Leadership & Service

Leadership in academia means more than holding titles. It’s about building the infrastructure that helps our field thrive, creating opportunities for others to succeed, and using our platforms to drive meaningful change. Throughout my career, I’ve sought leadership opportunities that allow me to strengthen connections between scholarship and practice, amplify diverse voices, and build resources that serve our entire community.

Editorial Leadership

Chief Editor, Computers and Composition: An International Journal, 2024–Present

I have the privilege of stewarding one of the premier journals in digital writing research, working to expand international participation and ensure the journal reflects the global scope of our field. In this role, I’m focused on supporting work that reflects the interdisciplinary nature of digital writing—from UX research to community engagement to pedagogical innovation—while building editorial processes that actively support international contributors and create meaningful dialogue between researchers, practitioners, and the communities they serve.

Other Editorial Roles:

  • Editorial Board Member, Xchanges (2019-present); Kairos (2021-present); Journal of User Experience (2023-present)
  • Advisory Board Member, Sweetland Digital Rhetoric Collaborative (2024-present)
  • Associate Editor, Technical Communication Quarterly (2023–2024)
  • Associate Editor, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2021-2023)
  • Book Review Editor, Composition Studies (2020-2023)

Professional Organization Leadership

Vice President, Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), 2022–Present

I work with colleagues from technical and professional communication programs worldwide to create resources for programmatic development, helping emerging programs build sustainable curricula and supporting established programs in adaptation and growth.

Member-at-Large, ACM SIGDOC Advisory Board, 2024–Present

I help guide strategic direction for the premier organization focused on design of communication, with particular attention to making our conferences and initiatives accessible to graduate students and field participants. Prior to this role, I served as the SIGDOC Social Media Manager for 6 years (2017–2024).

Field-Building & Community Resources

Recognizing that navigating academic publishing and professional development can be challenging, especially for graduate students and international scholars, I’ve developed and maintain crowd-sourced resources that serve our entire community:

Public Engagement

I believe scholars have a responsibility to make our research accessible beyond academic circles. Through strategic public writing, I work to translate technical communication research into actionable insights for broader audiences:

  • Medium Series on Collaborative Writing (with Joe Moses) – 7-part series translating academic research into practical guidance:
    • Moses, J. & Tham, J. (2019, April 2). Slacker alert: How to overcome slanxiety in every collaborative writing project. Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2P9SLEY
    • Tham, J. & Moses, J. (2019, March 25). Is design thinking the key to your next corporate writing gig? Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ZbVnqn
    • Moses, J. & Tham, J. (2019, March 12). What could be worse than team writing projects? Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2IlWkHn
    • Tham, J. & Moses, J. (2019, March 5). How we use design thinking to support collaborative writing. Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2KEhF0N
    • Moses, J. & Tham, J. (2019, March 1). Five collaborative writing roles that makes sense––and some that don’t. Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ZaCbJI
    • Moses, J. & Tham, J. (2019, February 25). Four ideas for creating a collaborative writing environment that works. Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2Uk8X7w
    • Moses, J. & Tham, J. (2019, February 21). Stop using traditional writing process models for team-writing projects. Medium. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2DbQ5lk
  • Op-Ed Leadership – 80+ pieces in University Chronicle (2010-2014), including roles as Opinion Editor and Managing Editor.

Looking Forward: Vision for the Field

My leadership philosophy centers on building bridges—between theory and practice, between academic and community contexts, and between scholars working in different parts of the world. I’ve seen firsthand how powerful it can be when these connections happen naturally, and I’m convinced that the future of our field depends on making them more intentional and accessible.

When I think about expanding international participation in our major journals and conferences, I’m not just talking about numbers—I’m imagining the conversations that happen when scholars from different cultural contexts bring their perspectives to bear on shared challenges. As Chief Editor of Computers and Composition, I get to help create those opportunities, and it’s some of the most exciting work I do.

I’m equally energized by the practical side of field-building: creating resources that help programs around the world develop and thrive. I love knowing that something I helped build is making it easier for a graduate student in another country to navigate our field or for a new program to get off the ground. But what really drives me is fostering collaborations that tackle real-world problems through rigorous research. I believe our best scholarship happens when it’s accountable to the communities it serves, and I’m committed to creating more opportunities for that kind of engaged work. And underlying all of this is my dedication to mentoring the next generation of scholar-practitioners because, ultimately, they’re the ones who will take these bridges we’re building and extend them in directions we haven’t even imagined yet.