COOK FAMILY WRITING PROGRAM

Jeanne Weiland Herrick taught a variety of writing courses. In addition to expository writing, she taught in Design Thinking and Communication (formerly Engineering Design and Communication) program, a joint venture between the McCormick School of Engineering and the Writing Program. She also taught two first-year seminars to Weinberg first-year students: “The Edible Word: Reading and Writing about Food” and “Chicago Voices: Learning about Chicago,” and was an academic adviser to first-year students in Weinberg. In the latter course, students traveled into Chicago and conducted oral history interviews with Chicagoans in different Chicago neighborhoods, getting away from the mainstream of Chicago. Because Dr. Herrick’s area of research is in sociolinguistics, the study of how people from different cultures and language groups can better communicate and understand each other, she is also a specialist in teaching writing to non-native English speakers. Her teaching and university service were recognized when she received the 2014 Charles Deering McCormick University Distinguished Lecturer Award.

Beyond the classroom, Dr. Herrick served Northwestern’s community in several capacities. She served as the Mentor for Northwestern’s second Posse Scholars cohort. She also served on the Provost’s Faculty Distance Learning Workgroup, a university wide committee guiding Northwestern’s developing use of new and emerging technologies to enhance student learning. In addition, Herrick was actively involved in NU’s Residential College system, serving as Master of the Women’s Residential College from 2009-14, and as a fellow for many years. She was also the faculty representative on the Fraternity and Sorority Life Advisory Board and represented Weinberg’s Non-Tenure Eligible Faculty on Northwestern’s Faculty Senate. She also represented the Faculty Senate on CAR, the Committee for Athletics and Recreation. 

Drawing on her ten years of experience in sales and marketing for CBS television, Herrick has her own business communication firm, advising clients on issues of communication, diversity, and global competencies. Dr. Herrick also taught the Business Communication course for the Master in Product Development Program for McCormick´s School of Engineering and Applied Science. She worked with Northwestern University´s Law School as a consultant on issues of cross-cultural legal writing and cultural acculturation and helped them develop their legal writing program for international law students, and taught courses for Northwestern's School of Professional Studies (formerly the School of Continuing Studies), including Reading and Writing English for Non-native Speakers, Writing for the Professions, and introductory and immediate expository writing. In 2006, she was awarded the School of Continuing Studies Distinguished Teaching Award.

In her spare time, Dr. Herrick likes to garden, dance, kayak (at her cottage on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound), travel, and of course, read. And, she is a devoted NU basketball fan.