Names and Faces

The School of Communications functions as a single academic department serving four undergraduate majors and a graduate program. The leadership team consists of a dean, associate dean, department chair and graduate program director. The school also has a full-time internship director, coordinator of video projects, coordinator of student media and an assistant director of career services.

Paul Parsons, Professor and Dean

B.A., Baylor University; M.A., University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Ph.D., University of Tennessee. Nine years as reporter for United Press International and state broadcast editor for The Associated Press in Arkansas. Rockefeller Fellowship in Religious Studies at University of North Carolina. Received three teaching awards at Kansas State University; served eight years as associate director of journalism school. Fulbright Professor at China School of Journalism in Beijing in 1992-93. Visiting Professor in Singapore in 1999-2000. Author of two scholarly books. Came to Elon in 2001. Member, National Accrediting Council 2004-07. He is a member of the diversity committee, Association of Schools in Journalism and Mass Communication; the mass communications advisory board, Washington Center for Internships and Special Programs; and the editorial board for "Journalism & Mass Communication Educator."

E-mail: parsons@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5724
Office: McEwen Communications 101-D
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Connie Book, Associate Professor and Associate Dean

B.A., Louisiana State University; M.Ed., Northwestern State University; Ph.D., University of Georgia. A former producer and reporter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Doctoral studies focused on cable television policy. Came to Elon in 1999. Research publications, presentations and consulting focus on digital television, municipal cable policy and regulation. Four-time recipient of grants from the National Association of Broadcasters to study consumers and television. Winner of BEA research awards six of the past eight years. Publication and presentation with Elon undergraduate students. Author of "Digital Television: DTV and the Consumer," published by Blackwell Press. The 2004-2005 recipient of the School of Communications scholarship award. Recipient of 2007 Pew Internet grant to study international Internet governance policy.

E-mail: cbook@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5661
Office: McEwen Communications 101-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Don Grady, Associate Professor and Department Chair

B.A., North Carolina State University; M.A. and Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Ten years in radio and television. Five years as instructor and Director of Public Speaking at North Carolina State. Came to Elon in 1985. Served as first department chair from 1987-1993. Chair of Academic Council and faculty/staff fund-raising campaign. Visiting professor at Southeast University in Nanjing, China, in summer 2001. Research sabbatical Spring 2003 for an analysis of sound in television.

E-mail: gradyd@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5667
Office: McEwen Communications 101-F
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Janna Quitney Anderson, Associate Professor and Director of Internet Projects
B.S., Moorhead State University; M.A., University of Memphis. Twenty years as a copy editor, reporter, and features editor at papers in Minnesota and North Dakota. Came to Elon in 1999. Co-author of the Pew Internet “Future of the Internet” surveys. Director of Imagining the Internet, a Webby Honors-winning online compilation of survey studies and documentary videos illuminating the future of the internet. This project, launched in 2003, has involved nearly 100 Elon students in global communications research. Has written articles for USA Today, Advertising Age and the New York Times News Service. Author of the book "Imagining the Internet," (Rowman & Littlefield) and the “Future of the Internet” book series (Cambria Press). On the editorial board of Newspaper Research Journal; reviewer for New Media & Society; contributor to State of the Future reports. Winner of multiple national Web design awards.

E-mail: andersj@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5733
Office: McEwen Communications 203-E
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Pamela Baker, Assistant

Came to Elon in 1987 as secretary for alumni and parent relations in the Office of Institutional Advancement. Served in that office 14 years before becoming secretary for the School of Communications in 2001. Traveled to London in 1997 with Elon group through Teagle Foundation grant. Has been actively involved in learning conversational Spanish through El Centro de Espanol since 1998; as a result, traveled with other Spanish Center members to Costa Rica in 1999 and Spain in 2003.


E-mail: bakerp@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5724
Office: McEwen Communications 101
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Brooke Barnett, Associate Professor and Director of Elon Documentaries Program

B.A., Georgetown College; M.A. and Ph.D., Indiana University. Five years experience at PBS station WTIU-TV. Taught at Indiana University. Came to Elon in 2001. Research has appeared in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Visual Communication Quarterly, Journal of International Communication, Electronic News, Feedback, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies and the Federal Communications Law Journal. Recipient of 2002 research grant from the National Association of Broadcasters. Author of The War on Terror and the Wars in Iraq in the Greenwood American War Reporting series. Co-editor of Communication and Law: Multidisciplinary Approaches to Research and co-author of Terrorism and the Press: An Uneasy Relationship. Producer of documentary films that have aired on public television, screened at festivals and won awards.

E-mail: bbarnett@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5659
Office: McEwen Communications 216-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Lee Bush, Assistant Professor and Faculty Director of Live Oak Communications

B.A., Missouri Western; MSC, Northwestern University. Twenty years as a public relations agency executive. Most recently senior vice president of Ketchum PR, Chicago, where she headed the brand marketing division. Clients have included Kimberly-Clark, ConAgra, Jim Beam Brands, Quaker Oats, Wendy's, BP Amoco and Snap-on Tools. Previously, Bush was senior vice president of Ogilvy Public Relations in Chicago and director of Ogilvy's London office. Taught in the undergraduate leadership program at Northwestern University. Came to Elon in 2004. Advisor for Elon's student strategic communications agency, Live Oak.

E-mail: lbush3@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5778
Office: McEwen Communications 201-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

M.F.A., Emerson College. A new media professional whose background includes interactive television, corporate and entertainment industry multimedia production and creative writing. Most recently served as Creative Director for Center Line Productions, where he provided high-end digital productions to clients like IBM, Sony Ericsson and UNC. Short stories have appeared in numerous literary publications and. Won the Italo Calvino Prize for Fabulist Fiction in 2006. Most recently taught Digital Storytelling at Duke University.

E-mail: kcalhoun@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5598
Office: McEwen Communications 203-A
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

David Copeland, A.J. Fletcher Professor and Graduate Program Director

B.A., Wake Forest University; M.Div. and Th.M., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Eight years as reporter and sports editor at North Carolina newspapers and eight years as a high school teacher. Taught seven years at Emory & Henry College and named Virginia Professor of the Year in 1998-99 by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Came to Elon in 2001 as A.J. Fletcher Professor. Author of multiple books on early American newspapers and other communications topics, and author and editor of the eight-book "Library of American War Reporting" (2005).

E-mail: dcopeland@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5662
Office: McEwen Communications 216-A
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Vic Costello, Associate Professor

B.S., Western Carolina University; M.A., Regent University; Ph.D., University of Tennessee. Media director for Narramore Christian Foundation in California. Operations director for WTJC-TV in Springfield, Ohio. Taught six years at Gardner-Webb University. Dissertation exploring television audience involvement within the electronic "fan" culture of the Internet won top award from Broadcast Education Association in 2000. Director for Electronic Retailing Association awards show. Came to Elon in 2001.

E-mail: vcostello@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5669
Office: McEwen Communications 203-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Eleanor Cowen, Lecturer

B.A., University of Georgia; M.A. Georgia State. Media credits include being assistant editor and sound editor of documentary productions for National Geographic Television and Discovery Communications. Also served as an editor on commercial and industrial productions and, in 1989, was a production assistant on "Driving Miss Daisy," which won four Academy Awards. From 1997-2000, Cowen was post-production manager in the School of Filmmaking at the North Carolina School of the Arts, then became a visiting assistant professor at UNC Greensboro. Came to Elon in 2004.

E-mail: ecowen@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5676
Office: McEwen Communications 107-A
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Colin Donohue, Coordinator of Student Media and Instructor in Communications
B.A., Elon University; M.A., University of Memphis. Seven years as a sports reporter at Burlington (N.C.) Times-News and Memphis Commercial Appeal, the largest paper in the Mid-South. Adviser to The Pendulum, Elon’s weekly student newspaper. Book reviewer for Newspaper Research Journal and editorial board member for Media History Monographs. Came to Elon in 2007. Teaches Media Writing.

E-mail: cdonohue@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5850
Office: Pendulum Building
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC, 27244

Chinedu 'Ocek' Eke, Assistant Professor

B.A. and M.A., Baylor University; Ph.D., Penn State University. Dissertation was on the narrative of HIV/AIDS in Africa. Research interests include international communications; minorities and women in the media; media and society; and public alternative media. Taught international communications, cinema, and media courses for four years at Penn State. Teaches Communications in a Global Society, African Film, Media and Culture, Global Society and other courses. Is the head of the Critical and Cultural Studies Division of AEJMC. Spent the summer of 2007 teaching at Northeast University in China. Came to Elon in 2003.

E-mail: oeke@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5790
Office: McEwen Communications 203-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Sharon Eisner, Instructor

M.A., UNC-Chapel Hill in Interpersonal Communication and Performance Studies. Taught Communication Studies courses in North Carolina, Texas and Israel the last 11 years. Worked extensively with adults, adolescents and children and has a long-standing research interest in developing self-coaching techniques for adults with ADD. Is a nationally certified massage therapist and an amateur quilter.

E-mail: seisner2@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5775
Office: Priestley Building 206
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Michael Frontani, Associate Professor and Coordinator of American Studies

B.A. and M.A., The Ohio State University; M.A., University of Southern California School of Cinema and Television; Ph.D., Ohio University. Since coming to Elon in 1999, has taught courses on film history, film theory, popular music and mass culture. Authored The Beatles: Image and the Media (University Press of Mississippi, 2007) and a chapter in the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to the Beatles (Cambridge University Press, 2008), as well as numerous essays on popular music, reception and culture. Currently working on book-length studies of the Italian American image in American mass consumer society and on American cinema's development and evolution within the context of U.S. culture.

E-mail: mfrontani@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5664
Office: Holland House 206
Address: 2610 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Kenn Gaither, Assistant Professor and Director of Communications Fellows

B.A., M.F.A. University of Pittsburgh. Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. More than nine years of public relations agency experience.  Published in the Journal of Public Relations Research and Public Relations Review. Has authored a book on international public relations (Cambria Press), co-authored a book on international public relations (Sage) and co-authored a book chapter on public relations theory (Allyn & Bacon). Has lived or taught in Brazil, Ghana and China. Eight Semester at Sea voyages, most recently as executive dean on spring 2008 voyage. Came to Elon in 2004.

E-mail: tgaither@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5776
Office: McEwen Communications 101B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Amanda Gallagher, Assistant Professor

B.A., UNC Charlotte; M.A., University of Georgia; Ph.D., University of Georgia. Worked in public relations and advertising in Charlotte, N.C. Received Outstanding New Faculty Award in 2006 at Texas Tech University. Taught at Texas Tech University for three years. A member of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication;and the International Communication Association. Serves as a reviewer for Journal of Communication Inquiry and Mass Communication and Society. Came to Elon in 2008.

E-mail: agallagher3@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5797
Office: McEwen Communications 010-A
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Gerald Gibson, Assistant Professor

B.A., North Carolina State University; M.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Ph.D. in progress, UNC at Greensboro. Announcer and audio engineer at WRAL-TV in Raleigh and announcer at WBIG radio in Greensboro. First came to Elon in 1979, then returned to the profession six years later as a writer and producer for a Virginia media agency. Returned to Elon in 1988. Creative interests focus on digital television, streaming media for the web and interactive media and cognition.


E-mail: gibson@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5665
Office: McEwen Communications 107-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Jessica Gisclair, Associate Professor

B.A., Nicholls State University; M.S., University of Southern Mississippi; J.D., University of Toledo College of Law. Worked in corporate communications with Mississippi Power Company, and later in association public relations with the Harrison County Tourism Commission. Served as the Public Relations Spokesperson for the Ohio chapter of the American Heart Association. Taught seven years at Ohio Northern University and Rowan University. Came to Elon in 2000. Visiting Professor at The University of the Netherlands Antilles in Curacao, in the summers of 2006 and 2008, and Southeast University in Nanjing, China, in the summer 2001. Research interests include the People’s Republic of China as a global economic leader. Her current research focuses on the ethics of doing business in China and the legal challenges of international copyright protection on the Internet.

E-mail: jgisclair@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5772
Office: McEwen Communications 107-E
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Jim Goodman, Instructor

B.S., High Point College; MBA, University of Georgia; M.F.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Fourteen years experience in film and video production in a range of capacities. Producer and director of many regional televison commercials and corporate video projects; production manager on many other television campaigns; first assistant director on films such as USA Network's "Above Suspicion" with Scott Bakula and Annabella Sciorra, and Lifetime Television's "Seduced by a Thief" with Sean Young and Ron Perlman. Working on several screen plays.

E-mail: jgoodman4@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5745
Office: Priestley Building 202
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Linda Gretton, Instructor
B.S., Boston University; M.A., Northeastern University; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Twenty years in corporate communications and investor/public relations in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and aerospace industries. One year as business reporter for Triad Business News. Recipient of 2008 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Association for Business Communication for UNCG dissertation project titled, "The Rhetorical Helix of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries: Strategies of Transformation through Definition, Description and Ingratiation." Came to Elon in 2008.

E-mail: lgretton@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5772
Office:  McEwen Communications 010-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

B.A. and M.Ed., University of North Carolina at Greensboro; Ph.D. in mass communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Worked at The Winston-Salem Journal, The Daily News (Jacksonville, NC), and was reporter/editor for The Clemmons Courier. Former Faith & Values correspondent for the Charlotte Observer. Was chairman of communication studies department at Pfeiffer University. Came to Elon in 2002. Co-editor of textbook, "Mass Communication in the Global Age." Research interests in the areas of religion and popular culture; media history; oral history.

E-mail: ahatcher@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5774
Office: McEwen Building 204-D
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Dale Harrison, Adjunct Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Sunshine Center

B.A., Middle Tennessee State University; M.A., University of Tennessee; Ph.D., University of Georgia. Freelance magazine writer and former newspaper editor, reporter, and syndicated columnist. Hosted, produced weekly radio program for five years at NPR affiliate in Ohio. Has appeared on BBC radio twice as analyst of Iraq War coverage. Freelance op-ed pieces published in USA Today and daily papers in Alabama, Florida, and Ohio. Came to Elon University in 2007. Serves as assistant director for the Sunshine Center, for education about open-government laws in cooperation with the North Carolina Open Government Coalition.
 

E-mail: wharrison5@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5542
Office: Priestley Building 205
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Ray Johnson, Assistant Professor

B.S., Appalachian State University; M.Ed. and M.F.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro. High school teacher for 14 years. Initiated a television production curriculum through a federal grant and won two state championships as coach of the High I.Q. Bowl teams at Williams High School in Burlington. Came to Elon in 1984 and served as director of television services from 1984-95. Leads Study Abroad tour to study Australian film. Creative interests focus on videography, documentary film and web video.

E-mail: johnson@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5677
Office: McEwen Communications 101-E
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Peter Kiwitt, Assistant Professor

B.F.A., Emerson College; M.F.A., American Film Institute. Twenty years professional experience in "Hollywood" as a director, writer, editor, producer and executive. Worked in features, television movies and series, and in both the independent and studio worlds. Member of the Directors Guild of America. Taught cinema at the Emerson College Los Angeles Center and U.C.L.A. Extension.  Was named founding chair of the Entertainment Industry caucus for the University Film and Video Association in 2008.

E-mail: pkiwitt@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5730
Office: McEwen Communications 010-E
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Rich Landesberg, Assistant Professor

B.A., American University; M.A. and Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A broadcast journalist for more than two decades, Landesberg worked for Mutual/NBC radio in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and London. Before attending graduate school, Landesberg worked for CNN television news in Atlanta. He has covered stories ranging from earthquakes and other disasters to presidential summits all over the world. In 2003 he was one of five graduate-student teachers at UNC to receive the Tanner Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching. He taught full-time in UNC's School of Journalism in 2003-04.Came to Elon in 2004.

E-mail: rlandesberg@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5112
Office: McEwen Communications 216-D
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Michele Lashley, Instructor

B.A., Elon College; M.A., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; J.D., North Carolina Central University School of Law. Former editor of Elon's student newspaper, The Pendulum. In addition to working in the marketing communications field, practiced law full-time for four years. Now president of Karacom Creative in Raleigh. Teaches courses in advertising, media writing and professional speaking.


E-mail: mlashley@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5775
Office: Priestley Building 205
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Byung Lee, Associate Professor

B.S., Seoul National University; M.A. and Ph.D., University of Missouri. Reporter for English-language business magazines in Korea. Editor at International Computaprint Corp. Taught at Minnesota State University at Moorhead and Alcorn State University. Came to Elon in 1996. Awarded a 1999 ASNE summer fellowship as a producer at washingtonpost.com. Research interests in application of the Internet as a vehicle for information gathering and dissemination, journalism ethics and ethics in cyberspace. 2004-05 Fulbright Scholar in Seoul. President of the ISSSS (International Society for the Scientific Study of Subjectivity),  President of CICC (the Carolina International Cultural Council) for the 2007-2008 academic year, and executive editor of the Journal of Human Subjectivity.

E-mail: byunglee@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5675
Office: McEwen Communications 216-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Melody van Lidth de Jeude, Instructor

Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric and Organizational Communication at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She has taught at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, the Fuqua School of Business at Duke, and Wake Forest University as well as Heinrich Heine Universitat.  She earned her Master’s degree at Southern Illinois University where she received the Robert B. Hawkins Award for Excellence in Speech Communication Scholarship. Since 2004, she has taught an online course for the Institüt für Verbundstudium in Mönchengladbach, Germany. In May 2006, she coauthored a paper presented at the University of Tampere.

E-mail: mvanlidthdejeude@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5558
Office: Priestley Building 206
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

J. McMerty, Coordinator of Video Projects and Instructor

B.A. Elon College; M.F.A., University of North Carolina-Greensboro.  Graduated in Corporate Communications in 2000.  Coordinates the FreshTV program, SportsComm ( all sports broadcast programs), assists with elondocs and teaches Digital Media Convergence. Has produced international social cause documentaries, as well as film and video productions in the narrative and experimental genres.


E-mail: jmcmerty@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5087
Office: McEwen Communications 004
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC, 27244

Harlen Makemson, Associate Professor

B.S., University of Kansas; M.A., University of Missouri; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Twelve years of experience as a newspaper reporter, editor and designer. Winner of multiple design awards in Society for News Design, Associated Press and Kansas City Press Club competitions. Research on media history and visual communications has appeared in Journalism History, Media History Monographs and the International Journal of Comic Art. Administers Dow Jones Copy Editing Examination at Elon. Came to Elon in 2002. Teaches Editing and Design, Web Publishing, Media History.

E-mail: hmakemson@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5777
Office: McEwen Communications 216-E
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Barbara Miller, Assistant Professor

B.S., M.S., West Virginia University.  2006 Outstanding Ph.D. Student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Six years as an account executive and branch manager with Professional Communications in Bluefield, VA, and Morgantown, WV.  Three years of freelance public relations consulting on community relations, economic development and research projects.  Has published work in the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication and is co-authoring a textbook on statistics currently under contract with Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.  Research publications and presentations focus on advocacy, issue advertising, and environmental, risk and crisis communication.  Came to Elon in 2006.

E-mail: bmiller9@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5728
Office: McEwen Communications 201-A
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Maggie Mullikin, Assistant Coordinator of Internships and Graduate Program

B.S., James Madison. Taught primary grades for six years in the Dominican Republic and New York. Began a career in marketing working for an event planner and an educational awareness company in Washington, D.C. The past seven years have been in front of the camera as talent for a Greensboro modeling agency.  Work includes national ad campaigns, Web advertisements, voice-overs, print media and television commercials. Most recently wrote and taught a social growth program for elementary schools in Guilford County. Came to Elon in 2008.

E-mail: mmullikin@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5659
Office: McEwen Communications 216-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Tom Nelson, Associate Professor

B.A., Boston College; M.S., Syracuse University. Seven years as reporter and news anchor at television stations in North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Maine, California and Texas and as press secretary to a U.S. House candidate in Iowa. Taught five years in European Division of University of Maryland (Heidelberg, Germany) and at West Georgia College. Came to Elon in 1996. Visiting Professor at Concordia International University of Estonia in summer 2001. Leads Study Abroad tour to Europe to study World War I history.

E-mail: nelsont@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5674
Office: McEwen Communications 107-B
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

George Padgett, Associate Professor

B.A. and M.A., Murray State University; Ph.D., Ohio University. Reporter and editor of community and trade publications in the South and Midwest. Taught at Mississippi State University and Illinois State University. Came to Elon University in 1992.  Served as department head in Fall 1992 and from 1993-2000.  Research/writing interests focus on media ethics and diversity in media.  Author of New Directions Diversity: Covering America’s Multicultural Communities, published by Marion Street Press in 2006.

E-mail: padgettg@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5663
Office: McEwen Communications 107-D
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Phyllis Phillips, Administrative Assistant

Came to Elon in 1991 as secretary to the Dean of Arts and Humanities, which at the time included the Communications faculty. Joined the President's Office as receptionist and secretary until rejoining Communications as administrative assistant to the Dean of the School of Communications in 2001. Previously secretary for six attorneys at the Institute of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and employed at First State Bank in Burlington for 12 years, including work as secretary to the president.

E-mail: phillips@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5715
Office: McEwen Communications 101
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Randy Piland, Lecturer

B.S., Middle Tennessee State University; M.A., Ohio University. Thirty years as a photojournalist at four newspapers in Georgia, Massachusetts and Tennessee. Thirteen of those years as picture editor and senior photographer at The Tennessean in Nashville. While there he initiated the transition from film to digital, helped establish the use of their digital archive system and was the lead digital imaging trainer. Attended numerous professional workshops at the Poynter Institute, University of Missouri, UNC-CH as well as others, and continues to serve on the multimedia team at Western Kentucky University's annual Mountain Workshops. Came to Elon in 2005 where he teaches Photojournalism, Visual Storytelling and Corporate Publishing.

E-mail: rpiland@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5232
Office: Priestley Building 200
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Staci Saltz, Lecturer

B.A., Elon College; M.A., University of Akron. Assisted in production of the morning and evening news programs at WFMY-TV in Greensboro for one year and at WRAL-TV in Raleigh for one year. Teaching assistant in School of Communication at University of Akron. Worked as a web site writer and news production assistant at WNDU-TV in South Bend, Indiana. Came to Elon in 2002. Taught the Elon semester in Costa Rica in 2007. Teaches Digital Media Convergence.


E-mail: ssaltz@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5714
Office: McEwen Communications 010-F
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Glenn Scott, Assistant Professor

B.A. and M.A., California State University Fresno; Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Former metro columnist, reporter and editor for The Modesto Bee and business reporter for The Honolulu Advertiser. Worked in Japan as a copy editor at Nikkei Weekly and as Tokyo bureau chief for Pacific Stars & Stripes. Writing for sports magazines, covered four Olympic Summer Games and also served as sports information manager for volleyball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Research interests involve media-related issues in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the emergence of citizen journalism and the changing roles of professional journalists. Came to Elon in 2004.

E-mail: gscott3@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5791
Office: McEwen Communications 201-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Michael Skube, Associate Professor

B.A., Louisiana State University. Statehouse reporter for Winston-Salem Journal. Editorial writer and book critic for Raleigh News & Observer. Winner of Pulitzer Prize in Criticism and American Society of Newspaper Editors Award for Distinguished Commentary, 1989. Book critic, feature writer, travel writer and columnist for Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1993-2000. Won James Beard Award in 2000. Pulitzer Prize juror many times; chairman of a Pulitzer jury in 1998, 2000, 2005. Louis B. Weil Visiting Professor at Indiana University in spring 2002. Came to Elon in 2002.

E-mail: mskube@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5779
Office: McEwen Communications 010-D
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Nagatha Tonkins, Director of Internships and Assistant Professor

B.A and M.A., North Carolina A&T State University. Worked as news reporter/morning anchor for WGHP-TV, High Point, N.C., and as news reporter for WLOE-AM in Eden, N.C. Served as internship director and department sequence coordinator in the Journalism and Mass Communication Department at North Carolina A & T State University.   There, served as project director and organized the Broadcast Short Course for the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) for 16 years. Also, served as project director for Hearst Argyle Television’s News Leadership Symposium for two years.  Was named the 2008 NABJ Journalism Educator of the Year.  Has participated in fellowships, internships and faculty seminars with the Advertising Education Foundation, Poynter Institute, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Black College Communication Association and the American Press Institute.

E-mail: ntonkins@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-6336
Office: McEwen Communications 112
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Nicole Triche, Instructor

B.S., Appalachian State University; M.F.A., University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Served 10 years in various positions at the University of North Carolina Center for Public Television, including four years as the producer of North Carolina Visions. Worked as an instructor at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Co-directed the Carolina Film and Video Festival from 2005 to 2008. Acted as director of the Flicker screening series from 2002 to 2005. Served as board member of the Southern Documentary Fund. Films have screened at multiple festivals including Full Frame and RiverRun. Came to Elon in 2008.

Office: McEwen Communications 004
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Ross Wade, Assistant Director of Career Services for the School of Communications

B.S., East Carolina University; M.S., University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Six years of combined media experience in television and documentary film and corporate and entertainment industry multimedia production and project management. Two years of career services experience with a concentration and interest in students with disabilities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students. National Certified Counselor (NCC). Came to Elon in 2008.

E-mail: rwade2@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5869
Office: McEwen Communications 109
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

Frances Ward-Johnson, Associate Professor

B.A. and M.A., North Carolina A&T. Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Worked as a reporter for The Associated Press in Raleigh and the Greensboro News & Record. Served as an adjunct professor at Elon from 1995-99 while working as communications manager at the Center for Creative Leadership. Formerly coordinator of the public relations sequence at A&T. Teaches media writing, communications research, public relations and other courses. Came to Elon in 2003.

E-mail: fward2@elon.edu
Phone #: 336-278-5738
Office: McEwen Communications 010-C
Address: 2850 Campus Box, Elon, NC 27244

2850 Campus Box  |  Elon, NC 27244-2010 (336)278-5724  |  communications@elon.edu

• Journalism
• Strategic Communications
• Broadcast & New Media
• Cinema
• Communication Science
• M.A. Interactive Media