Meet The Team
Cat Mahaffey
Cat Mahaffey is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies (WRDS) at UNC Charlotte. She teaches first-year writing and courses such as Digital Design Theory and Practice and Information Literacy. Her research interests include AI, online privacy, accessibility, digital rhetoric, and technical and professional writing. Her latest book is titled ACCESS: Accessible Course Construction for Every Student’s Success (2025). She has also published in other books and journals, including chapters in Next Steps: New Directions for/in Writing about Writing (2019); Emerging Technologies in Virtual Learning Environments (2019); and PARS in Practice: More Resources and Strategies for Online Writing Instructors (2020).
Jamie Henthorn
Jamie is an Associate Professor of English at Catawba College, where she also serves as the writing center director and writing program administrator. She teaches a number of courses, including First Year Writing, Technical & Professional Writing, Digital Writing, World Literature, as well as Anime, Manga, and Manwha. Her research interests are in play pedagogy, teaching with technology, game studies, and digital culture. Her work has been featured in Television & New Media, Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments, and The Journal for Research and Practice in College Teaching. In addition to a co-edited collection on Pokemon Go, she has book chapters games such as Bioshock, Zombies, Run! and Horizon Zero Dawn.
She has hoped to one day host Computers & Writing since her first time attending the conference at Frostburg State University in 2013.
Ashlyn C. Walden
Ashlyn C. Walden (née Williams) is a Senior Lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a PhD Candidate in Rhetorics, Communication, and Information Design at Clemson University. Her work is deeply informed by her personal experience as a caregiver for her disabled son, which has fueled her specialization in accessible and inclusive online learning environments. In the classroom, she teaches a variety of hybrid and online courses focused on empirical research methods, information literacy, and digital design. In addition to her co-authored book, ACCESS: Accessible Course Construction for Every Student’s Success (Routledge, 2025), her research and film work have been featured in a variety of publications, such as Emerging Technologies in Virtual Learning Environments (2019), Journal for Multimodal Rhetorics (2022; 2023), Computers & Composition (2022), and Computers & Writing Conference Proceedings (2023).