Bio
Sumner writes for ORNL's Neutron Sciences Directorate. She manages social media, develops internal communications, and writes features, news releases, story tips, and other public-facing content that communicates the importance of neutron science at ORNL.
In 2022, she published her first ORNL feature, a historical view of a trailblazing physicist selected to work on the Manhattan Project at age 23. Read more here: Libby Johnson: On the frontier for nuclear safety.
Lab timeline
Sumner began subcontracting at ORNL in 2016 as a course developer for international nuclear security. After a year, she joined UT-Battelle as a technical writer and editor. She continued in this role for five years helping teams in the National Security Sciences Directorate sharpen their storytelling skills and communications products for federal sponsors as well as for peers and colleagues at other domestic and international labs and institutions. During this time, she also traveled internationally to help deliver courses and tabletop exercises.
Education
While pursuing her master's in rhetoric, writing, and technical communication at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sumner collaborated in the launch of a cutting-edge international journal for interdisciplinary work in nuclear security. As an assistant editor for the journal, she pursued coursework in global security studies, attended weekly research group meetings for UTK’s Radiochemistry Center of Excellence, and tutored international nuclear engineering students in English writing.
Sumner's master's thesis demonstrated three distinct writing voices: academic, technical, and narrative. In her thesis, she performed a rhetorical analysis of a local community's industrial history, focusing on early land grants, survey methods, labor conflict, and the dynamics of writing history. For the technical voice, she wrote a finding aid for a private business's land grant archive that predates the Revolutionary War. And, she embedded narrative reflections throughout the academic analysis.
Awards
Society for Technical Communication, East Tennessee Chapter
- J. Paul Blakely Writing Competition, Award of Distinction, 2014 and 2015
Professional Affiliations
Society for Technical Communication, 2014-2020
- East Tennessee Chapter, vice president 2015-2017, president 2017-2019
- Chair and Cofacilitator, Blakely Student Writing Competition, 2018 and 2019
National Association of Science Writers, 2023