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Onna NelsonON
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Onna Nelson

@onnanelson

I make technical and scientific material accessible through writing, learning design, and game design.

United States
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What I'm looking for

I'm looking to make technical and scientific material more accessible through stories, infographics, videos, and learning activities that help broader audiences understand what matters.

At Lynker, I support NOAA Fisheries by building Fish Online documentation and turning developer-created material into comprehensive user guidance for a mobile development framework.

I've designed cybersecurity workshops, self-paced training, instructor-led courses, and microlesson videos at Sumo Logic, and edited technical documentation across teams at Akamai Technologies.

I bring cognitive science, linguistics, game design, and statistics to stories, infographics, videos, and learning activities that help broader audiences understand complex material.

Through River City Editorial and my game-master work, I write, edit, teach new Dungeons & Dragons players, build characters and adventures, and create across web design and 3D printing.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Lynker logoLY
Current

Scientific Technical Writer

Dec 2023 - Present (2 years 10 months)

Support NOAA Fisheries to build Fish Online. ­Create documentation and edit and reformat documentation created by developers to provide a comprehensive body of user documentation for the mobile development framework.

MT

Instructional Designer

MapR Technologies

Jun 2015 - Jul 2017 (2 years 1 month)

Work collaboratively with Curriculum Developers, Subject Matter Experts, and Interactive Designers to design, produce, and maintain customer-facing instructor-led and on-demand training. Tasks include:
* Create and edit course materials, including slides, lab guides, and audio clips, using Microsoft Office (PowerPoint, Word) and Adobe Creative Suite (Captivate, Audition, Photoshop, Acrobat)
* Desi

UB

Technical Editor

UC Santa Barbara

Apr 2015 - Jun 2015 (2 months)

Edit newsletters for the Department of Economics, adhering to strict style guidelines and ensuring material was written in accessible language.

UB

Instructor

UC Santa Barbara

Jun 2014 - Jun 2015 (1 year)

Create the syllabus, homework, and exams; give lectures, hold office hours, create and update GauchoSpace (Moodle), and other duties for the following courses:
LING 20: Language and Linguistics (Summer 2014)
Writing 2: Academic Writing (Fall 2014, Winter 2015, Spring 2015)

UB

Undergraduate Advisor

UC Santa Barbara

Jul 2012 - Jun 2015 (2 years 11 months)

Lead Linguistics Club meetings, advise students on course offerings at UCSB, and offer mentoring concerning career options beyond UCSB. I also created and currently maintain , a website with resources for undergraduates to explore careers and find interesting and entertaining websites about linguistics. Additionally, I am an administrator and active member of

UB

Webmaster

UC Santa Barbara

Nov 2012 - May 2015 (2 years 6 months)

Update content, design, and maintain the websites for the Department of Linguistics at UCSB using both Drupal and GoogleSites.

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/
http://www.ucsblinguist.org/

UB

Teaching Assistant

UC Santa Barbara

Jun 2011 - Jun 2014 (3 years)

Grade homework and exams, lead discussion sections, hold office hours, update GauchoSpace (Moodle), and other duties for the following courses:

LING132: Language, Gender, and Sexuality (Spring 2014, Summer 2012)
LING137: Introduction to First Language Acquisition (Winter 2014)
LING136: African American Language and Culture (Fall 2013)
LING70: Language in Society (Spring 2013, Spring 2012)
LING138

UB

Research Assistant

UC Santa Barbara

Nov 2010 - Jan 2013 (2 years 2 months)

Work under Dr. Carol Genetti, using tools such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe PhotoShop, and Adobe InDesign to create diagrams, illustrations, flyers, and other materials for with the journal "Himalayan Linguistics", UCSB's new Introduction to Linguistics textbook "How Languages Work", and the Consortium on Training in Language Documentation and Conservation (CTLDC).

HB

Tax Associate

H&R Block

Nov 2009 - Apr 2010 (5 months)

Prepared taxes for English and Spanish speaking clients.

UD

Research Assistant

UC Davis

Feb 2008 - Oct 2008 (8 months)

Worked under Vineeta Chand on her doctoral dissertation, Who Owns English?: Political, Social, and Linguistic Dimensions of Urban Indian English Language Practices. Duties included transcribing audio files, reading spectrograms in Praat, and coding data in Excel spreadsheets.

CD

Junior Basketball Coach

City of Davis

Jan 2007 - Mar 2008 (1 year 2 months)

Coached a team of 3rd and 4th grade girls' basketball, including twice-weekly practices and once-weekly games.

Education

Degrees, certifications, and relevant coursework

LI

LinkedIn

Creating API Documentation

Issued Jan 2024

LI

LinkedIn

Programming Foundations: APIs and Web Services

Issued Jan 2024

UB

UC Santa Barbara

C.Phil, Linguistics and Cognitive Science

2012 - 2015

UB

UC Santa Barbara

Master of Arts (MA), Linguistics

2010 - 2012

UD

University of California, Davis

B.A., Linguistics

2006 - 2009

CH

Clayton Valley High

High School

2002 - 2006

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