COOK FAMILY WRITING PROGRAM

Barbara Egel has worn several hats on her way to becoming an Adjunct Lecturer in the Cook Family Writing Program teaching Design Thinking and Communication. As a qualitative research consultant specializing in innovation and product development—especially in sensitive topic areas—she has seen several products from initial need exploration through to store shelves. Barbara has, on behalf of clients, designed studies and led conversations with children, women, the elderly, the LGBTQ+ community, and people with behavioral health and addiction diagnoses, among many others. She has conducted research on five continents, producing culturally targeted reports and meta-analyses. She has also worked in children’s multimedia publishing, where she wrote and edited books and designed story templates and game play to mesh with new technologies. As a result, she is your go-to for all things Sesame Street.

Barbara has literature degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana and from Northwestern. Her scholarly interests include poetry and poetics, early modern literature, modernism, and performance studies. For the last several years, she has taught literature, composition, and business communication at Harold Washington College.

Barbara’s current consultative practice focuses on communication strategy, writing, editing, qualitative research, and business presentation training. She is also a published poet and reviews books for Light and Booklist.