Gina Marcello, Ph.D. is an interdisciplinary scholar and three-time alumna of Rutgers University School of Communication & Information. She is passionate about the need for media analysis, production, and skills development for all people living and working in techno-social systems. Her early media education scholarship incorporated visual storytelling techniques to create cognitive change in information processing behaviors. Using the persuasive appeals of print and television advertising, she developed a production-based media education curriculum where stop motion animation software, storyboards, and simple drawings were used to teach persuasive visual storytelling from idea creation to execution.
After working for the New Jersey State Senate, a political advertising firm, and completing an Eagleton Institute of Politics Fellowship, she co-hosted and produced a local television program in Morris County. N.J. titled “Fact Chicks” – where women discussed the political process and its effect on women’s issues. Her creative work also includes producing two short documentary films screened at international film festivals. Marcello regularly visits Italy and was inspired to produce La Bella Vita: The Beautiful Life of Northern Italy as an intercultural analysis of life in the small villages of Emilia-Romagna. The documentary project, financed by the tourism board in the province, led her to establish P.S. Italy Tours and develop the P.S. Italy podcast. The co-owned educational tour company plans and hosts small-group tours to northern Italy in the summers.
Currently, Marcello is writing a book chapter exploring the representation of female characters in the popular Disney+ series The Mandalorian using a feminist ethics frame. Her most recent podcast The Momdalorian is a short series where she discusses each episode with her college-age son, Scott, as a way to share her love of Star Wars and spend time with him. She is the former President of the New Jersey Communication Association and has developed multiple communication and media studies curricula where she successfully blends her personal, professional, and academic interests. She continues to develop, teach, and evaluate media literacy curricula including SC&I’s Disinformation Detox undergraduate course.
You can follow Marcello on Twitter @njgina