Leadership and Governance

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. 

Dr. Shaunak Sastry, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Communication at the University of Cincinnati and Director of The Cincinnati Project, a center for community-engaged research in the College of Arts & Sciences at UC. His research and teaching interests are in the areas of critical health communication, globalization, and infectious disease politics. His work has been published in leading international peer-reviewed journals like Human Communication Research, Communication Theory, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, Culture, Health & Sexuality, Frontiers in Communication, and Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, in addition to several book chapters and more than 50 paper presentations at national and international conferences. He is a senior editor of the journal Health Communication and sits on the editorial board of several other academic journals. He is the Chair of the National Communication Association’s (NCA) Research Council. Dr. Sastry teaches courses in health communication, globalization, and research methods at the undergraduate and graduate level in the School of Communication, Film & Media Studies at UC.

Vinita Agarwal is full professor of communication in the Department of Communication at Salisbury University, Maryland. Her research theorizes the relations between ecological elements and the self-reflexive, and intersubjective relations of whole-person care in health and healing as explicated in her monograph, Medical Humanism, Chronic Illness, and the Body in Pain: An Ecology of Wholeness (2020, Lexington Press) and further explored in its intersections with social justice in an upcoming textbook: Health Communication as Social Justice: A Whole Person Activist Approach (in press, Routledge). Grounded in principles of global health ethics, her research takes an experiential, relational, and dialogic approach, drawing upon her training as Health and Wellbeing Coach, trained from Duke Health; in Vipassana meditation from Vipassana International Academy, Dhamma Giri, India; in Ayurvedic Wellness Education, Advanced Course in Ayurvedic Diet and Nutrition, and Ayurveda for Health Practitioners from India and Maharishi International University, USA.  Her work has been published in Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, Health Communication, Journal of Patient Experience, Qualitative Health Research and Journal of Advanced Nursing. She has authored encyclopedia entries on yoga and Ayurveda and several book chapters including on the semi-structured interviewing method for SAGE Handbook of Medicine and Health. Her work has been presented in top paper panels at the National Communication Association (NCA), Eastern Communication Association, and Central States Communication Associations. She has over 60 solo-authored, competitively selected presentations in national and international conferences including the International Congress for Integrative Medicine and Health and the International Association of Yoga Therapy and is the recipient of the Fulton Award for Excellence in Scholarship and the University System of Maryland Women’s Health Foundation Award. She teaches courses in strategic communication including Health Communication, Health Engagement & Advocacy, International Public Relations, and Digital Public Relations. Her service includes leadership positions at NCA, serving as chair of the Teaching and Learning Council and the Feminist and Gender Studies Division, as Executive Committee member, and as a member of the Health Humanities Faculty Learning Committee at her institution. 

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 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..

Candice Thomas-Maddox (Ed.D., West Virginia University) is Professor of Communication Studies at Ohio University Lancaster where she teaches courses in interpersonal, family, and organizational communication. She is the co-author of four textbooks: Interpersonal Communication: Building Rewarding Relationships; Quantitative Research Methods for Communication: A Hands-on Approach; Communicating in Your Personal, Professional, and Public Lives; and Family Communication: Relationship Foundations.

Candice received the ECA Ecroyd Teaching Award and the ECA Teaching Fellows designation in recognition of her contributions in the classroom, as well as the 2002 Ohio Outstanding Scholar Award presented by OCA. She is the former President and Executive Director for both the Eastern Communication Association and the Ohio Communication Association, as well as former Chair for NCA’s Instructional Development Division, NCA Short Course Director, and member of the NCA Nominating Committee. Currently, Candice serves as faculty advisor for student organizations on her campus including Phi Theta Kappa Honorary, Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity, and the SPARK Leadership Team.

.✉ Email: thomas@ohio.edu

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.