The American Name Society is pleased to announce the 2017 Slate of Nominees for open ANS Officer positions. During the ANS annual meeting in Austin Texas in January, the Slate of Nominees will be formally presented to the ANS membership for the election process.

 

Member-at-large: Jason Chen

Jason Chen is a graduate student in Linguistics at the University of Florida. His current research focuses on language attitudes, accent perceptions, personal names, and East Asian cultures. He received his BA in English Language and Literature at Chinese Culture University in Taiwan (2008) and his MA in Linguistics from San José State University, CA (2012). During his graduate studies at San José State University, he served as the Web Master for the Linguistic Department and is therefore highly computer literate. He was awarded Outstanding Student in Linguistics at San José State University, CA in 2012. Three areas of ANS committee work that particularly interest him are streamlining the abstract review process, the ANS-ESA, and the ANS internet profile.

 

Information Officer: Laurel Sutton

Laurel Sutton is the founder and CEO of Catchword branding, an onomastic firm that develops product and company names for enterprises ranging from Fortune 100 to VC-backed Silicon Valley start-ups. She became a namer while in the PhD Linguistics program at UC Berkeley. She helps to run the LSA’s Special Interest Group, Linguistics Beyond Academia. She is computer literate and very familiar with WordPress, HTML, and social media platforms. An active member of the ANS, she has published her onomastic research in NAMES, presented at ANS conferences, and has co-organized a special panel, “Onomastics Beyond Academia”, with ANS President Nick. Her stated goals include improving the ANS website, expanding its communications capacities, and helping the ANS strengthen its presence on modern social media.