Jennifer Veltsos

Education

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from Iowa State University
• M.A. in English: Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, Mankato
• M.B.A. from University of Louisiana at Lafayette
• B.S. in Marketing from University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Biography

Dr. Jennifer Veltsos is a professor in the Department of English. She joined the department in 2008 to teach in the technical communication program, where she specialized in visual communication, business communication and instructional design. In 2018, she co-founded the Applied Rhetoric Collaborative, an informal alliance of scholars, teachers and practitioners of rhetoric with a shared goal of using rhetoric to solve problems at work, in our classrooms, in our communities and in our public and private lives.

For the past several years, Veltsos has worked in the Office of the Provost to support student success and academic quality. From 2019-2021, she was the Interim Associate Vice President for Undergraduate Education. From 2021-2023, she was the Interim Associate Vice President for Curriculum and Dean of Graduate Studies. In January 2024, she became the Assistant Provost for Accreditation, Assessment and Curriculum Innovation, a title that is accurate but too long for a name badge. Her work focuses on helping faculty develop the academic curriculum and engage in continuous improvement through assessment and program review. She helps coordinate the education of high school students who want a head start on college credit through concurrent enrollment (CE) and post-secondary enrollment options (PSEO). As the accreditation liaison officer (ALO), she is the go-between for campus and our national accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission. She is the maven of university policies and procedures, and there are many, many other duties as assigned.

From 2017-2019, Veltsos was the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at Minnesota State University, Mankato. In that role, she coordinated faculty professional development on instructional design, effective teaching and learning strategies for traditional and online courses and the use of new and emerging technologies for teaching and learning.

Veltsos earned her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional Communication from Iowa State University, an M.A. in Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, Mankato, and an M.B.A. and a B.S. in Marketing from University of Louisiana Lafayette. Prior to her career in higher education, she was the community relations manager at Barnes and Noble Bookstore, Mankato and a communications specialist for the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation and Tourism.

Recent Publications

• Veltsos, J. R. & Hynes, G. E. (2024). Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications 9th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Veltsos, J. R., Sharp, M. R., Rawlins, J. D., Patriarca, A., & Pope-Ruark, R. (2022). Applied rhetoric as disciplinary umbrella: Community, connections, and identity. In Assembling Critical Components: A Framework for Sustaining Technical and Professional Communication. Meloncon, L. & Schieber, J. (eds). Colorado State University: WAC Clearinghouse
• Veltsos, J. R. & Hynes, G. E. (2021). Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications 8th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Hynes, G. E. & Veltsos, J. R. (2018). Managerial Communication: Strategies and Applications 7th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• McMahon, E., Swing, A. J., Veltsos, J., & Johnson, K. (2018) What Works Well in Online Teaching Minnesota State Faculty Development Committee. [A Creative Commons-licensed open educational resource.]
• Veltsos, J. R. (2017). Gamification in the business communication course. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly, 80(2): 194-216. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2329490616676576

Web

• Jennifer Veltsos Website