate Instructor

Cecile teaches professional communication to undergraduates in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Using her technical writing experience in both electrical engineering and educational contexts, she teaches courses that combine communication theory and applied practice, giving students hands-on experience as professional writers, speakers, and media creators. She holds both her M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Utah. Cecile is also an instructional designer in the John and Marcia Price College of Engineering and enjoys consulting with faculty as they design engaging and innovative learning experiences for their students.

John Coburn

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

John teaches professional communication to undergraduates in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He has over thirty years of experience working for The DuPont Company in a variety of engineering and managing roles. He has worked as a research engineer in Central Research & Development. He has also collaborated closely with process engineers at various manufacturing sites in the United States and abroad addressing production issues as well as scaling up production for new products. He has also worked in a variety of technical management roles. John has a BS in Chemical Engineering (Univ of Utah), a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (Univ of Utah), and a MBA (Univ of Delaware). He has written numerous technical documents in industry and has published several peer reviewed articles in scientific journals. John’s professional communication course covers technical writing and speaking, effective editing tools, critical and innovative thinking, and engineering ethics.

Russell Askren

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

Russ spent more than 20 years in the software development industry working in the area of large system administration and integration in both technical and managerial roles. His classroom focus is upon workplace writing and presentation, engineering ethics and the role of technology and engineering in society. Russ holds a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in philosophy with a specialization in applied ethics. His interests focus upon the application of philosophy to public policy in the areas of technology, business, medicine and global justice.

Ryan Brown

Director, Entrepreneurship Program

Ryan is a patent attorney with eight years of experience and an award-winning patent practice in Texas. He develops and teaches courses in technical communication and intellectual property law. Ryan holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from a large private university, which he attended as a Presidential Scholar and a National Merit Scholar. He holds a J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he served as an editor of the Michigan Law Review. He blends interests in engineering and argumentation with sincere philomathy as he teaches engineers to write and speak better.

Amanda Funai

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

Amanda teaches technical communication for graduate students throughout the college of Engineering. She previously taught engineering courses in engineering computation as well as advising biomedical capstone students at East Carolina University. Amanda holds a PhD From the University of Michigan in Electrical Engineering: Systems with a focus on biomedical statistical signal processing. She was funded as a National Science Foundation graduate fellow. Her dissertation was on the regularized estimation of magnetic fields in MRI. She was a National Merit Scholar and Presidential Scholar as an undergraduate at Northeastern University where she graduated as valedictorian. She has also previously worked in VLSI and circuit design. Her interests lie in technical writing, engineering education, STEM in K12, and retention and outreach for women in engineering.

Joshua Lenart

CLEAR Program Associate Instructor

Joshua teaches technical communications for the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering and the Department of Chemical Engineering. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Rhetoric and Writing Studies, a M.A. in English from Montana State University, and a B.A. in English from The Ohio State University. His research focuses on land management policy in two discrete areas. The first relates to civil infrastructure projects and landscape-scale impacts on habitat, community resilience, and long-term land use planning; the second involves the utilization, conservation, and management of big game wildlife resources.
For the past six years he has led various transdisciplinary teaching and research projects examining land and wildlife resource management conflicts vis-à-vis public policy, assessing stakeholder needs and desires, resource analysis, and collective impact engagement. Currently, he is working closely with several local and national organizations to research stakeholder input and discourse on the sale or transfer of federal public lands.