Webinar: Listening to the Legends

Pioneers of Plain Language

February 26, 2026 | 1:00–2:30 pm ET
Live webinar
Cost: $45 members / $75 non-members
Recording included + an exclusive resource: 3 Tips from the Legends

About the Webinar

Plain language didn’t begin with a standard or a checklist. It began with people who saw that communication wasn’t working and decided to change it.

Listening to the Legends: Pioneers of Plain Language brings together leaders who helped shape the plain language movement. They’ve spent decades applying, advancing, and advocating for clear communication across government, law, design, standards, and organizations.

This is not a formal training. There are no slides and no step-by-step instruction.

Instead, this webinar offers a rare opportunity to be “in the room” with these pioneers to hear their stories, learn from their experiences, and reflect on where the movement has been and where it’s going.

Who Should Attend

This webinar is designed for:

Experienced plain language practitioners
Center for Plain Language members and non-members who understand plain language fundamentals
Professionals interested in the history, evolution, and future of the field

If you want to connect with the leaders who helped build the plain language movement, and ask real questions about today’s challenges, this session is for you.

What to Expect

This 90-minute session is structured as a guided, conversational panel, followed by small-group discussions.

You can expect:

Informal, behind-the-scenes conversations
Real-world lessons from decades of practice
Live Q&A driven by attendee questions
Breakout rooms with additional plain language leaders
A recording of the panel conversation and an exclusive follow-up resource: 3 Tips from the Legends

Meet the Legends

Ginny Redish
Plain language and UX pioneer

Janice (Ginny) Redish has been a passionate evangelist for plain language and usability for more than 40 years. Clients in both the private and public sector have benefited from Ginny’s research, advice, and help in improving their documents, websites, apps – and their processes for creating and maintaining clear communications.

Ginny is a founding member and former board member of the Center for Plain Language. Her work has brought her many awards, including the Christine Mowat Plain Language Achievement Award from the Plain Language Association International.

Ginny is especially proud that the definition of plain language in the new ISO standard is based on her rubric that “the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.”

Karen Schriver
Expert in document design and plain language research

Karen Schriver is an internationally recognized expert in plain language, information design, and technical communication. Winner of fifteen awards for her work, she is also the author of Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Texts for Readers (Wiley, 1997), which has gone through nine printings. She brings both rich practical experience and expertise in evidence-based practice to her work. A former professor of rhetoric and document design at Carnegie Mellon University, she has studied how people engage with and use print and digital communication. She excels at integrating research and making it accessible.

Schriver is best known for helping professional communicators move from seeing themselves as either writers or designers to seeing themselves as information designers—integrating words, images, and typography to reach audiences more effectively. As a frequent keynote speaker and trainer, Karen has had the privilege of sharing ideas about evidence-based practice with thousands of people in corporate and academic settings—from Brazil to Japan to Slovenia. She is now working on a new book, What Readers Want.

Deborah Bosley
Leader in corporate plain language and business communication

Deborah Bosley, Ph.D. is Founder and Principal at The Plain Language Group (TPLG), which she founded twenty years ago. She also is a Professor Emerita from UNC Charlotte where she taught technical writing. TPLG provides clients, customers, and the public with content that is easy to understand and use by working with Fortune 100/500 companies primarily in finance, technology, and health and with local, state, and national government agencies. She helps clients strategically create clearly written communications that also meet regulatory standards.

Deborah has given more than 100 keynotes, including a TEDx Talk, in the U.S., Mexico, England, Spain, Ireland, Germany, and France; authored three books; and dozens of articles on clear communication. She has been interviewed or written for Inc., Time Magazine, The Atlantic, the Wall Street Journal This Weekend radio broadcast, ABC News, Investment News, Investment Advisor, ThriveGlobal, Employee Benefits, WealthManagement, and HealthLeader Media, as well as multiple social media outlets.

Deborah currently serves on the board of The Center for Plain Language and is a former President of the Plain Language Association International (PLAIN).

Susan Kleimann
Government plain language advocate and policy leader

Dr. Kleimann is an expert at understanding the nuances of how communication resonates and impacts the consumer’s experience and the corporation’s reputation and profitability. She has led high visibility, national impact projects for Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, Board of Governors of Federal Reserve System, Securities and Exchange Commission, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Harvard University, RAND Corporation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as well as confidential, private industry clients.

She is an engaged professional with over 40 years of communication experience—translating complex, technical, & legal language into clear consumer-focused, technically accurate communications— at any literacy level, in any language, in any mode. She led the Information Design Center (formerly Document Design Center) at the American Institutes of Research. From 1997 – 2020, she headed her woman-owned small business, built from an underfunded start-up to a multi-million-dollar, profitable communication firm used by government and private industry for high profile, big impact projects.

Susan also served on the Board for the Center for Plain Language, initiating the Center’s ClearMark Awards. She was a key member of the development of the ISO Plain Language Standard and is currently working with others on a standard for Evaluation Methods.

Moderator

Suzanne Boyd
Founder and CEO, Anthro-Tech

Suzanne Boyd is the Founder and CEO of Anthro-Tech, a woman-owned human-centered design consultancy serving government agencies, nonprofits, and enterprises with a social impact mission. Suzanne and her team specialize in designing products and services that are clear, accessible, and improve people’s everyday lives.

As a trusted advisor, Suzanne has a proven track record of helping leaders to improve customer experiences and shift organizations towards customer-centric processes and cultures. She is an expert in institutionalizing human-centered design, cross-channel customer experience, and digital transformation.

Over the past 29 years, Anthro-Tech has partnered with dozens of state, local, and federal government organizations, global foundations, and Fortune 500 clients. Suzanne is dedicated to reshaping problem-solving approaches, ensuring technology and innovation serve the greater good.

Suzanne is also an Assistant Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in the Human-Centered Design & Engineering Master’s Program. Since 2001, she has shared her insights and passion teaching the next generation of innovators and designers.

Suzanne will guide the conversation and help surface lessons, challenges, and insights from each panelist’s unique perspective.

Breakout Moderators: Legends in Their Own Right

Following the main panel, attendees will join small breakout discussions facilitated by additional leaders who have made lasting contributions to the plain language movement.

Annetta Cheek

Dr. Cheek became involved in plain language in the mid-1990s, first as a federal employee and, since her retirement in 2007, in the private sector. She was a founder of the federal plain language group, PLAIN. She served as Vice President Al Gore’s lead for plain language programs, coordinating a government-wide plain language effort. She was one of the founders of the Center for Plain Language and served as its chair for over 10 years and in that role was instrumental in getting the US Congress to pass the Plain Writing Act of 2010. She was also one of the founders of the International Plain Language Federation, served as its president for several years, and currently is represents the organization Clarity on the Federation Board. Most recently she worked within the context of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) to develop an ISO international standard for plain language (issued June 2023 – https://www.iso.org/standard/78907.html). She is currently working with other plain language experts on additional ISO standards, including requirements for certification of plain language organizations.

Joseph Kimble

Professor Emeritus Joseph Kimble taught legal writing for more than 30 years at Cooley Law School, in Lansing, Michigan. He has lectured throughout the United States and abroad, published scores or articles on legal writing, and written four books: Lifting the Fog of Legalese; Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please: The Case for Plain Language in Business, Government, and Law; Seeing Through Legalese; and Essentials for Drafting Clear Legal Rules (with Bryan Garner and available for free online).

He is senior editor of The Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, the longtime editor of the “Plain Language” column in the Michigan Bar Journal, editor of the “Redlines” writing column in Judicature, a past president of Clarity, and a founding director of the Center for Plain Language. He led the work of redrafting the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Federal Rules of Evidence. He has received many national and international awards for his work.

Julie Clement

Julie Clement has dedicated her career to making legal and governmental language more accessible to the public. She spent more than two decades as a law professor, teaching future lawyers to use plain-language principles, and she currently teaches three courses in Simon Fraser University’s Plain Language Certificate program.

She is the president of Clarity Inc. and served for 14 years as editor-in-chief of The Clarity Journal.  She is on the boards of the Center for Plain Language and the International Plain Language Federation, and she consults with public institutions, courts, and legal professionals on writing, editing, and designing clear documents. Julie helped to develop ISO 24495-1 – the first global plain language standard – and was the project manager for ISO 24495-2, which focuses specifically on legal communication. She is also the Deputy Clerk of the Michigan Supreme Court.

Sally McBeth

Sally founded Clear Language and Design as an editing and training consultancy in 1995. She is the author of Service Canada’s guide to clear language for correspondence writers, and co-author of the Clarity Kit, a guide to creating a clear-language organizational culture. She contributed to Plain Language in Plain English, a comprehensive guide to plain language best practices. Sally has served as guest editor of Clarity, an international journal for legal writers.

Sally’s current and recent training projects include staff at the Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority and the Métis Nation of Ontario. In her editing role, she works on entry-to-practice materials for professional health colleges.

Kate Harrison Whiteside
Co- founder Plain, Lifetime Member Plain, Networking Program Lead, Plain Canada
Director, Instructor PlainLanguageAcademies.org

I currently wear several hats, and as a hat lover I am happy wearing them. The development of the new Plain Language (ISO) standards is a remarkable global step forward.

Our PlainLanguageAcademies.org keeps growing. It’s been very exciting to enhance our training to include French and Spanish, more languages coming, online, and webinars. Our associates include South African and European plain language specialists, with more on the way.

It’s such a great time to be in plain language.

Format & Logistics

Title: Listening to the Legends: Pioneers of Plain Language
Date: February 26, 2026
Time: 1:00–2:30 pm ET
Format: Live virtual webinar (90 minutes)
Cost: $45 members / $75 non-members
Recording: Available to all registrants

Join us for a thoughtful, engaging conversation with the people who helped define plain language as a profession.