天美传媒

Andrew Maynard is a leading expert in the socially responsible development of emerging and converging technologies.

For over twenty years he has worked closely with experts and thought leaders from around the world on the challenges and opportunities presented by technologies ranging from nanotechnology and synthetic biology to geoengineering and artificial intelligence.

Maynard is a former physicist, a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society. He directs of the ASU Risk Innovation Lab, and chairs the ASU Master of Science and Technology Policy program.

He writes the blog 2020 Science, and produces the YouTube channel Risk Bites. He is widely published in the academic literature, including in leading journals such as Nature, and is internationally recognized for his work on the risks and benefits of nanotechnology.

Adam Blood, instructor of communication, teaches public speaking and is the director of the UWF Speech and Debate program.

Blood previously coached speech and debate teams at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln and University of Central Missouri. Blood has focused his research on ideographs, virtue discourse, loyalty rhetoric, the rhetoric of religion, and demagoguery.

In addition to his research interests, Blood has taught multiple communication courses with concentration in areas including rhetoric, media and basic and professional communication.

Dr. Athena du Pr茅, a Distinguished University Professor in Communication, teaches leadership, health communication, workplace dynamics and interpersonal communication. She also directs graduate programs in strategic communication and leadership, and health communication leadership.

du Pr茅 has diverse experience working in journalism, public relations and academe, converging in the fields of leadership and health communication. She has authored or co-authored five books, and several chapters and articles on various aspects of communication. She is the author of 鈥淐ommunicating About Health: Current Issues and Perspectives,鈥� in 5th edition, and co-author of 鈥淯nderstanding Human Communication,鈥� which is a best-selling communication textbook soon to be in 13th edition.

du Pr茅 is a recipient of the Teaching Incentive Program award and has twice been honored with the University鈥檚 Distinguished Teaching Award. She was named UWF Distinguished University Professor in 2014. In that capacity, she is collaborating with 25 University students on an upcoming book. In the project, students work with leading scholars in the field to write chapters that highlight case studies in health communication.

She is the director of two year-long leadership development programs at the University 鈥� one for staff members and one for faculty. In the community, she has served as a leadership development coach in health care, finance, law enforcement and aerospace organizations. An advocate of service learning, she oversees students in several hundred hours of community-based projects per year. 

Dr. Chris Fenner, instructor of communication, teaches public relations, strategic communication and persuasion.

Fenner is an experienced communicator who has led the UWF team to top finishes at regional and national tournaments. Participating in collegiate speech and debate provides students with the advanced critical thinking and communication skills necessary to succeed in the workplace. Before coming to UWF in 2014, he established a competitive speech team at Florida Southern College, where he coached students to 32 national titles.

In his classes, Fenner teaches undergraduate courses in public relations and persuasion. He relies on high impact practices and hands-on activities to prepare students to meet the demands of the public relations industry. His students have provided public relations and communication advice to a variety of non-profit organizations in the community. At the graduate level, his coursework focuses on strategic communication, mass communication theory, and he works to train students as professional communication consultants.

Fenner鈥檚 research focuses on public relations crisis and image management, and pedagogy. He has presented his work at national and international conferences and is an article reviewer for the National Forensic Journal. He also serves as the vice president of the Florida Intercollegiate Forensic Association, and is the president of the Novice National Forensic Association.

Kristi Gilmore, assistant professor, teaches media relations, crisis communication, and advertising and public relations concepts.

Gilmore is a senior communication professional and accredited public relations counselor with industry experience in corporate communication, crisis management, strategic planning and community relations.

Prior to UWF, Gilmore taught at Texas Tech University in the College of Media and Communication, where she served as director of the online master鈥檚 program in strategic communication and innovation and was awarded the President鈥檚 Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Dr. Heather Riddell, assistant professor of communication, teaches social media, communication writing, and public relations courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Riddell has created technology-centered courses to prepare students for a digitally-converged communication industry. At the undergraduate level, students take part in high-impact practices that allow students to learn through experience. She recently opened a Social Media Lab to support the content creation needs of students. At the graduate level, students pair theories with public relations strategies to create impactful and compelling digital content. Graduate students participate in the Florida Public Relations Association Image Award competition and have won local and state awards. 

Riddell鈥檚 research interests have focused on social/digital media, media effects, and the role of user-generated content in crisis communication. She has also investigated issues of public relations and social media pedagogy.

Dr. Hristova鈥檚 research examines algorithmic and digital media cultures. She studies the intersection of technology and culture in relation the context of photography, surveillance, and social movements.

Stefka serves as the Director of the Communication, Culture, & Media Undergraduate Program and teaches in the Rhetoric, Theory, and Culture Graduate Program.

Dr. Brian Southwell is Senior Director of the Science in the Public Sphere Program in the Center for Communication Science at RTI International. He is a social scientist who oversees quantitative and qualitative research to assess risk perceptions, mental models of scientific concepts, and public trust in science and scientists. Southwell also is an active participant in efforts to address public understanding of science through peer-reviewed publications as well as public commentary, talks in venues such as the Aspen Ideas Festival, and advising for projects such as NOVA Science Studio.  

Southwell has applied his background in communication and human behavior to a variety of dilemmas including public understanding of emerging infectious diseases and trust in science. In an effort to examine public attitudes and perceptions concerning the Zika virus, for example, he led a study in Guatemala to understand mental models of Zika virus disease. More recently, Southwell has written about public perceptions related to COVID-19.

Southwell is also an adjunct professor with Duke University, where he is affiliated with the interdisciplinary Social Science Research Institute and has served as a Duke-RTI Scholar. In addition, he has served the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 2011; he currently is an adjunct associate professor with UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health and advises graduate students in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media.

He served almost a decade at the University of Minnesota prior to these appointments, most recently as a tenured associate professor and director of graduate studies in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and has worked for a variety of nonprofit and government organizations.

In 2015, Southwell created a public radio show for WNCU-FM, 鈥淭he Measure of Everyday Life,鈥� which he hosts. The show airs weekly on WNCU and focuses on the intersections between social science and public discourse.

Southwell's award-winning research and theoretical contributions appear in more than 100 journal articles and chapters. In 2013, he published the book Social Networks and Popular Understanding of Science and Health. He has served as senior editor for Health Communication and as a member of numerous other editorial boards, including Communication Research and Public Opinion Quarterly. He published the edited book Innovations in Home Energy Use: A Sourcebook for Behavior Change in 2016. In 2018, he coedited Misinformation and Mass Audiences, published by the University of Texas Press. Southwell's latest book, from RTI Press, is Measuring Everyday Life: Talking About Research and Why It Matters, curated from interviews featured on the public radio show.

Dr Dasgupta's main research areas are queer politics, activism and digital media cultures in South Asia and the diasporas.

He provides insight on diverse issues from homophobia, social justice movements, media and social change, cultural activism, inequality and politics.

He has appeared on BBC and BBC Radio 3 and has written for popular outlets such as The Independent, Tribune and The Conversation.

David has written widely on theoretical and methodological issues relating to Communication and Media studies, conducted several major studies into journalism and public relations, had a central role in all of the media election investigations conducted by the Loughborough Communication Research Centre since 1992, and argued the need for historical perspective in analysing the dynamics of media production and consumption.

John Murphy studies the history of American public address and political rhetoric. He is the author of John F. Kennedy and the Liberal Persuasion, a critique of President Kennedy's greatest speeches and the liberal tradition. He studies the evolution of political languages. He's written on John and Robert Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King. Jr., George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. His scholarly work has appeared in journals such as Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and American Literary History. His commentary on the presidency and presidential rhetoric regularly appears  in popular media outlets such as The Conversation USA, Washington Post, New York Times, and USA Today. He is currently working on a book project concerning the Civil Rights rhetoric of James Baldwin, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Trujillo-Falcón is a Distinguished Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Department of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences, in partnership with the Department of Communication.
He leads the  (ALERTAS) lab, which is dedicated to improving the communication of weather and climate information in multiple languages through public and practitioner engagement. His innovative, interdisciplinary work has driven significant policy changes across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS), setting a new benchmark for multilingual communication within government agencies. These accomplishments have established him as a national leader in the weather and climate risk communication field.
Before joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Trujillo-Falcón conducted interdisciplinary research for the Cooperative Institute for Severe and High-Impact Weather Research and Operations, the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, and the NWS Storm Prediction Center. As an award-winning bilingual multimedia meteorologist, he has also worked in both radio and broadcast networks and continues to serve the public through MyRadar, a weather application accessed by 50 million individuals worldwide.
Learn more about Dr. Trujillo--Falcón's work on his website: 

Lori Britt is a professor of organizational communication in the Department of Communication Studies, where she teaches courses in organizational communication, leadership, dialogue and deliberation, and design and facilitation of processes for productive talk at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She is also the director of the  whose aim is to shape conversations that impact individuals, organizations, and communities.
Her teaching and work with ICAD is infused with a passion for training students to be able to design and facilitate conversations where people can tackle the challenging issues that face our communities and that impede organizations from reaching their full potential. Well designed and facilitated talk can keep people at the table even when the issues are difficult, and this offers more opportunity to collaboratively find solutions.
Britt works with the Kettering Foundation of Dayton, Ohio, and the Interactivity Foundation, both of which help advance the study and practice of democratic talk and practice, as well as . She also serves as the Board Chair of the National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation, a vibrant national network of innovators who bring people together across divides to discuss, decide, and take action together effectively on today’s toughest issues. 
She is originally from Pennsylvania, and received a doctorate in communication from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 2010, a master's in communication from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 2006, and her bachelor's in mass communication and journalism from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania in 1985. Prior to returning to graduate school, Britt had a 20-plus year career in nonprofit and organizational communication, work that took her to 48 of 50 states, and she finally visited the last two in 2022.