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Keisha E. McKenzie | communication | systems | social good

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Schedule: Back from Napa and heading to Tampa

I’m spending this March bouncing between the two coasts of the US for three projects including a film event, national communication conference, and a non-profit board meeting at the end of the month. This means I’ll be away from home for my birthday, but I’ll also be in the thick of more than 3,100 highly engaged writing, communication, and rhetoric professionals at the 2015 Conference of College Composition and Communication (CCCC) convention in Tampa, FL.

This coming Friday afternoon, Versatile PhD‘s Dr. Paula Chambers and I will talk about the risks and rewards of the alternative academic professional journey and life beyond the traditional tenure track. We’ve been asked to share our respective experiences and dig into the deeper issues of working outside the academy. We’ll also talk with smaller groups of attendees through the day on Thursday and Friday.

Our dialog: Find us in the Tampa Convention Center Ballroom A from 2 p.m.-3:15 p.m. this Friday afternoon.

Our mentoring conversations: On Thursday, find us in the Action Hub, Tampa Convention Center Ballroom B from 10:15 a.m.-1:15 p.m. and 2:30-5:30 p.m. On Friday, find us back in Ballroom B from 10:15 a.m.-1 and 3:30-5 p.m.

The convention image for the 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) in Tampa, FL this March 18-21. The top half of the image is a photo of the Tampa skyline at night. The convention theme, Risk and Reward, is on the right of the image. At the bottom in black print: "Attend the 2015 CCCC Annual Convention." (Image via NCTE.org.)
The 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication is in Tampa, FL, March 18-21. The year’s theme: Risk and Reward. (Image via NCTE.org.)

Follow along via the conference Twitter hashtag, #4c15, and watch for any scheduling or availability changes with our session’s tag, #altac.

In about four months, I’ll be able to share the details of my Napa trip and the project that I worked on there. I enjoyed a few intense days with several people inclined to the art of open-hearted conversation. It was the applied version of an approach I’ve been encouraging informally and through my writing for a number of years and I can hardly wait to say more.

For now, though, I’m inspired to head back to that area for less work and more rest: it was a welcome reprieve from the Eastern seaboard’s extended winter, and it was beautiful.

A photograph overlooking the Napa Valley near sunrise. In the foreground are two wooden chairs. They and the stone-tiled ground are wet from morning rain. In the distance, the hills are still dark and the clouds are tinged with red. There are sparse desert shrubs to the right and across the valley.
Overlooking the town of Napa. 2015 (c) Keisha McKenzie

Up next: Check in again in about 2 weeks for an abridged version of my presentation at Creating Change in February (with audio if I can wrestle Audacity into submission), and an article on working across faith and secular lines for the common, public good.

In foreground pink and shadow: orchid blooms; in background in bright midday light, the urban landscape of lower Manhattan and the Hudson River. The sky is very blue, with a few low-horizon white clouds.
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