This year, several faculty members and doctoral students from SC&I’s Communication Department received awards at the 2018 National Communication Association (NCA) Convention in Salt Lake City. Jennifer Theiss, Director of the Ph.D. Program and Professor of Communication, received the Gerald R. Miller Award for Most Outstanding Book from the Interpersonal Communication Division. Brent Ruben, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Rutgers Center for Organizational Leadership (OL) and Distinguished Professor of Communication, and Ralph Gigliotti, Ph.D., Director of Leadership Development and Research in OL and Part-time Faculty Member, received the Sue DeWine Outstanding Book Award from the Applied Communication Division. Associate Professor of Communication Galina Bolden received a top article award from the Language and Social Interaction Division, and alumna Alexa Bolanos received the top dissertation award from the Language and Social Interaction Division (supervised by Bolden). Ph.D. student Sarah Fadem received a top four paper award from the Communication and Aging Division, and Ph.D. student Fanny Ramirez received the top paper and top student paper awards from the Applied Communication Division. "It's always exciting to win an award, but this one is especially important to me because it's based on my dissertation work on the use of digital evidence in criminal case processing," said Ramirez.

A number of faculty and alumni were also elected to leadership positions at the conference. From our current faculty, Public Speaking Course Coordinator and Assistant Teaching Professor of Communication Nick Linardopoulos was elected Vice Chair of the Instructional Communication Division and Brian Householder, Director or Undergraduate Studies and Assistant Teaching Professor in Communcation, was elected Vice Chair of the Assessment Division. Among our alumni, Kate Magsaman-Conrad was elected Vice Chair of the Health Communication Division, Maria Venetis was elected Vice Chair of the Interpersonal Communication Division, Stacy Smulowitz moved into the Chair role for the Applied Communication Division, and Alena Vasilyeva was elected Vice Chair of the Language and Social Interaction Division.

SC&I hosted a well-attended reception at the convention, featuring a display of eight books recently published by our faculty. Members of the Communication Department also met with a host of potential program applicants at the Graduate School Open House.

Congratulations to all on these momentous achievements!

For more information on SC&I’s Communication program, click here.