Nancy Hoft Consulting was established in 1991. Its principal, Nancy Hoft, is a professional writer, artist, trainer, interviewer, and speaker. Nancy has won awards for both her writing and her Web-site designs. Her course content and teaching style continues to win her praise from students and workshop participants worldwide. Hundreds of Web sites link to Web sites that Nancy created. Nancy's books and journal articles are used in undergraduate and graduate courses around the world. She is an internationally recognized expert in international and cross-cultural communication and has served as both a keynote and a featured speaker for major conferences.

One of the qualities of Ms. Hoft that sets her apart from most of her peers is her contagious enthusiasm for whatever she works on. Her projects and her approach to them tend to be ambitious in scope and execution, and she has a repeatable history of delivering high-quality end products. She has an engaging, high-energy personality and can facilitate small and large group discussions of diverse personalities and communication styles with ease.

Although most of her experience comes from working in the computer industry, she has worked in the banking and financial, environmental, networking, medical, and telecommunications industries. She has experience working in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. She integrates her diverse experience into all of her consulting, training, public speaking, and publications. Sponsors of her seminars and some of her clients include Microsoft, Ford Motor Company, Compaq Computer Corporation, NCR, Siemens Medical Systems, Sun Microsystems, Walmart, Intel, Bentley College, SOLUTIONS, the University of Washington, the University of California Extension, Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands, and both the Localization Industry Standards Association and the World Health Organization in Switzerland.

Educational Summary

Ms. Hoft was a Ph.D. student at Michigan Technological University in the Rhetoric and Technical Communication program, Humanities Department from 1998-2002. Although she did not complete her studies, she read in technical communication, activity theory, and sociolinguistics, and integrated these areas with her knowledge of cross-cultural communication and international technical communication.

As a researcher, Ms. Hoft participated in a grant from the National Science Foundation (November 1998). The timing of this research trip was ironic in that it occurred two weeks after the devastating effects of Hurricane Mitch, one of the worst hurricanes in history to hit Central America. Ms. Hoft traveled with two faculty members from Michigan Technological University and studied the risks associated with volcanic hazards. You can read her case study, "Communicating the Risks of Natural Hazards: The World-at-Large is at Stake," which describes her trip in detail. The case study will be published in an upcoming edited collection by Allyn and Bacon.

Ms. Hoft attended the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, and received a Bachelor of Arts in English. She has also studied fine art at Syracuse University, technical communication at Northeastern University, and law at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. Ms. Hoft has attended Novell-approved courses and was a registered Novell-Certified Netware Engineer (CNE) from 1993-1996.

She can read and speak French with conversational fluency and has a basic understanding of Spanish. You can read her academic vita.

Volunteer Activities

Ms. Hoft was an active senior member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC) from 1983-2005. In 1994-95, she managed the International Technical Communication Professional Interest Committee, which grew from 250 to over 500 members worldwide and which won an international acheivement award for its newsletter, Global Talk, during her term. She started two chapter-level International SIGs, one in the Puget Sound Chapter and one in the Boston/NNE chapters.

In 1991-92, she conceived and managed the first conference on International Technical Communication. The conference was held in Seattle, Washington, and attracted over 150 attendees and 14 speakers from all over the U.S. and Canada. The conference was such a success that it was responsible for the Puget Sound Chapter's international achievement award from STC in 1992.

Ms. Hoft has also served on various STC society-level committees the Professional Interest Committee (PIC) Advisory Committee (3 years) and the International Policy Commitee (3 years). In addition, Ms. Hoft has served as a judge in society-level, regional, and chapter competitions evaluating art, publications, and online documentation. She has also been a reviewer for proposed papers on international topics for Technical Communication, the STC's journal, and served as the Guest Editor of a special issue, Global Issues, Local Concerns, published in May 1999.

On a nonprofessional note, Ms. Hoft has volunteered at battered women's shelters and nursing homes, worked on crisis hotlines, and tutored children and adults in various topics.

Life Outside of Work

Cheers!