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Kathleen Hardesty

Associate Professor

Email: khardesty@floridapoly.edu

Phone: +1 (863) 874-8649

Location: Main Campus

Office: IST-2065

Department: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr. Kathleen Hardesty joined the faculty of Florida Polytechnic University in 2021 and currently teaches and coordinates the University’s technical writing curriculum. She has taught courses in professional and technical writing, document and visual design, digital media writing, and other communication topics at the university level since 2015. She also has more than 20 years of professional/technical writing and editing experience with a focus on the engineering industry.

Hardesty is the author of Violence, Silence, and Rhetorical Cultures of Champion-Building in Sports, a book in Routledge’s Studies in Rhetoric and Communication series. She has also published in various academic journals and regularly presents her research at professional association annual

Community Involvement

  • Board Member and Secretary, Davidson Haiti Foundation, 2022-current
Education
  • Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, Texas Tech University, 2020
  • M.A. in English, Rhetoric and Composition, University of South Florida, 2013
  • M.A. in International Affairs, The George Washington University, 2002
  • B.A. in English, Marshall University, 2000
  • B.A. in International Affairs, Marshall University, 2000

 

Expertise

  • Technical and professional communication
  • Visual design and visual rhetoric
  • Data visualization and information design
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Sports rhetoric

Professional Activities

  • Member, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication
  • Member, Association for Business Communication
  • Member, Rhetoric Society of America

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Session Details

This session will demonstrate that practical risk management is for everyone, regardless of a formal program. Attendees will learn actionable and simple strategies that are easy to implement, enabling them to start immediately by focusing on their top risks to build greater operational resilience and ensure the sustained success of their auxiliary enterprises.

Presenter Profile

Michelle Powell serves as the pioneering Risk Manager at Florida Polytechnic University, the state’s sole 100% STEM-dedicated institution. Having been with the university for nearly 11 years, Michelle transitioned from a leadership role in Admissions in October 2023 to establish and evolve the risk management function from the ground up. In this solo capacity, Michelle builds robust frameworks for our dynamic, young university, overseeing our insurance portfolio, consulting on third-party and event risks, and developing critical campus-wide training programs. Michelle has obtained the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Enterprise Risk Management certificate and the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) and Construction Risk and Insurance Specialist (CRIS) designations. Her distinct background in mathematics and engineering, combined with extensive higher education leadership, brings an analytical and strategic approach enhancing the institution’s resilience.