Lillian Anne Abreu is the Assistant Director and Research Associate at the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University (FIU). She holds a doctoral degree in Social Welfare from the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work at FIU, with her research focusing on social and economic mobility among Hispanic women in the United States. Abreu also earned a Master of Science in Fundraising Management and Nonprofit Administration from Columbia University, a Master of Science in Social Work from Loyola University, and a Bachelor of Science in Social Work from Florida State University.

With over twenty years of experience in the social service, nonprofit, and higher education sectors, Lillian has consistently dedicated her career to empowering underserved communities across Florida, Illinois, and New York. Before her tenure at FIU, she leveraged her expertise in community engagement, nonprofit administration, and education to help public and private organizations achieve their strategic goals. Her work involved collaborating with multidisciplinary teams to implement innovative programs and resources to serve diverse communities.

In her current role at the Kopenhaver Center, Abreu leads research and programming initiatives, focusing on inclusive programming that advances women in communication and other disciplines within the College of Communication, Architecture, + The Arts. Additionally, she serves as an adjunct professor at the University of North Alabama.

Lillian resides in the Village of Biscayne Park in Miami, FL, where she is devoted to her family, friends, and her two adopted rescue dogs, Maxi, and Kenny.

Dr. Abreu’s research concentration is social and economic mobility for the US Hispanic female population.  Abreu investigates risk and protective factors related to educational attainment, labor attachment, and geographic location.

Prinicipal Study: Income Attainment and Hispanic Female Householders: Examining Educational Attainment, Labor Attachment, and Geographic Region.

Dr. Tatiana Andrienko-Genin is a distinguished professor, scholar, and academic leader with a successful three-decade academic, administrative and research background in Higher Education, known for her expertise in Intercultural Communication and Business Communication. She is an accomplished international author, conference keynote speaker, presenter, moderator, and corporate trainer, renowned in European countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, as well as the United States.

Currently serving as an Adjunct Lecturer at Florida International University and dedicated to fostering FIU students’ global awareness, engagement and collaboration, Dr. Andrienko-Genin has actively involved them in the international telecommunications with their peers from Great Britain, Mexico and Ukraine. Her global learning initiatives culminated in Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) projects in Intercultural Communication and Speech and Writing for Business courses.

Latest major FIU COIL projects with La Salle University in Mexico “Understanding Culture through Technology” (Spring and Fall 2023) focused on intercultural influences and interactions as manifested in a broad variety of areas from art and music to business cultures and professional identities. They allowed the participating students to develop deeper insights into the origins of cultural phenomena, practice perspective-taking and bridge gaps in understanding cultures. Their collaborations resulted in unique video-artefacts summarizing the project findings, as well as reflections on the intercultural experiences where the students emphasized that COIL was the most valuable asset in their course.

As an active member, Session Chair and presenter of the Association for Business Communication (ABC), Dr. Andrienko-Genin has presented COIL at the ABC Teaching Circle (October 12th, 2023: https://www.businesscommunication.org/p/bl/et/blogid=1&blogaid=494 ), as well as the plenary session of ABC 2023 Annual International Conference in Denver (October 18 – 28, 2023: https://www.businesscommunication.org/p/cm/ld/fid=1456).

Dr. Genin’s 100+ publications include eight books and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, such as:

Andrienko, T., Genin, V., & Kozubska, I. (2021). DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL BUSINESS COMPETENCE VIA TEAM LEARNING IN POST-PANDEMIC ERA . Advanced Education, 8(18), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.20535/2410-8286.214627

Andrienko T., Genin V. (2020). Intercultural business communication and translator’s cultural identity. National Identity in Language and Culture – Kyiv, Talcom, 106 – 111 https://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/43370

Andrienko, T. (2019). Cross-cultural interaction in the globalized business environment: The role of translator/interpreter. Issues of Modern Philology in the Context of the interaction of Languages and Cultures, Venice, Italy. – pp. 126 – 129.

In addition to her role at Florida International University, Dr. Andrienko-Genin serves as a part-time Professor, Faculty Senate Member and Chair of the Academic Standards, Policies, and Procedures Committee (2020), Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (2021 – 2022, 2023 – till present), and Faculty Affairs Committee (2022 – 2023), as well as and IRB Member. She has repeatedly represented her institution during WASC accreditation visits. Her teaching portfolio includes Academic Communication, Managerial Communication, Business Communication, Speech, Ethics & Debate, International Relations, World Politics, and Research Methods.

Dr. Andrienko-Genin holds a Doctor of Sciences, PhD in Intercultural Communication, a PhD in English Linguistics, and a Master of Arts in Education.

With a comprehensive skill set encompassing Higher Education Teaching, Research, Communication, Guest Lecturing, and Presentation Skills, Dr. Tatiana Andrienko-Genin continues to make significant contributions to the academic community through her research, publications, and dedication to fostering inclusive and effective learning environments.

Dr. Andrienko-Genin’s research concentration is Intercultural Business communication, with a focus on cultural gender identity.

Principal Study: Intercultural Communication, Female Leadership, Cultural and Gender Identity

Dr. Janelle Applequist (Ph.D., M.A., Penn State University) is an Associate Professor of Advertising and Public Relations at the Zimmerman School of Advertising and Mass Communications at the University of South Florida. She serves as Associate Director for the Center for Sustainable Democracy in the College of Arts and Sciences.

As a transdisciplinary researcher, Dr. Applequist specializes in advertising and patient-centered health communication. Her expertise in mixed-methods research, particularly qualitative methodologies, enables deep investigations into complex healthcare communication challenges. She has secured substantial research funding as PI, Co-PI, Co-Investigator, or Consultant on various university, industry, and NIH-funded grants totaling over $62 million.

Since 2019, Dr. Applequist has served as an Academic Consultant on the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Patient Engagement Advisory Committee, contributing expertise on agency policies, clinical trial design, and patient-related issues. She has made five invited panel presentations to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research and Office of Prescription Drug Promotion, reaching audiences of over 700 attendees. These presentations were organized with the prestigious Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

Her primary research focuses on pharmaceutical advertising and messaging effectiveness, investigating patient responses through innovative analytical approaches. She has advanced methods to understand consumers’ cognitive processing during advertisement viewing experiences. Her secondary research emphasizes the broader field of health communication, successfully bridging advertising principles with physician-focused health infrastructure changes and direct-to-patient recruitment.

Dr. Applequist currently serves as Co-Investigator on the NIH-funded Preventing Alzheimer’s with Cognitive Training (PACT) study, working to enhance clinical trial participant engagement, recruitment, and retention. Through consultation with USF’s Health Informatics Institute, she has led research phases for message design, testing, and dissemination across six international clinical trials focusing on rare diseases.

She serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, is a member of the National Communication Association’s Research Council, and is an alumni of the 2024 Association of National Advertisers (ANA) Educational Foundation’s Visiting Professor Program. Dr. Applequist is the author of “Broadcast pharmaceutical advertising in the United States: Primetime pill pushers” and co-author of “CTE, media, and the NFL: Framing a public health crisis as a football epidemic.”

Her research appears in journals including Annals of Family Medicine, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, BMC Medical Research Methodology, Journal of Health Communication, Qualitative Health Research, Journal of Interactive Advertising, and Health Communication.

Dr. Applequist’s research operates at the intersection of advertising, health communication, and mass communications. As a transdisciplinary scholar, she specialize in:

Primary Research Focus:  Pharmaceutical advertising and messaging effectiveness, Innovative methodologies for analyzing consumer cognitive processing during advertisement viewing, Mixed-methods research with an emphasis on qualitative approaches

Principal Study:Direct-to-Consumer Recruitment Methods via Traditional and Social Media to Aid in Research Accrual for Clinical Trials for Rare Diseases: Comparative Analysis

Amal Bakry is Assistant Professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where she teaches a variety of courses on advertising strategy, advertising copywriting, advertising media planning, and communication research. She received a Master’s of Arts in Advertising from Michigan State University (MSU), and a PhD in Mass Communication from the University of Florida. Dr. Bakry has a number of publications, including her most recent co-authored article “Social Identities in Consumer- brand relationship: The case of the Hijab-wearing Barbie doll in the United States,” which was published in the Journal of Consumer Behavior in 2021. Before joining academia, she worked with DDB, one of the top advertising networks worldwide, and she was the Head of Communications at the British Council in Egypt.

Amal Bakry’s research focuses on Feminist and social movements research.

Principal Study:Social identities in consumer-brand relationship: The case of the Hijab-wearing Barbie doll in the United States

Kelli S. Boling  is an Assistant Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. As a cultural studies scholar, her research focuses on the lived reality of media audiences (specifically women, women of color, or victims of domestic violence), how those women are depicted, and how they interpret and make meaning from the media they consume. Her research has been published in Mass Communication & Society, Feminist Media Studies, Journalism Studies, and Journalism History, among others. Her research on women in podcast audiences has also been cited by traditional media outlets such as TIME magazine and The Washington Post. She has also been interviewed about her research by broadcast media such as Scripps News, the ACLU At Liberty podcast, and CBC Radio.

Professor Boling’s area of research focuses on the intersection of media, gender, and social justice, particularly feminist media studies, true crime podcasting, and digital activism. She explores how media representations influence societal perceptions, particularly concerning marginalized groups, such as women and racial minorities. Additionally, she examines the ethical considerations in journalistic practices, especially within emerging media formats like podcasts.

Principal Study: “It’s that ‘There but for the Grace of God Go I’Piece of It”: Domestic Violence Survivors in True Crime Podcast Audiences

Dr. Collins is a multi-national and international award-winning professional journalist and media expert, including multiple Emmy, Gannett and Associated Press Awards, with more than 35 years of experience in the media industry. She is also an international and national award-winning professor, scholar, researcher of mixed methodology and creative with 25 years of experience on the university level.

As a Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communications, Social-Psychological Scientist, Collins created and developed a unique Pedagogy and Organizational Praxis for Full-Inclusion, Emotional Wellbeing and Leadership called Active Centralized Empowerment (A.C.E.). A.C.E. is national and international award-winning and producing and can be across grade levels and Disciplines as well as Organizations, Businesses and Communities. She also created an interdisciplinary and community-based national award-winning website of Full Inclusion and Empowerment called Hear My Voice Online.com.

For 2 consecutive years, she won first place in the Top Faculty Paper Competition at the national Broadcast Educators Association Conference as, both, coauthor, and sole author. Her papers focused on De-Marginalization in Media Newsroom and Leadership Development in College Classrooms. Collins was selected as one of the Top 50 Journalism Professors in the nation of 2012 by Journalismdegree.org and has received national recognition for her teaching, research, creative endeavors, and service.

In all that she does, she works to bring out the best in people and works to make the world more informed, more educated, kinder, and gentler to one another as a Global family. In proper fashion, she was selected as GAIA INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCE 2023 HUMANITY LEADER TOP PICKS. Collins is also a Kopenhaver Fellow. Her publications include podcasts, and NPR stories and literary content such as Teaching without Borders: Creating Equity and Inclusion through Active Centralized Empowerment – dedicated to all of the students she has taught over the years offers strategies to bring the entire classroom together at a time of such divisiveness in the classroom and on campuses. It is teaching the Human Being who happens to be a Student.

She has also written other acclaimed book publications, chapters, and articles including 3-category Best-Seller Salt and Light: Inspiring Stories of Love, Hope, Faith, and Transformation, Riding the Rainbow Through the Storms, A Colorful, Humorous Story of Recovery, Academic woundedness and healing: Welcome to the Queendom!, Feminist Perspectives on Advertising: What’s the Big Idea?, and Best-Seller 250 Years and Still a Slave – a go to for prominent Race Relations Expert Jane Elliott.

Dr. Collins is CEO of the NFP World Changers Media International Foundation and President of ACEing IT Consulting, LLC. Her documentary and web series, A Taste of Gullah, won Best Documentary at the International Garifuna film Festival Award in Venice, California and has over 15 million views across media platforms including PBS and her comprehensive (5 hours), autoethnography series, “Journey to My Mother’s Land: Extending the Gate’s Effect into Africa,” chronicles her immersion-trip back to her maternal ancestral land of Sierra Leone, West Africa and the Mende tribe was selected for the 4th Dimension Independent Film Festival 2021 and awarded first place in the cinematography category and screened in Paradiso Ubud, Bali, Indonesia. It was also selected for the Accolade Global Film Festival 2021 in La Jolla, California and won Best Director. Her docuseries aired in the U.K., U.S., Canada, and across Africa via NTA, one of the largest, most expansive media broadcasting systems in Africa. Working without a budget, she believed so strongly in its impact on marginalized groups as well as educating others, that she wrote, directed, edited, produced, filmed, reported and narrated the entire series herself to completion.

She worked with Nonprofits and documentarians from over 162 countries on humanitarian efforts and Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations on storytelling and inclusive practices at UnLeash 2019! In Shenzhen, China, and in the past year, as a grant writer and lead researcher of mixed methodologies, she has assisted Foundations, STEM/STEAM, College Success and Community organizations in being selected for awards to the sum of over 4 million dollars.

In all that she does, she works to bring out the best in people and works to make the world more informed, more educated, kinder, and gentler to one another as a Global family. She says that she is who she is as a change agent because of God and Jesus Christ, her parents and family, students and teachers who impacted her life in transformational ways, the mentors who guided her, the naysayers who doubted her, voices from communities, and her love for teaching and learning from every Human Being that she meets. She learned to be of service for the best in humanity at an early age and grew up understanding and practicing: compassion, empathy, effective leadership, effective collaboration, diversity, equity, belonging and full inclusion. She has always believed that each person is born with a special gift, something special they were born with that only they can give to the world. She loves to go camping, fishing and play chess, love others, and to see people reach their highest potential, fulfillment, and happiness, especially her students. She remains humble. She remains optimistic and she remains
passionate and vigilant in creating a more humane, educated, and safe world in which to live and learn.

Dr. Collins earned a B.A. in Speech Communications and Theatre Arts with a specializing in Communication/Rhetoric, a certificate in Women’s Studies and was a standout student-athlete and inductee in the ACC Legends Hall of Fame representing Women’s Basketball at Wake Forest University. She earned her M.S. in Journalism at E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and PH.D. in Mass Communications and Media Arts and Studies and Women and Gender Studies in the Scripps College of Communications, both at Ohio University. She is an Associate Professor in the acclaimed E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University. To read more about Dr. Collins, you can find her on social media @DrjaiC, LinkedIn, and her website.

Profesor Collin’s research focuses on: Journalism,Gender Studies, Mass Communications, A.C.E. Pedagogy of Empowerment (Active Centralized Empowerment) Creator De-Marginalization via Holistic Measures Management and Leadership Development Storytelling/Narrative Inquiry Community Inclusiveness & Empowerment (she works across Disciplines in Creative Endeavors, Research, Teaching & Service)

Principal Study: Leadership Development in Collge Newsroom Labs: It Is Trasnactional

Eunji (Angie) Chung Ph.D, is an associate professor of public relations at Auburn University.She has taught at the undergraduate and graduate level at Auburn. Her courses include Digital Media Analytics, Quantitative Methods of Communication Research, Public Relations Research, Social Media & Public Relations, Public Relations Case Studies & Ethics, and Public Relations Strategies. She was the recipient of the Excellence in Teaching Award from the Sphinx chapter of Mortar Board at Auburn University in 2017.

Chung earned her MS from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism where she studied business reporting. Her news articles have appeared in MarketWatch, The Daily Caller and UPI. Before pursuing her master’s degree, she worked as a trademark paralegal at a South Korean law firm, Kim & Chang. She received her BA from Ewha Womans University.

She has served as the advisor for the Auburn University chapter of Lambda Pi Eta (2016-present). Chung is also currently a member of the editorial review board of Journal of Public Interest Communications and Asian Journal of Public Relations. She was selected as a Kopenhaver Center Fellow for 2018 by the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication.

Professor Chung’s research interests include strategic communication, corporate communication, and digital media. Chung has published papers in journals, such as Communication Reports, Journal of Public Relations Research, Corporate Communications: An International Journal, International Journal of Strategic Communication, and Journalism.

Principal Study:Promoting the Use of Electric Vehicles on Social Media: The Effects of Message Framing, Point of Reference, and Political Affiliation on Perceived Information Value for Others …

Brooke Duffy Ph.D,  is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at Cornell University, where she holds appointments in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Media Studies.

She is the author or co-author of three books, including (Not) Getting Paid to Do What You Love: Gender and Aspirational Labor in the Social Media Economy (Yale University Press, 2017/2022), which Wired named as one of the “Top Tech Books of 2017.” Her most recent book, Platforms and Cultural Production (Polity, 2021) with Thomas Poell and David Nieborg, has been translated into Italian and Chinese. Duffy’s current book project, “The Visibility Bind: Creators and the Perils of Platform Labor” (under contract, University of Chicago Press) draws upon interviews with social media influencers, creators, and streamers to explore the promises, perils, and paradoxes of work in the creator economy. You can learn about what Duffy calls “the visibility bind” here.

Duffy’s work has been published in such journals as Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, the International Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, the International Journal of Cultural Studies, Social Media + Society, and Information, Communication, and Society. In addition to her academic publications, she has disseminated her research to a broader audience through popular writing in The Atlantic, Vox, Salon, Business Insider, Wired, and Quartz, among others. Frequently sought out for her expertise on the influencer economy, Duffy has been quoted in The New York Times, The Guardian, the BBC, Vox, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The USA Today, and Vice. She’s also been an invited guest on such podcast and radio series as NPR’s “On Point,” Fast Company’s “Creative Control,” WBUR’s “Endless Thread,” and The Atlantic’s “Crazy/Genius.” In addition, Duffy appeared in the Viacom documentary series “The Culture of Proximity 2.0.”

Duffy is the recipient of multiple research awards, including the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Outstanding Junior Scholar Award, the Young Scholar Award from the International Communication Association’s Popular Communication Division, the Emerging Scholar Award from the National Communication Association’s Division of Critical and Cultural Studies, and the CALS Award for Early Achievement in Research.

At Cornell, Duffy teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Gender and Media, New Media & Society, Cultural Production in the Digital Age, Media Theory, Advertising & Society, and Qualitative Methods of Communication Research. In 2024, she taught a new graduate seminar on “Platforms, Power, and Precarity in the Creator Economy.”

Duffy serves on the board for the American Influencer Council and is a member of the Content Creator Scholar Network.
Duffy completed her Ph.D. at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. She holds an M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and B.A. from The Pennsylvania State University, where she was the student marshal for the College of Communications.
Duffy and her family reside in Central New York.

Professor Duffy’s area of research focuses on Social media and society; platform labor; gender and feminist media studies; media and cultural production; work, technology, and surveillance; influencers and the creator economy.

Principal Study: (Not) getting paid to do what you love: Gender, social media, and aspirational work.

Tracy Everbach is a professor of journalism in the Mayborn School of Journalism at the University of North Texas. Her research focuses on women’s work and leadership in journalism, sports and gender, and representations of race and gender in media. She teaches undergraduate and graduate classes on race, gender, and media, news reporting, and qualitative research methods. She is a former newspaper reporter.

Professor Everbach’s area of research focuses on women in journalism; women in media leadership; representations of race, gender, and sexuality in media; women in sports media and representations of women athletes; and teaching controversial topics. Methods: in-depth interviews, ethnography, textual analysis, content analysis.

Principal Study: The Culture of a Women-Led Newspaper: An Ethnographic Study of the Sarasota Herald- Tribune

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Dr. Pallavi Guha is an Associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University and the author of Hear #Metoo in India: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Activism, published by Rutgers University Press. Her book has been positively reviewed in Ms. Magazine, Baltimore Sun, International Journal of Communication, Cultural Sociology, and other publications and is available in 932 libraries worldwide. Her research includes anti-sexual assault activism media platforms, gender roles in the electoral campaign and journalism, and exploring social media and generative AI in civic media in democracy.

In 2022, Dr. Guha contributed as a research stakeholder of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, an initiative of President Biden, in the National Plan on Violence Against Women.

Dr. Guha’s career spans two decades as a journalist, journalism researcher, and educator. Her educational background lies at the intersection of politics and media. She has a Ph.D. in journalism and a graduate certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maryland. Before coming to academia, Dr. Guha was a journalist, working for leading media organizations, including BBC News and The Times of India. She has had the distinct opportunity to cover Indian, UK, and US elections as a journalist.

Dr. Guha has won multiple awards and grants for her scholarship and teaching grants, including the 2019 AEJMC Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award for the best dissertation in the discipline of mass communication and the most recent Solutions Journalism Network Student Media Grant. She has been recognized with 17 awards and gotten over $54,952 in grants and awards, highlighting distinguished academic excellence and innovative research in pressing societal matters. Dr. Guha is listed as an academic expert on media, politics, and gender, including the safety of journalists and WMC.

Leading media organizations in the U.K., such as the BBC World Service, non-profits such as The First Amendment Project in the U.S., the Government of West Bengal (India), and others have invited Dr. Guha as a speaker to share her research expertise.

Dr. Guha believes in the strength of functional and aspirational mentorship, which has led to her chairing five successful graduate thesis completions, working as an undergraduate research mentor, mentoring graduate students, peer mentorship through the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and serving on the advisory council board of Girls Report, Inc. to support young girls’ civic media journalism curriculum in Nepal, focusing on gender empowerment.

Dr. Guha is also an elected member of the journalism professional Freedom and responsibility committee at AEJMC.

Dr. Pallavi Guha’s research includes anti-sexual assault activism media platforms, gender roles in the electoral campaign and journalism, and exploring social media and generative AI in civic media in democracy.
In 2022, Dr. Guha contributed as a research stakeholder of the White House Task Force to Address Online Harassment and Abuse, an initiative of President Biden, in the National Plan on Violence Against Women.

Principal Study: News, Social Media, and Anti-Rape and Sexual Harassment Women Activism

Meg Heckman is a journalist, author and educator working to solve two of journalism’s biggest problems: a lack of gender equity in news and the decline of the local information ecosystem. As an associate professor at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and Media Innovation, Heckman tackles these issues in her scholarship, her classroom, and her work advising news industry leaders.

Her core research focuses on understanding and dismantling journalism’s macho culture with the goal of improving gender equity in newsrooms and news content to create more opportunities for women in civic life. To do this, she leverages feminist media history to better understand the contours of modern journalism. Heckman also studies digital news production and dissemination, especially as it relates to how student journalists can help solve the local news crisis.

She teaches a mix of graduate and undergraduate news production classes as well as a course she developed that explores gender dynamics in the news industry. She is a faculty affiliate of the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks and an executive committee member for Northeastern’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program.

Before coming to Northeastern in 2017, Heckman was a journalism lecturer at the University of New Hampshire where she served as a faculty fellow at the Peter T. Paul Entrepreneurship Center. She spent more than a decade as a reporter and, later, the digital editor at the Concord (NH) Monitor, where she developed a fascination with presidential politics, a passion for local news and an appreciation for cars with four-wheel drive.

Heckman has been an active member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) for the last decade, serving as the 2021-2022 head of its Commission on the Status of Women. She is also a past president of the New Hampshire Press Association and has served twice as a Pulitzer juror.

Professor Heckman’s concentration focuses on fostering comprehension and deconstructing the macho culture within journalism, aiming to enhance gender equity in newsrooms and news content, thus increasing opportunities for women in civic engagement.

Principal Study: Gender Equity in News and the Collapse of Local Information Ecosystem.

Dr. Julie Haynes, Professor of Communication Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies, has been named Director of the Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Rowan University.

Dr. Haynes’ research explores how categories of identity, such as gender, race, and class, influence public discourse, particularly in mediated and pop culture settings. She is especially interested in how regional identity complicates or enriches our understanding of self and place, and frequently writes on gender and region in the areas of reality television, horror, sport, and country music. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences, including at Oxford University, and published in edited volumes and journals, such as Feminist Media Studies. Her dissertation on gender in country music videos is housed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Library and Archives and was consulted in the making of Ken Burns’ documentary, Country Music. She teaches a variety of courses, including, Rhetorical Criticism, Images of Gender in Popular Culture, Rhetoric of Sport, Women and Gender in Perspective, Hitchcock and Gender, Rhetoric of Reality Television, Gender and Horror, and Rhetoric of Social Protest and Resistance. She is a Bildner Fellow and previously served as the Associate Dean of the College of Communication and Creative Arts.

Dr. Hayes research explores how categories of identity, such as gender, race, and class, influence public discourse, particularly in mediated and pop culture settings. She is especially interested in how regional identity complicates or enriches our understanding of self and place.

Principal Study: Regional identity and understanding self and place.

Dr. Bethanie Irons is the program chair of communication design at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She also served as the Director of the Stephens College satellite location of the Kopenhaver Center from 2021 until 2023. Dr. Irons earned a Ph.D. in learning, teaching, and curriculum with an emphasis in art education and an MFA in visual studies from the University of Missouri. She also earned a BFA in art from the University of South Dakota.

Dr. Irons is an accomplished artist and designer. She has shown her work internationally, including in Norway, Australia, and the UK. Her work has been shown in numerous print publications, including New American Paintings and Friend of the Artist. Focusing on digital means of artistic production, she melds together art historical references with new media and illustration to address societal issues and mental health practices.

Dr. Irons wrote her Ph.D. dissertation on the use of social media, specifically Instagram, and its impacts on creative practice and mental health. This work has extended to her teaching, as she often focuses on using social media as an ideation practice and as a means to interrogate the rhizomatic connections between design, media, and society. She is an advocate for the well-being and advancement of women and non-binary designers in the field of communication. She strives to strengthen the Center’s mission to uphold diversity and inclusion invitations in communication practice and research.

Dr. Irons’s research focuses on the use of social media, specifically Instagram, and its impacts on creative practice and mental health.

Principal Study: Social Media, Digital Art, Design Research, Creative Process, Creativity + Mental Health Media Studies

Erika K. Johnson, Associate Professor

PhD in Journalism (2016), University of Missouri; MA in Journalism (2012), University of Missouri: MPH (2016), University of Missouri; BA in Communication Studies (2010), American University

Her internationally recognized research in various journals and conference venues addresses interactive, social, and entertainment media effects, often in the health context (e.g., Communication Research, International Communication Association). Erika Johnson approaches her research agenda from various methodological perspectives, also delving into social media trends and pedagogy. While much of her research explores source in regard to communication persuasiveness from a social science perspective, she also endeavors qualitative research.

Funding/Awards:

Johnson, E. College of Fine Arts and Communication Teacher-Scholar Award (2023-2024)

Johnson, E. (2020). School of Commnication Travel Award.

 Johnson, E. (2019). School of Communication Research Residency Award. $2000.

 Johnson, E. (2018). School of Communication Research Award. $3000.

 Johnson, E., & Griffith, R. (2019). SOC funding for DTC ads study. $500.

Bammel, S., & Johnson, E. (2018-2019). Mentor for Sarah Bammel’s Mini Undergraduate Grant Award (REDE). $600.

Tell a Story, Save a Life (Public Health internal grant funded) collaborator (2017-2018)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Effects of new media technologies on health outcomes

Persuasion effects involving emerging media, social media and entertainment media

Personality traits, media use, and risk behaviors

Influence of trust on media use and decisions

Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on the effects of new media technologies on attitudes, body image, and other health outcomes

Dr. Shaheen Kanthawala (Michigan State University, 2019) is an assistant professor in the Journalism & Creative Media department within the College of Communication & Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. She has a Ph.D. in Media & Information Studies, an M.A. in Health & Risk Communication, and an M.A. in Journalism from Michigan State University. Her research lies at the intersection of media technology, information, and communication with a special focus on health technologies, and social media. She has extensive experience focusing on user and preferences and behaviors and employs a wide variety of methodological approaches including but not limited to interviews and content analyses. Her work has been published in top-tier journals including New Media & Society, Mobile Media & Communication, Journal of Medical Internet Research, and Social Media + Society. She teaches graduate courses on media effects, social media, and research methods, and undergraduate courses on media content creation, media effects, media ethics.

Dr. Kanthawala’s research lies at the intersection of media technology, information, and communication with a special focus on health technologies, and social media. She has extensive experience focusing on user and preferences and behaviors and employs a wide variety of methodological approaches including but not limited to interviews and content analyses.

Principal Study: Health technology; media effects; social media

Dr. Stefanie Davis Kempton is an assistant professor of journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. Her research interests include the lived experiences of women media professionals and representations of women in the media. Prior to academia, she was a broadcaster in news and weather, including national TV networks. She holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communications from Penn State University. She was previously on faculty at Penn State Altoona.

Dr. Kempton’s research focuses on lived experiences of women media professionals; representations of women in the media.

Principal Study: Deadlines and due dates: The impact of pregnancy and motherhood on journalist from the 1950s to the 2020s

Ciera Kirkpatrick is an assistant professor of advertising and public relations at the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. She joined the faculty in 2021 and has been teaching undergraduate and graduate courses, such as Strategic Writing, Applied Research in Advertising & Public Relations, and Advertising Issues and Strategies.

Kirkpatrick’s research is focused on how messaging in the media (e.g., advertising, news, social media content) affects individuals’ mental and physical health and how strategic communicators can effectively design messages to improve individuals’ health outcomes. She uses a social scientific experimental approach to investigate how message features (e.g., the content and structure of the message) interact with characteristics of the audience (e.g., their prior attitudes and risk perception) to influence the cognitive and emotional processing of messages and, in turn, outcomes like message perception, attitudes, and behavior change. Most recently, Kirkpatrick’s research has examined the influence of TikTok on young women’s health-related attitudes and behaviors (e.g., the effects of TikTok videos on young women’s intentions to get cervical cancer screening) and how idealized portrayals of motherhood on social media influence the mental health and well-being of new mothers. Her research has been published in journals such as Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Medical Internet Research, and Computers in Human Behavior and featured by traditional media outlets such as the New York Post, Motherly, and Nebraska Public Media.

Kirkpatrick was named a 2023 Emerging Scholar by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and won the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s fourth annual Faculty Research and Creative Activity Slam in 2021. Prior to working in academia, Kirkpatrick worked as a copywriter and social media consultant at Ascential Marketing in Wichita, Kansas. Some of her clients included Newman University, NorthStar Comfort Services, ZERO Prostate Cancer and Fliphound.

Kirkpatrick graduated from Wichita State University in Wichita, Kansas, with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in communication, with an emphasis on integrated marketing. She has a Ph.D. in journalism, with an emphasis on strategic communication, from the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism.

Outside of work, Kirkpatrick enjoys spending time with her husband (Devan), son (Dysen), and daughter (Larkyn). The four of them can typically be found playing at the park or watching Bluey episodes for the 10,000th time! (She loves Bluey even more than the kids do!)

Dr. Kirkpatrick’s research is focused on how messages in the media affect individuals’ mental and physical health and how strategic communicators can more effectively design messages to improve individuals’ health outcomes. She is especially interested in the effects that social media has on the mental health of mothers.

Principal Study: Comparisons to picture-perfect motherhood: How Instagram’s idealized portrayals of motherhood affect new mothers’ well being.

Dr. Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver is executive director of the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication and dean emeritus and professor, School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Named the Outstanding Woman in Journalism and Mass Communication Education for 2009 by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, she was recognized as a woman who has represented fellow women in the academy through excellence and high standards in journalism education.  A nationally known expert and researcher on the First Amendment, the scholastic and collegiate press, and the role and status of women in communication, she is the author of more than 125 scholarly articles, monographs and books.

Kopenhaver is past president of AEJMC, College Media Advisers, the Student Press Law Center, and the Community College Journalism Association. She holds the Wells Memorial Key from the Society of Professional Journalists, its highest honor, and was only the second woman in the history of the organization to win that award at that time, the CMA Distinguished Service Award, the AEJMC Newspaper Division Distinguished Service Award, the AEJMC Outstanding Leadership Award, the FIU Alumni Association Outstanding Faculty Torch Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Rowan University. She was inducted into the National Hall of Fame of both College Media Advisers and the Community College Journalism Association.

Kopenhaver was honored in 2011 with the FIU Distinguished University Service Medallion as an “exemplary role model” of the industry and the community and for demonstrating “a vision, initiative and drive that have been instrumental for almost four decades in the development of the university and the school.” In 2020 she was awarded the Lifetime Service Award from Rowan University and in 2022 was designated a Pioneer by the Associated Collegiate Press as its highest honor to journalism educators. In 2023 she was honored by the City of Miramar, Florida, in recognition of her commitment and dedication to the empowerment of women through education and professional development.

Kopenhaver joined FIU in 1973 and rose through the ranks to become dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2003, a post she held for nearly nine years. Over the course of her tenure, Kopenhaver was instrumental in creating programs and opportunities for students, particularly women. In what has historically been an industry largely dominated by men, Kopenhaver was frequently one of the few women to hold leadership positions and be part of the decision-making process within the communications fields. That was the impetus for her founding the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University in 2013.

Dr. Kopenhaver’s research concentration encompasses issues facing women in communications, including the status of women in careers throughout all the communications industries. Kopenhaver is also the prime researcher on college media advising, the collegiate and student press, and the First Amendment.

Principal Study: Status of Women in Careers Throughout all Communication Industries.

Dr. Regina Luttrell is a dynamic leader with extensive experience managing complex research projects, fostering cross-departmental and interdisciplinary collaboration, and championing faculty development in diverse capacities. Renowned for her success in securing external funding, she has significantly advanced her field of scholarship, authoring over a dozen books, publishing extensively in academic and professional journals, and delivering impactful presentations at both domestic and international conferences.

Dr. Luttrell’s research spans critical areas, including public relations, artificial intelligence, data analytics, the dynamics of a multi-generational workforce, and the societal impact of social media. Before transitioning to academia, she built a distinguished career in
corporate public relations and marketing, where she excelled in strategic planning and implementation across public relations, social media, advertising, and corporate communications. Her unique blend of industry expertise and academic achievement positions her as a thought leader at the intersection of communication, technology, and society.

Dr. Luttrell’s research interests include Public Relations, Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, Mis/Disinformation, Social Activism, Political Movements, Feminist Movement, Emerging Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Feminist Pedagogy, Generations X, Y, Z, and Alpha.

Principal Study: Feminist Frameworks in Teachinfg Communication Students.

Sada Reed is an associate professor at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and a 2024-25 U.S. Fulbright Scholar in Denmark. She researches how sports journalists do their job, particularly how their routines and practices shape the content they create.​

Dr. Reed’s reserach area icnludes Sports journalism routines (i.e., sports journalists’ doping coverage, role conflict, source selection, and use of hero mythology).

Principal Study: Hero Shots: The Hero Myth as a Visual Frame in American Television Coverage of Lance Armstrong

Amanda Reid teaches media law at the UNC School of Journalism and Media, is an adjunct professor at the UNC School of Law, and holds a courtesy appointment at the UNC School of Information and Library Science.  She is also faculty Co-Director of the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy.  Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on the intersection of law, technology, and society, with particular emphasis on freedom of expression and intellectual property.

Prior to entering academia, she served as a commercial litigation associate with Holland & Knight, LLP. She also served as a one-year judicial law clerk for the Honorable Susan H. Black of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and as a two-year judicial law clerk for the Honorable Harvey E. Schlesinger of the Middle District of Florida. She graduated with high honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and she holds a Ph.D. from the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.

Dr. Reid’s is an interdisciplinary legal scholar. Broadly speaking, her research analyzes meaning-making, which includes how we make sense of our cultural artifacts, and the freedoms and limitations imposed on meaning-making processes. Her research focuses on the intersection of law, technology, and society, with particular emphasis on freedom of expression, intellectual property, privacy, and technological governance. This also includes how powerful actors (e.g., Big Tech) use technology to shape (and reshape) society

Principal Study: Transparency reports ad CSR reports: motives, stakeholders, and strategies

Elizabeth Rodwell is an Assistant Professor of Digital Media at the University of Houston and an anthropologist of media, science, and technology. Liz is the founding director of the University of Houston User Experience (UX) Lab (https://www.uh-uxlab.com) and executive director of the Houston chapter of the User Experience Professionals Association. Her research explores intersections of digital media and culture, applying anthropological methods to media industries, interactive technologies, and user experience design.

Her research has been funded by organizations such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, Fulbright, National Science Foundation, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Social Science Research Council. Liz’s book, Push the Button: Interactive Television and Collaborative Journalism in Japan (https://www.dukeupress.edu/push-the-button), examines how Japanese television responded to the post-Fukushima crisis in mass media and the concurrent global debut of social TV. Push the Button investigates how journalists and broadcasters navigated audience engagement, self-censorship, and evolving technologies.

Liz is currently working on an ethnography of conversation design and user experience practices, focusing on the process of scripting artificial intelligence. Her research highlights the cultural implications of AI in communication, examining how UX designers craft conversational interfaces that mediate human and machine interactions. Through her work, Liz contributes to fields such as science and technology studies, communication, and anthropology, with a particular interest in how digital tools influence storytelling, trust, and collaboration across cultural contexts.

Dr. Rodwell’s research interests focuses on television, user experience, artificial intelligence, ethnography, conversation design, interactive journalism, collaborative journalism, Japan 

Principal Study: Push the Button: Interactive Television and Collaborative Journalism in Japan.

Martina Santia is an Assistant Professor of Political Communication in the Department of Political Science and Law and the School of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. She received her Ph.D. in Media & Public Affairs from the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University. Santia’s research spans interdisciplinary boundaries, lying at the intersection of communication and political science, with a focus on the effects of media messages on public attitudes and behaviors. Her work has appeared in Mass Communication & Society, Journal of Communication, The International Journal of Press/Politics, and Political Research Quarterly, among other academic journals. Prior to joining Montclair State University, Santia was a Postdoctoral Scholar in the Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.

Dr. Santia’s research interests focus on political communication; gender & race in political communication; media effects

Principal Study:The Intersection of Candidate Gender and Ethnicity: How Voters Respond to Campaign Messages from Latinas

Sigal Segev (Ph.D., University of Leicester) is an Associate Professor of advertising in the Department of Communication at Florida International University (FIU). She has taught courses on different communication topics for more than 14 years in this department. Her research interests focus on green advertising and multicultural consumer behavior, two areas that she is very passionate about and which she often integrates into her research projects. Her work was published in the Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Business Research, and European Journal of Marketing, as well as conference proceedings, among others. Sigal has been an active member of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) for more than 10 years, serving as a member and Chair of the Research Committee, as well as AAA’s former Vice President. Sigal currently serves as AAA’s President-Elect. Prior to joining FIU, Sigal held Marketing Communications and public relations positions at both private and government sectors.

Dr. Segev’s research interests focuses on green advertising and multi-cultural consumer behavior.

Principal Study: Green Advertising and Multi-Cultural Consumer behavior.

Dr. Marla Royne Stafford is Professor of Marketing in the Lee Business School and Faculty Scholar at the International Gaming Institute at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. She is also a research affiliate at the UNLV Cannabis Policy Institute and faculty affiliate at the University of Georgia SEE Suite.  She was previously the William F. Harrah Distinguished Chair and Executive Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in the Harrah College of Hospitality. Prior to joining UNLV, she was Interim Dean and Great Oaks Professor of Marketing at the Fogelman College of Business & Economics at the University of Memphis, as well as Chair of the Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management. Dr. Stafford is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Advertising, past Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advertising, Past-President of the American Academy of Advertising and the 2016 recipient of the AAA’s Ivan Preston Award for Outstanding Contribution to Advertising Research. She is also a two-time recipient of the University of Memphis Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Research in Business and Social Sciences, and in 2018, she was recognized as one of the Superwomen in Business by the Memphis Business Journal. She is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Advertising Research and Journal of Public Policy & Marketing. Dr. Stafford’s research has been published in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Decision Sciences, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Advertising Research, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and numerous other publications.

Before earning her Ph.D. in Marketing from the University of Georgia, Dr. Stafford held positions with companies such Tupperware Worldwide, Philip Crosby Associates, and Cardinal Industries.

Dr. Stafford research focuses on Advertising, Consumer Behavior and Sustainability. Stafford as well research Responsible Gambling and Health Messaging specifically for Cannabis Marketing.

Principal Study: Advertising; Consumer Behavior; Sustainability; Responsible Gambling; Health Messaging; Cannabis Marketing.

Adrienne A. Wallace is an enthusiastic communicator with over 20 years of experience in both the public and private sectors, ranging in scope from nonprofit, health, education, government, hospitality, politics, lobbying, and finance. Despite not having an AOL screen name until her freshman year of undergrad and knowing the pain of dial-up internet and pay-by-the-minute cell phone service, she spent most of her career directing digital and social media efforts for clients.
Dr. Wallace is a prolific author and conference presenter. She has co-authored books like: Public Relations and the Rise of Artificial Intelligence with Routledge (in press), the National Communications Association (NCA) PRIDE award-winning book Social Media Activism: Repression, Resistance, Rebellion, Reform with Routledge, Marketing, Public Relations, & Communications in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: How to harness insights and make strategic data-driven decisions through Oxford, and Social Media & Society: An Introduction to the Mass Media Landscape through Rowman & Littlefield (now in its second edition),
You can find her work in Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, Journal of Public Relations Education, Teaching Journalism & Mass Communication and Communication Center Journal, as well as in books like Democracy in the Disinformation Age by Routledge, the Companion for PR through
Routledge, the Emerging Media Handbook with Emerald Press, and Social Media Influencers and the Changing Landscape of Brand Communication with Lexington and Cases in Public Relations Strategy with SAGE among many others.

Dr. Wallace has earned a bevy of awards, like top GIFT awards from PRSAEA and AEJMC for co-authoring the Diversity and Inclusion Wheel for PR Practitioners and co-authored top papers across divisions at AEJMC (PRD) for a study of PRSSA Faculty Adviser satisfaction and AEJMC (ADV) A
Basecamp for Student Group Projects: Analysis of the Use of Project Management Software in the Advertising, Public Relations, and Marketing Classroom. Adrienne was named WMPRSA PR Practitioner of the Year in 2020 and received a PRSSA Teahan Award for National Outstanding Adviser of the Year
in 2019 for her work with Grand Valley State’s PRSSA chapter. Wallace also advises the award-winning student-powered firm GrandPR. Adrienne is a Kopenhaver Center Fellow (2020) and a Michigan Political Leadership Fellow (2015). She earned her Ph.D. in public administration with a focus in public affairs and public policy from Western Michigan University (WMU) where she focused on the intersection of public relations, participation, and lobbying on the creation/implementation and communication of food and wellness public policy in the United States.

Adrienne is Grand Valley State University’s Associate Director of the School of Communications and teaches in the advertising and public relations degree program. Additionally, she serves as the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Public Relations Education (JPRE). Finally, she maintains practice at BlackTruck Media & Marketing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as a digital strategist and director of special projects.

Degrees
Ph.D. in Public Affairs, Policy & Administration, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 2018
M.P.A. in Government & Non-Profit Administration, Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, MI, 2008
M.S. in Communications, Grand Valley State University, Allendale, MI, 2005

B.S. in Health Communications/Advertising/Public Relations, Grand Valley State University,

Dr. Wallace’s research addresses the integration of digital media in communication education, and she likes to explore ethical considerations and DEI in public relations. Her work generally bridges academic inquiry with practical applications in the evolving communication landscape, particularly in public relations. She spent 25 years in “firm life” before she pursued a PhD.

Principal Study: A basecamp for student group projects: Analysis of the use of project management software in the advertising, public relations, and marketing classroom