Leadership and Governance

NCA is led by dedicated professionals who volunteer their time to advance the goals and objectives of the association. 

 

The Executive Committee of the Legislative Assembly (LA) administers the policies of the Assembly and, between annual meetings of the LA, serves as the chief administrative authority of the Association.

Walid Afifi

Walid Afifi

University of California-Santa Barbara

Walid Afifi (PhD, University of Arizona, 1995) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of California-Santa Barbara (UCSB), where is also currently a member of the Campus Climate Council and Director of the Center for Middle East Studies. Prior to his return to UCSB, he served as department Chair at the University of Iowa (2012-2015), where he was also a member of the Human Rights Commission. He is an author on over 80 journal articles, chapters, or books, and was recently inducted as a Fellow of the International Communication Association (ICA). His service to NCA has been vast and long-lasting, including Chair of the Interpersonal Communication division (2004), and a member of the Units Task Force (2009-2011), the NCA Bylaws Task Force (2011-2012), and the Task Force on Inclusivity in the Discipline (2014-2017). Most recently, he was Chair of the Task force on the NCA Center for Community, Collaboration and Change (2017-2019). He is an editorial board member on several leading journals and served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Personal Relationships, and Human Communication Research. He is also currently serving the discipline as a member of the ICA Inclusivity, Diversity, Equity, and Access committee.

✉ Email: w-afifi@ucsb.edu

Marnel Niles Goins

Marnel Niles Goins

Marymount University

Marnel Niles Goins is Dean of the College of Sciences and Humanities and Professor of Communication at Marymount University. She earned her Ph.D. from Howard University in Washington, DC. Prior to her transition to Marymount, she served as Professor and Graduate Coordinator in the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno, where she worked for 12 years. She taught courses in Small Group Communication and Organizational Communication and has a special interest in gender and racial dynamics in organizational settings. Marnel has numerous publications, including serving as first editor of the recently published, The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication. Marnel is 2nd Vice President of the Western States Communication Association, Immediate Past President of the Western States Communication Association, and a Past President of the Organization for Research on Women and Communication. She also served NCA as a member of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Task Force, chair and member of the Finance Committee, and chair of the Black Caucus.

✉ Email: mngoins@marymount.edu

Roseann M. Mandziuk

Jeanetta D. Sims

University of Central Oklahoma

Bio coming soon.

✉ Email: jsims7@uco.edu

Roseann M. Mandziuk

Roseann M. Mandziuk

Texas State University

Roseann M. Mandziuk is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communication Studies. She earned her Ph.D. in Rhetorical Studies from the University of Iowa, her M.S. in Communication from Illinois State University, and her B.A. in Speech and in English from Wayne State University. She has been a member of the faculty at Texas State University since 1987.

Roseann’s research focuses upon images of women, the rhetorical uses of history, and the construction of public memory in museums and monuments. She has co-authored a scholarly book about the rhetoric of Sojourner Truth, published numerous articles and book chapters examining historical and contemporary rhetoric, and served as Editor of Women’s Studies in Communication. She has received two Fulbright Scholar Awards, in India and in Poland, and has presented numerous international research lectures. She also was selected as an American Council on Education Fellow.

Roseann’s extensive professional service contributions include President of the Southern States Communication Association, two terms as Finance Board Chair and twelve years as a member of the Affirmative Action/Intercaucus Committee for the National Communication Association, and fifteen years as Chair of the Presidential Work Life Advisory Council on her campus. She has served on numerous editorial boards including Quarterly Journal of Speech and Women’s Studies in Communication, as well as regional and national association publication, nomination, and award committees. Her contributions have been recognized with national and regional professional association awards for teaching, mentoring, and research, including the 2014 Michael M. Osborn Teacher-Scholar Award from SSCA and the 2017 Francine Merritt Award for Contributions to Women in Communication from the NCA Women’s Caucus.

✉ Email: rm07@txstate.edu

Cerise L. Glenn

University of North Carolina

Cerise L. Glenn is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina Greensboro. Dr. Glenn Manigault is also an affiliate faulty member of the African American and African Diasporic Studies and Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Programs.

Dr. Glenn Manigault received her B.A. at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, M.A. at North Carolina State University and Ph.D. at Howard University.

Her scholarly interests include cultural identity and identity negotiation, African American communication and culture, occupational socialization and identification of diverse groups, organizational culture, and third wave/intersectional feminism.

Dr. Glenn Manigault has author numerous journal articles, book chapters, and essays and has won several awards including the Outstanding Research Article Award from the African American Communication and Culture Division.

 

Shari Miles-Cohen

Kimberly D. Osborne

For more than 25 years, Dr. Kimberly Osborne has been a trusted coach, mentor, and advisor to U.S. and foreign governments, multinational corporations, international NGOs, top-tier universities, and leading nonprofits. She built her career advising top leaders at organizations from startups to Fortune 500 companies like Symantec Corporation, Kelly Services, General Motors, American Honda Motor Company, lululemon, BlueShield of California, 3M, and others. She has proven herself as a change-maker with a masterful understanding of culture, information and influence in high-stakes, high-visibility environments.

Charismatic, insightful, and intellectually agile, she influences behavior, challenges preconceptions, and aligns leaders in demanding situations. As a coach, consultant, and speaker, she addresses important subjects including transformational leadership, emotional intelligence, strategic communication, corporate culture and diversity, and enlightened use of power and influence.

Dr. Osborne is recognized as a global authority in leadership and communication. She is a 2021 inductee to the Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame and a 2019 winner of the Academy of Human Resource Development’s Bierema Award, honoring scholars and HRD professionals who actively challenge field and industry norms while advancing important social justice perspectives and principles. She was an invited speaker at the NATO Strategic Communication Centre of Excellence in Riga, Latvia in 2016 where she spoke to military and diplomatic leaders from NATO partner nations about how best practices from commercial sector can be applied in military and diplomatic missions.

Grounded in the leading research in the field, Dr. Osborne held a prestigious endowed chair on the faculty of the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University and on the faculty of the University of Georgia’s College of Education where she taught graduate-level courses in leadership and organizational development. Previously, she was the director of the Center for Leadership Development at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey, California. As one of the top civilians in the dynamic and extremely multicultural environment of the U.S. Defense Department’s premier school for culturally based foreign language education, she provided organizational analyses, strategic planning, and guidance around issues of leader and organizational development.

Overseas, she served as the Chief Strategic Communication Advisor in Kabul, Afghanistan at the end of Operation Enduring Freedom. In this role, she was the highest-ranking civilian communication advisor to the Afghan National Security Forces at the end of the longest NATO mission in history. She also was a Fulbright Scholar in Myanmar (Southeast Asia) at the Ministry of Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement in 2018, and she worked as an international consultant to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Mission in Kosovo in 2017. She has also taught programs for the University of Georgia in New Zealand and Costa Rica.

Kim earned her Ph.D. in adult education and an interdisciplinary graduate certificate in qualitative research methods from the University of Georgia. She has a master’s degree in communications management from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a cognate in management studies from Kalamazoo College. She is an International Coaching Federation Professional Certified Coach.

✉ Email: kim@drkimosborne.com

Devika Chawla

Devika Chawla

Ohio University

Devika Chawla is Professor in the School of Communication Studies at Ohio University and Affiliated faculty with Interdisciplinary Arts, Women’s and Gender Studies, Communication and Development, International Development Studies, and Southeast Asian Studies. She received her B.A. in English Literature and Literary Criticism from the University of Delhi. She holds two M.A. degrees; the first in English Print Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in New Delhi, and the second in Speech Communication and Dramatic Arts from Central Michigan University. She received her Ph.D. in Communication Studies with related emphases in Family Studies and Social Anthropology from Purdue University.

Dr. Chawla’s research focuses on communicative, performative, and narrative approaches to studying family, home, and its relationship to social identity. Specifically, she is interested in understanding how human beings transform themselves in the relationships that surround them, and the resources – social, political, economic – that are available to them. Most of her field research has taken place in the context of marriage and family life in contemporary urban north India. Dr. Chawla is the author of Home, Uprooted: Oral Histories of India’s Partition (Fordham University Press), which won the 2015 Outstanding Book Award from the Ethnography Division and the International and Intercultural Division of the National Communication Association. She has published three other co-authored and edited books and over 55 essays in peer-reviewed journals and anthologies. She is Senior Associate Editor (south Asia and southeast Asia) for the Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Communication. From 2019 to 2021, she served as editor-in-chief of Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, a journal published by the University of California Press. 

 

Syracuse University 

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

Salisbury University

Vinita Agarwal is 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.

Rich West

Emerson College

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. He has received NCA's Presidential Citation for Service twice. 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 nearly 10 languages. Two of his anthologies have received NCA's Outstanding Book Award in a) Family Communication ("The Family Communication Sourcebook") and in b) Applied Communication ("Routledge Handbook of Communication and Bullying"). Dr. West has received a number of academic 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."

He has also written articles for Edible Maine magazine and his expertise/research has been featured in the Washington Post, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Christian Science Monitor, AARP Magazine, among many others.

Rich is an award-winning gardener and his 117-year-old home and gardens in Maine have appeared in numerous media outlets.

Jimmie Manning

Jimmie Manning

University of Nevada, Reno

Jimmie Manning is Professor and Chair of Communication Studies in the School of Social Research and Justice Studies at the University of Nevada. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Speech/Communication, Dramatic Arts, and English from Emporia State University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas. 

Dr. Manning’s research focuses on relational and family communication. This work spans multiple contexts to understand how individuals, couples, families, organizations, and cultural institutions attempt to define, support, control, limit, encourage, or otherwise negotiate relationships. He explores these ideas through three contexts: relational discourses, especially those related to family, identity, love, gender, and/or sexuality; relational efficacy in health and organizational contexts; and digitally-mediated communication. This work has resulted in over 100 publications in outlets including Communication Monographs, Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, among others. 

Dr. Manning has received several research, teaching, and service awards including the NCA Kibler and Ecroyd awards, the International Association for Relationship Research Teaching Award, the Warren and Kay awards from the Central States Communication Association, and the Outreach and Gender Studies Scholar awards from the Southern States Communication Association, among others. He comes to the NCA finance committee with extensive service at the regional, national, and international levels..

Lisa A. Flores

University of Colorado, Boulder 

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.

Shari Miles-Cohen

National Communication Association

Shari Miles-Cohen, Ph.D., joined NCA as Executive Director in January 2022. Before joining NCA, Miles-Cohen served as the American Psychological Association’s (APA) primary expert on domestic human rights and issues affecting marginalized populations in the US, overseeing APA’s Ethnic Minority Affairs, Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, and Women’s Portfolios. She co-created and led APA’s flagship leadership development program and the innovative “I am Psyched! Initiative,” now a digitized exhibit in the Smithsonian Learning Lab.

Previously, Miles-Cohen led the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the African American Women’s Institute at Howard University, and the Women’s Research & Education Institute. She was a Congressional Fellow and a District of Columbia Commission for Women member. She has traveled extensively domestically and internationally to promote the interface between research and policy and has convened six international interdisciplinary conferences.

Miles-Cohen is a member of the Palo Alto University Board of Trustees. She is an APA Fellow and a member of professional societies focused on gender, ethnicity and culture, social issues, disability, leadership, science, and philanthropy.

Miles-Cohen earned her Ph.D. in personality psychology from Howard University and has published scholarly works throughout her career. Most recently, she co-authored an article on women’s leadership development and co-edited a book on eliminating health inequities for women with disabilities.


Legislative Assembly

The Legislative Assembly (LA) is the principal policy-making body of the association and is responsible for managing its resources and affairs.
 
 

Councils and Committees

The IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) Council is responsible for monitoring and making recommendations to enhance the diversity of the Association.
 
Council Chair: Cerise L. Glenn, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
 
Council Members:
  • Anjuli J. Brekke, University of Washington (Asian/Pacific American Caucus)
  • Lisa Calvente, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (Caribbean Caucus)
  • James Cherney, University of Nevada, Reno (Disability Issues Caucus)
  • Elizabeth F. Desnoyers-Colas, Georgia Southern University (Women's Caucus)
  • Jaime Guzmán, California State University, Los Angeles (La Raza Caucus)
  • Deryl Johnson, Kutztown University (Caucus on GLBTQ Concerns)
  • Natonya Listach, University of Memphis (Black Caucus)
  • Liahnna Stanley, Arizona State University (Indigenous Caucus)
The Finance Committee is responsible for providing guidance and information to the Legislative Assembly on the financial affairs of the Association, and shall have such other responsibilities as are established from time to time by the Legislative Assembly or Executive Committee of the Legislative Assembly.The committee works jointly with chief financial officer.
 
Committee Chair: Rich West, Emerson College
 
Committee Directors:
  • Jimmie Manning, University of Nevada, Reno
  • Candice Thomas-Maddox, Ohio University, Lancaster
The Publications Council oversees the Association’s publications program, including recommending editors to the Legislative Assembly for the Association's journals and filling journal editor vacancies as necessary. The council works jointly with the director of external affairs and publications.
 
Council Chair: Devika Chawla, Ohio University
 
Council Members:
  • Godfried Asante, San Diego State University
  • Nicholas Bowman, Texas Tech University 
  • Rachel Dubrofsky, University of South Florida
  • Aisha Durham, University of South Florida
  • Todd L. Sandel, University of Macau
  • Angharad Valdivia, University of Illinois
 
 
Council Chair:  Kimberly D. Osborne
 
Council Members:  
  • Yea-Wen Chen, San Diego State University
  • Lisa K. Hanasono, Bowling Green State University
  • Raquel Moreira, Southwestern University
  • Bala A. Musa, Azusa Pacific University
  • Eddah M. Mutua, St. Cloud State University
  • Keri. K. Stephens, University of Texas, Austin
The Research Council is responsible for supporting the creation and dissemination of knowledge about communication. The council works jointly with the director of academic & professional affairs.
 
Council Chair:  Shaunak Sastry, University of Cincinnati
 
Council Members:  
  • Iccha Basnyat, George Mason University 
  • Christopher Carpenter, Western Illinois University 
  • Jiyoung Lee, Sungkyunkwan University
  • Annette D. Madlock, Sister Circle Writers
  • Paul Schrodt, Texas Christian University
  • Benjamin Warner, University of Missouri
The Teaching and Learning Council supports and promotes disciplinary pedagogy through facilitation of professional development opportunities for communication educators. The council works jointly with the director of academic & professional affairs.
 
Council Chair: Vinita Agarwal, Salisbury University 
 
Council Members:
  • Kristen Blinne, SUNY Oneonta
  • Qingwen Dong, University of the Pacific
  • Katherine S. Thweatt, Chair-Elect
  • Jon A. Hess, University of Dayton
  • Sandy Pensoneau-Conway, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
  • Andrea Vickery SUNY, Oswego
  • David A. Yastremski, Ridge High School

Governance Committees

The Convention Committee is responsible for providing recommendations on issues related to convention locations.
 
Committee Members
  • Ariadne A. Gonzalez, Texas A&M International University 
  • John R. Heineman, Lincoln Public Schools
  • Christina M. Knopf, State University of New York, Cortland
  • Shana Kopaczewski, Indiana State University
  • Katherine La Pierre, Indiana University East
  • Goyland Mertell Williams, University of Hartford
The Nominating Committee prepares a slate for the election of the second vice president and the at-large members of the Legislative Assembly and Leadership Development Committee.
 
 
The Leadership Development Committee makes recommendations to fill member vacancies on councils, award committees, and standing committees.
 
2022 LDC Slate approved by the Legislative Assembly on Saturday, November 19. 
 
Committee Chair: Roseann M. Mandziuk, Texas State University
 
Committee Members
  • Walid Afifi, University of California, Santa Barbara
  • Fatima Zahrae Chrifi Alaoui, San Francisco State University
  • Haneen Ghabra, Kuwait University
  • Kimberly Johnson, Tennessee State University
  • Creshema R. Murray, University of Houston, Downtown
  • Marnel Niles Goins, Marymount University 
  • Adam Rainear, West Chester University
  • David M. Rhea, Governors State University 
  • Jeanetta Sims, University of Central Oklahoma
  • Damariyé Smtih, San Diego State University
  • Sean Upshaw, University of Texas, Austin 
The Resolutions Committee considers resolutions that may be included in the association’s Policy Platform.
 
Committee Members: 
  • Mark L. Finney, Emory & Henry College
  • Margaret R. LaWare, Iowa State University 
  • Kurt Lindemann, San Diego State University 
  • Jacqueline Peters, Concordia University
  • Amy Aldridge Sanford, Middle Tennessee State University 
  • Michelle T. Violanti, University of Tennessee

Please refer to the Public Statements page for more information about submission procedures and requirements.