About the Authors

Julia Berger is a graduate student at Boise State University. She recently completed her master’s degree and will begin her PhD at the University of Utah in the fall. She has a strong interest in interdisciplinary studies, nonverbal communication, and rhetorical analysis.

Pamela G. Bourland-Davis serves as Chair of the Department of Communication Arts at Georgia Southern University. She has presented or published over 75 research papers and chapters on topics ranging from organizational culture and activism to internship management. She teaches public relations courses including Public Relations Crisis Communication, Campaigns and Senior Seminar as well as Public Speaking and Feature Writing. She especially enjoys teaching on occasion in the Study Abroad Program in Montepulciano, Italy. She has served in a variety of positions for the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, PRSA, and Southern States Communication Association, specifically chairing the Public Relations divisions of AEJMC & SSCA. She currently is second Vice President for SSCA. She completed her undergraduate degree in Communication at Georgia Southern, a Master’s in Journalism at Arkansas State University, and a Doctorate in Mass Communication at the University of Georgia.

Lauren Bradford is a nonprofit communications professional and environmental educator. She has managed a variety of conservation outreach projects from directing marketing campaigns for the protection of wildlife indigenous to the United States to fundraising for African megafauna and, more recently, working with Philadelphia public schools to discover new ways to encourage nature exploration and enhance environmental literacy among students. Her research and interests center on the ways in which geographic disparities and sociocultural constructs shape our understanding and relationship with nature and impact the implementation of global conservation efforts. She received a B.S. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Arizona and an M.S. in Communication Management from Temple University.

Marie Paul Dusingize is Dean of Faculty of Social Economic Sciences and Management at Institut Catholique de Kabgayi, Rwanda, where she has been a faculty member since 2011. In 2010, she completed her PhD in Social Sciences at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. Besides teaching sociological theories to undergraduate students in the Department of Sociology, she has been engaged in scholastic research and is a guest speaker at a number of research events. She has published chapters in several edited collections.

Beverly L. Graham is an Associate Professor at Georgia Southern University where she has served as the Associate Chair of the Department of Communication Arts and currently serves as the Communication Studies Sequence Coordinator. She has been a member of the Communication Arts Department since 1988. Courses she teaches include Public Speaking, Introduction to Human Communication, Interpersonal Communication, Communication Theory, Health Communication, Communication and Gender, and Gender, Media and Representation. She recently served as a Co-Investigator with Georgia Southern University’s Rural Health Research Institute. Her research interests include health communication, internships and goal setting, and corporate culture. She earned her B.S. and MA in Speech Communication from Eastern Illinois University, and her PhD in Communication Education, Interpersonal and Organizational Communication from Southern Illinois University.

Erin Heinrich works at FCA US LLC as a Cross Regional Marketing Manager for the Jeep Brand. In this role, she is responsible for developing communication strategies and creating advertising assets for the Jeep brand in international markets. She also oversees global Jeep brand partnerships with the World Surf League and the Juventus Football Club. Prior to joining FCA US, Erin worked at The Dow Chemical Company in various roles managing employee communications, marketing communications, and executive communications. She has lived and worked in locations around the world including Detroit and Midland, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Horgen, Switzerland; and Dubai, UAE. Erin has a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University and a master’s degree from Temple University.

Pauline A. Howes is an Associate Professor of Public Relations in the School of Communication and Media at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. She has more than 20 years of experience working in corporate public relations.

Jeremy Harris Lipschultz is Isaacson Professor at the UNO Social Media Lab and College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, University of Nebraska at Omaha. He served for a decade as director of the award-winning School of Communication. Lipschultz is author of the groundbreaking book, Social Media Communication: Concepts, Practices, Data, Law and Ethics, second edition (2018). For 9 years, he has been book review editor for Journalism & Mass Communication Educator. He also blogs on media and business issues for the Huffington Post and contributes to ChicagoNow. Follow him @JeremyHL on Twitter and at his Professor Jeremy Harris Lipschultz page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ProfessorJeremy). His Social Media Measurement and Management students planned and executed the successful campaign for Omaha metro foodbanks. Currently, he is co-PI for a Rural Civic Engagement project in Nebraska. Lipschultz won the 2016 Omaha Press Club Journalism Educator Award.

Venantie Nyiransabimana is Director of Academic Quality Assurance at Institut Catholique de Kabgayi, Rwanda, and has been teaching in higher learning institutions since 2006. She is a PhD candidate and holds a Master of Arts in Gender and Development Studies. In 2015, she published Socio-economic Factors of Gender Inequality in Higher Education in Rural Areas in Rwanda (Direct Research Journals Publisher, 2015).

Moronke Oshin-Martin is an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at Bronx Community College, City University of New York, and has delivered online courses for Seton Hall University, Orange, NJ. Prior to entering the academy, she had 20 years of experience in public relations and as a strategic communication advisor holding senior positions in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. She recently completed her doctorate in management, with a specific focus on intercultural communication and global public–private partnerships. Her current research interests include organizational communications, international public–private partnerships, intercultural communication, innovation, and technology.

Donnalyn Pompper is Professor and Endowed Chair in Public Relations, School of Journalism & Communication, University of Oregon, teaching and researching public relations, corporate social responsibility, and social identity. This research offers routes for enabling people, globally, to achieve their maximum potential at work, to embrace intersecting social identity dimensions (e.g., age, ethnicity, and gender), and to critically examine these issues across mass media representations. She has won two national book awards and most recently published Rhetoric of Femininity: Female Body Image, Media, and Gender Role Stress/Conflict (Lexington, 2017) and edited Climate and Sustainability Communication (Routledge, 2017). She also has published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals including Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Mass Communication & Society, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review. Pompper holds the Accredited Public Relations credential from Public Relations Society of America and worked as a public relations manager and journalist for 25 years prior to joining the academy.

Jessica Roberts is an Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies in the Department of Communication at Boise State University. Her research interests are in journalism and new media, examining ways citizens contribute to and shape public information, including through the use of alternative models such as WikiLeaks and social media. Her recent work has been published in Journalism and the International Journal of Communication.

Ashli Quesinberry Stokes (PhD, University of Georgia) is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her award-winning research specializes in using rhetorical approaches to analyze public relations controversies, frequently concerning activism and social movements. In addition to her recent book about the rhetorical nature of Southern foodways, Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South (with Wendy Atkins-Sayre; University Press of Mississippi), she co-authored a global public relations textbook with Alan Freitag. She also has published in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Communication Management, Public Relations Review, the Southern Communication Journal, Studies in Communication Sciences, and the Encyclopedia of Public Relations, among others. Before returning to academia, she worked in agency and corporation public relations in Atlanta, GA. Currently, she serves as Director of the Center for the Study of the New South at UNC Charlotte.

Jessalynn Strauss is an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications at Elon University. Her research examines the casino industry in Las Vegas, NV, exploring history, communication, and corporate social responsibility. Recent publications have included an examination of public relations by Las Vegas casinos and an examination of early corporate social responsibility in Las Vegas’s mob-run casinos. In 2015, she published Challenging Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons for Public Relations from the Casino Industry (Routledge), which uses the gaming industry as a case study to consider the risks and rewards of corporate social responsibility.

Rulon Wood is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts in the Department of Communication at Boise State University. His research interests include public relations, film, new media, rhetorical analysis, and social justice. He has worked with nonprofit organizations in the United States, Peru, and South Africa to promote a more equitable society. Most recently, he worked with the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation to create a public service campaign to combat stigma against those who suffer from HIV.