Leadership and Governance

Kent A. Ono is Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. His research focuses on media representations of race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. Professor Ono has made significant contributions to rhetoric and communication theory in three primary areas: critical rhetoric, race and colonialism, and rhetoric and media. His groundbreaking work with John Sloop (Vanderbilt University) in the highly popular area of critical rhetoric has helped change the field of rhetorical studies. Additionally, he has been a scholarly leader of research on race and colonialism in the field of communication, with the best example of this being his book, Contemporary Media Culture and the Remnants of a Colonial Past (2009, Peter Lang), which studies the rhetoric of colonialism in the United States and has been translated into Chinese (Tsinghua University Press). Professor Ono has also contributed to research in rhetoric and media, where his work on television shows such as Mad Men, Star Trek, and Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, for example, and his work on films such as Pocahontas, Avatar, and Come See the Paradise, have had a significant impact on critical media research. He is past editor of Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies and Critical Studies in Media Communication (with Ron Jackson). He is also the founding editor of the book series, Critical Cultural Communication, at New York University Press (which he edited with Sarah Banet-Weiser).

✉ Email: Kent.Ono@utah.edu

Rachel Alicia Griffin, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Race and Communication in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. As a critical/cultural scholar her research interests span Black feminist thought, critical race theory, sexual violence, and the social institutions of sport, media, education, and the U.S. presidency. From 2012 to 2015 Dr. Griffin was awarded the Judge William Holmes Cook Professorship by the Office of the Associate Chancellor for Institutional Diversity at SIU and in 2013 she was awarded the College of Liberal Arts Early Career Faculty Excellence Award at SIU. She was also awarded the 2015 Scholar-Activist Award by the Critical Cultural Studies Division and the 2015 Rex Crawley Outstanding Service Award by the African American Communication Division and Black Caucus via the National Communication Association. Most recently, Dr. Griffin earned WSCA’s 2018 Exemplary Teacher Award and a 2018-2019 Tanner Humanities Center Fellowship at the University of Utah. Dr. Griffin has also published in several journals including Women’s Studies in Communication, Critical Studies in Media Communication, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, The Howard Journal of Communications, the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, and Communication, Culture, & Critique.

Additionally, she is the co-editor of Adventures in Shondaland: Identity Politics and the Power of Representation (Rutgers University Press, 2018). Her pending research project is a co-authored monograph titled Marginalization and the Modern Presidency: Presidential Communication, Identity Politics, and the Battle for “Real’ America. Exceptionally committed to sustaining synergy between research and service, Dr. Griffin has delivered well over 100 anti-sexual violence and Inclusive Excellence presentations on campuses and at conferences nationally and internationally. She especially prizes having spoken for U.S. state coalitions against sexual violence in North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Maryland, California, Illinois, and Washington alongside several opportunities to advocate against sexual violence in Canada. 

Kevin Barge (Ph.D., University of Kansas, 1985) is Professor and Head of Communication at Texas A & M University and an Associate with the Taos Institute. He is also a member of the planning team for the Aspen Conference, a community of engaged organizational communication scholars focused on developing practical theory and collaborative research that bridge academic-practitioner interests.

Kevin’s major research interests center on developing a social constructionist approach to leadership, articulating the connections between appreciative practice and organizational change, as well as exploring the relationship between discourse and public deliberation, specifically practices that facilitate communities working through polarized and polarizing issues.  Other research interests include investigating the role of reflexivity in leadership and management practice, examining ways to develop effective academic-practitioner collaborations, and developing practical theory.

He has published articles on leadership, dialogue, and organizational change in The Academy of Management Review, Management Communication Quarterly, Human Relations, Communication Theory, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Monographs.  Kevin has served on a number of national and international editorial boards for journals such as Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Human Relations, and Journal of Management Studies.  He is a former editor of Communication Studies and a former president of the Central States Communication Association.

Charles E. Morris III is Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Communication & Rhetorical Studies, and Affiliated Faculty in LGBT Studies and Women’s & Gender Studies, at Syracuse University. He earned his B.A. at Boston College and his M.A. and Ph.D from Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Morris describes himself as a queer rhetorical/historical critic whose research and teaching interests are focused on rhetorical criticism, archives and public memory, and LGBTQ histories, cultures, and politics. Dr. Morris is Co-Founding-Editor-in-Chief of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking (Michigan State University Press). His edited and co-edited books include An Archive of Hope: Harvey Milk's Speeches and Writings, Queering Public Address: Sexualities in American Historical Discourse, Remembering the AIDS Quilt, and Readings on the Rhetoric of Social Protest. His essays and guest edited special issues and forums have appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Speech, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, Text & Performance Quarterly, and Women’s Studies in Communication among others.

Dr. Morris has twice received NCA’s Golden Monograph Award for article of the year, as well as NCA's Karl Wallace Memorial Award for early career achievement and the Randy Majors Award for Distinguished Scholarship in LGBTQ Studies. In 2016, Dr. Morris was named a Distinguished Scholar by the Rhetorical and Communication Theory Division of the National Communication Association.

Vinita Agarwal is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Salisbury University (SU), Maryland. She received her Ph.D. from Purdue University, M.A. from University of Illinois at Chicago, M.A. from the Mass Communication Research Center, India, and her B.Sc. in Physics (Hons.) from Miranda House, India.

Dr. Agarwal’s research theorizes ecologically aware, relational, and dialogic understandings of whole-person care in health promotion, disease prevention, and chronic illness management. Her monograph, Medical Humanism, Chronic Illness, and the Body in Pain: An Ecology of Wholeness (Lexington Press), integrates her long-term meditation practice, native knowledge, and professional training in Vipassana meditation and Ayurvedic diet and wellness principles to propose an ecological model of wholeness for the therapeutic relationship and healing communication approaches of traditional global medical systems and the biomedical model.

Her research has been published in journals such as Health Communication, the Journal of Patient Experience, Qualitative Health Research,  Journal of Advanced Nursing, and the Journal of American College Health. She is associate editor at Frontiers in Communication (Health Communication) and has received top five paper recognition from the Applied Communication Division, NCA and at the Eastern and Central regional conventions. Her work has been recognized by the Excellence in Scholarship award, the Building Research Excellence grant (SU), and the University System of Maryland Women’s Foundation Faculty Research award. Her commitment to service includes positions such as director for the foundational year of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities and as chair of the Feminist and Gender Studies division, NCA.

Dr. Jeanetta D. Sims is Dean of the Jackson College of Graduate Studies and Professor in the marketing department of the College of Business at UCO, where she teaches courses in marketing and communication, and is accredited in public relations (APR). Her program of research includes strategic communication, workforce diversity, and persuasion and social influence. She founded Diverse Student Scholars (www.diversestudentscholars.com), which is a robust interdisciplinary program of student research engagement in existence since 2007.

Dr. Sims has received university and national awards for her teaching (in 2014, 2012, and 2009) and for her scholarship through winning top paper or merit awards from the university or at national and international conferences in 2018, 2017, 2016, 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2006; three of the top paper awards included undergraduate student co-authors. She is co-editor of the annual UCO Transformative Learning Conference Proceedings, the Journal of Transformative Learning, and Developing Workforce Diversity Programs, Curriculum, and Degrees in Higher Education. Her research appears in multiple book chapters as well as in the Journal of Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, Human Communication Research, Atlantic Marketing Journal, Corporate Reputation Review, Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Western Journal of Communication, Journal of Business Diversity, Florida Communication Journal, and Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly.

Dr. Sims serves nationally in elected or appointed positions for the Higher Learning Commission, the Council on Undergraduate Research, the National Communication Association, the Marketing Management Association, and the North American Management Society.

Lisa A. Flores is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado.  Her research and teaching interests lie in rhetoric, critical race studies, and gender/queer studies. Her most recent work examines historic narratives of immigrants and immigration, mapping an argument of race making, particular at the intersections of nation, citizenship, and labor. Her book, Deportable and Disposable: Public Rhetoric and the Making of “Illegality,” forthcoming from the Pennsylvania State University Press, theorizes rhetorical racialization as it turns to the intersecting discourses of deportability and disposability in historic narratives of Mexican migration. She is the recipient of the Douglas W. Ehninger Distinguished Rhetorical Scholar Award from the National Communication Association (NCA), as well as the Distinguished Scholar Award from both the Rhetorical & Communication Theory Division of NCA and the Critical & Cultural Studies Division of NCA. She has twice received the Rose B. Johnson article of the year award from the Southern States Communication Association. In addition, she is also the recipient of the Latino/a Scholar of the year award from NCA’s Latina/Latino Communication Studies Division, the Young Scholar Activist Award from the same division, the New Investigator Award from NCA’s Rhetoric and Communication Theory Division, and the Karl R. Wallace Memorial Award, from NCA. She has published in Text and Performance Quarterly, Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Critical Studies in Media Communication, and the Quarterly Journal of Speech. An advocate of disciplinary service, Lisa is Past President of the Western States Communication Association and the Organization for Research on Women and Communication, a member of the Board of Directors of the Rhetoric Society of America, and an active member the National Communication Association.

Rich received his Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication from Ohio University and his M.A. in Communication Education from Illinois State University. He is currently Professor of Communication Studies at Emerson College, where he has served as a Dean, Director, and Department Chair.

Rich is a former President of both the National Communication Association and the Eastern Communication Association. He has chaired or served on over 60 NCA/ECA committees.  He is also a recipient of ECA's Distinguished Service Award as well as being recognized as both an ECA Distinguished Research Fellow and Distinguished Teaching Fellow. Rich is currently on the Academic Board of Directors for the Global Listening Centre, based in London, and sits on several editorial boards.

Rich is the co-author/editor of 10 books that have been published in 7 languages. Two of his anthologies have received NCA's Outstanding Book Award in Family Communication ("The Family Communication Sourcebook") and in Applied Communication ("Routledge Handbook of Communication and Bullying").  

Rich has received a number of accolades over the years.  He was awarded Emerson's prestigious Norman and Irma Mann Stearns distinction and recognized as Distinguished Faculty. In addition, Illinois State University and Ohio University named him "Outstanding Alum in Communication"; ISU also recognized him for "Distinction in Forensics" and "Outstanding Graduate in Teacher Education."  

Rich is an award-winning gardener and his 120-year-old home in Maine has been featured in dozens of media outlets.

Ms. Linda Taliaferro, CAE is President of Iron Cutter Consulting, a firm focused on supporting associations undergoing transformation through leadership transitions by providing Interim CEO/Executive Director services, governance solutions, and transition resources.

A certified association executive with over 15 years of senior and executive leadership experience in large and small non-profit associations, both professional and trade, Ms. Taliaferro provides expertise in strategic planning, financial management, advocacy, operations, governance, and staff professional development.

In her free time, Ms. Taliaferro enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, painting, horseback riding, and fostering rescued cats and dogs.