Announcing the 2026 NCA Election Slate of Candidates

It is an honor to have been asked to stand for election as NCA Second Vice President. As the Immediate Past President of the Southern States Communication Association, I can bring to NCA the skills and lessons of leadership that I have been afforded over the past two decades serving SSCA. Many of the challenges that NCA faces are the same challenges that SSCA has faced and continues to face. Those challenges drive my vision for NCA, with a focus on academic freedom, IDEA, civil discourse, and critical thinking.

First, I wish to further the Association’s work on academic freedom. NCA has demonstrated a commitment to academic freedom through the 2025 Report by the NCA Task Force on Academic Freedom and Tenure, the June 2026 NCA Executive Committee Statement in Support of Academic Freedom Related to Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access, and the June 2026 VLO (Virtual Learning Opportunity) “Creating, Sustaining, and Expanding Public Scholarship and Community-Engaged Work by Harnessing Academic Freedom.” Recently, we have seen multiple attacks on academic freedom in post-secondary education and scholarship. We are experiencing chilling effects on teaching, scholarship, and service. Faculty have become hesitant to do the work because of a fear of being targeted or doxxed.

To move NCA forward in its commitment to academic freedom, I commit to operationalizing the recommendations in the 2025 Task Force Report including, but not limited to, establishment of a standing committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure and the development of resource toolkits for protecting and defending academic freedom and the diversity of ideas at all levels of engagement. As the NCA Executive Committee recently reiterated, “scholars and educators must retain the ability to teach, research, and discuss complex and sometimes contested ideas without the fear of censorship, political retaliation, or institutional intimidation.” An Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, under Article V of the NCA Bylaws, would be charged with: monitoring threats to academic freedom and tenure; developing resources for responding to, or preventing, such threats; collaborating with the Teaching and Learning Council to develop programs to support and teach about defending academic freedom; and, developing collaborative coalitions with other organizations such as the AAUP, AFT, and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

Second, and related to the issue of academic freedom, is NCA’s commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (IDEA). As members of NCA, to fulfill our mission of advancing scholarship, teaching, and practice to foster a better world, we must continue the work to embrace the presence and strengths of all forms of difference, identify and overcome disparities, create an environment of openness and belonging, and provide meaningful access for all.

As we approach 2027, it is time again for NCA to review and revise its strategic plans; both 5-year plans were adopted in 2022. The 2022 IDEA Strategic Plan recommended that the Second Vice President be tasked with moving that strategic plan forward. As Second Vice President, I would be fully committed to NCA’s progress toward the objectives of that strategic plan and drafting the next strategic plan. As SSCA President, I led the Executive Committee in drafting SSCA’s new 5-year strategic plan.

Like NCA, SSCA is committed to these issues. In 2025, SSCA members expressed concerns about how to remain committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and how to protect the association and its members engaged in that work. We added a budget line for convention programming by SSCA’s DEI Committee and we considered proposals to modify SSCA’s language to continue our commitment while simultaneously protecting those engaged in the work. This led to a robust conversation at the 2026 Executive Council and Business meetings, a conversation that continues this year. My leadership experience with SSCA prepared me to contribute to NCA’s continued IDEA strategic plan.

Third, while promoting academic freedom and IDEA, we, as communication scholars, are uniquely positioned to promote civil, public discourse. Part of NCA’s purpose, as stated in our bylaws, is a dedication “to fostering and promoting free, inclusive, and ethical communication … to improve the quality and diversity of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems.” Today’s extremism and fragmentation has contributed to a decline in civil discourse. I would like to enrich NCA’s strategic objectives to “enhance public awareness and understanding” and to “advocate for Communication-informed institutional and public policies” through outreach, collaboration, and public programming to support best communication practices for open, civil, public dialogue.

Finally, as communication scholars and educators, we are conscious of the transformative power of communication and communication education, and the connection to critical thinking.

Recently, we asked our journal editors to reflect on the value of communication education (see Cooks et al., Communication Teacher, 40 (1), 98-114). Several editors responded that the study of communication cultivates critical thinking. The critical analysis inherent in our disciplinary research and education facilitates deliberation, listening, empathy, trust, and decorum. Amidst the anti-intellectualism, incivility, deep fakes, and generative AI, what we teach is not simply needed – it is essential. Critical thinking enhances communication and communication competence contributes to critical thinking. Promoting this connection is essential to enhancing academic freedom, IDEA, and civil discourse. It is another tool in our vision to transform lives through communication.

We can promote diversity, civil discourse, and critical thinking through programs that engage difference and teach best practices for open, respectful dialogue. There are existing programs that endeavor to foster constructive, civil dialogue, but those programs do not necessarily tap into our communicative expertise. We can build existing programs, or develop new ones, by developing resources and engaging in outreach that emphasizes communication theory and pedagogy to enhance such dialogue. We should explore partnerships with programs such as the Constructive Dialogue Institute, Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Civil Dialogue, or the College of Charleston’s Civility Initiative (directed by NCA member Dr. Michael Lee).

I am honored to be considered a candidate for leadership in the National Communication Association. I truly appreciate those who asked me to consider this opportunity, and I look forward to serving NCA. I hope we can work together to move NCA forward in its commitment to applying our collective knowledge about communication and through the promotion of academic freedom, IDEA, civil discourse, and critical thinking.

I’ve been an active member of NCA since 2004, and it seems every year I take more seriously our mission, “To advance communication scholarship, teaching, and practice to foster a better world.” I believe this is possible, I see the work of our members accomplishing this, and I believe that the primary function of the association to uplift the membership in pursuit of a better world. My year on NCA’s Executive Committee in 2025 taught me the value of courageous leadership when our members are experiencing severe disruption, and this experience is why I am asking for your vote. If elected, I will pursue three commitments: that NCA be a welcoming home to all of us, that NCA champion the value of what we do, and that NCA proactively engage the challenges ahead. 

A home to all of us 

Our membership is diverse along dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexuality, religion, ability, and ideology. We need an organization that supports us so that all members can achieve the full measure of their ability, unrestrained by institutional norms inherited from a predominantly white, male, cisgender, able-bodied, Protestant past. This goal is aspirational more than actualized, but we have achieved important progress over the past decade. At a time when organizations nationwide were in in full retreat from their core values, NCA stood up for academic freedom, freedom of expression, diversity, and democracy.  

My commitment to these values should be judged on my record of action. In the summer of 2025, as a member of the working group President Jeanetta Sims appointed to support members facing acute challenges, I organized a survey of NCA members to assess their needs and their attitudes about possible solutions. From what members told us, NCA was able to prioritize several initiatives, two of which I helped facilitate. One was the L.I.F.T. Grant, a one-time $10,000 award to fill the void left by retreating federal support for research on diversity, identity, and topics too politicized to fund at the federal level. The other was the Communication Elevation Grant, which I developed as interim Chair of the Research Council and which the Legislative Assembly adopted in 2025 — a standing grant funded at $30,000 and $15,000 in alternating years, created to meet commitments NCA has made to its members and the needs identified in our survey. 

These few examples are positive steps, but we are far from finished with the work of building an inclusive space that makes us all feel welcome in our own organization.  

Championing what we do 

As a communication association, we can do a better job promoting the outstanding work of our members, and we can do better naming what our teaching contributes. It is my conviction that the foundational course is the most significant thing we do as a field, and one of the most valuable contributions universities make to our society. Our discipline was founded by speech teachers, our first research was about the best ways to teach speech, and our members provide more hours of public speaking instruction and practice than I could even begin to guess. If elected, quantifying this contribution would be a top initiative. I would love for NCA to collect the data and distribute information trumpeting this fact, and to put this evidence in the hands of every member who has ever had to justify a program to a dean. 

Surveys of the skills employers most value frequently highlight our strengths, and our graduates go on to do amazing things. We are holding a very strong hand. We also surely have the best collection of scholars in rhetoric, persuasion, argumentation, public relations, and science communication of any organization in the world, and we should be drawing on that talent to promote the value of communication to external audiences. 

In my four years serving on the Research Council, I was involved in a variety of initiatives to raise the profile of our scholarship. Much of our work was directed to an internal audience, but we are not well served by an inward focus. It is time to advocate on our own behalf.  

Proactively engage the challenges ahead 

The rapid proliferation of generative artificial intelligence has raised questions about ethical standards in research, teaching, and service faster than we have been able to answer them. I have spent two years on the group developing NCA’s guidance for the ethical use of AI, and our work is far from finished. At the same time, core funding streams for higher education have been undermined: reduced indirect costs from federal grants, the politicization of criteria for federal awards and an overall reduction in award dollars, and considerable barriers now facing international scholars. We are finally approaching the much-foretold enrollment cliff and continue to struggle with the steady erosion of state allocations. We all benefit from an NCA that engages these problems proactively and builds the capacity to adapt. 

Meeting those challenges requires an organization that is financially sound and well run. On the Executive Committee, I was genuinely impressed by the discipline of the Finance Committee, the elected leadership, and the national office. NCA’s financial health the only way we are able to adequately serve NCA’s members. I also observed how closely our elected leaders worked with the national office on the quality of our organizational culture. When the national office staff perform at their best, every member feels it. They are the front line of the member experience, and I would welcome the opportunity to work directly to support and uplift their efforts.  

In summary 

I am asking to serve because I believe NCA should be a home to all of us, should champion the extraordinary value of what our members do, and should actively confront the challenges ahead. For these reasons, I hope you will consider me for Second Vice President.