This newly endowed full-time professorship has provided an opportunity to hire a digital writing specialist who can prepare students for fields requiring expertise in new online media. As Poster acknowledges, her approach to teaching is a pragmatic one, reflecting the realities of ever-shifting market demands and the "increasingly globalized and entrepreneurial nature of writing as a profession."

Poster's experience teaching professional writing, most recently at York University in Toronto, Canada, dovetails with her 30-year career in freelance journalism. Her publications include three commercial non-fiction books and more than 500 individual publications in periodicals as well as digital format.

Poster holds degrees from Hollins College, Eastern Washington University and the University of Missouri, respectively. In addition to numerous awards, she completed a research fellowship at the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, University of Oxford, in July 2012.

Endowed professorship co-benefactor Becky Goss, who graduated from FHSU in 1982, has expressed her belief "in a strong education in any of the liberal arts, but especially English, as it is an excellent foundation for success in almost any profession of choice."

Goss and her husband, Mike, divide their time between Connecticut and New York.

For more information, contact Dr. Cheryl Duffy, professor of English, or Brenda Craven, instructor of English, at 785-628-4285, or by email to cduffy@fhsu.edu or bcraven@fhsu.edu.