Juanita Anderson was elected to the Board of Directors of American Documentary, the organization that also produced the PBS documentary series, POV. Juanita was also chosen as a Spark Fund recipient! The Spark Fund, a one-time opportunity underwritten by the National Endowment for the Humanities, provides stipends to 36 established BIPOC filmmakers whose work was disrupted by the pandemic. Congratulations Juanita!  

Digital Animation instructor Francesco Collins won a 2022 Michigan Emmy Award in the category Graphic Design- Motion Graphics. (category 633).

Paul Echeverria screened the short film Selfie as part of the 25th Anniversary Media City Film Festival. Echeverria also screened Saffron Mourning at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) as part of the New York City Symphonies of the Millennium Film Workshop program. Watch Selfie Here! Watch Nighttime Here! Congratulations Paul!    

Stine Eckert was awarded the 2022-2023 Career Development Chair Award through the Office of the Provost. She was recognized at the Academic Recognition Ceremony on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Congratulations Stine!

Jane Fitzgibbon represented the Academic Senate as a speaker during the Winter 2022 graduation ceremony. Well done, Jane! 

Congratulations Rosie on being promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure. Rosie joined the Department of Communication of Wayne State University in Fall of 2016. She holds a PhD in Journalism from the University of Missouri, MA from the University of Texas-Austin (Journalism), and Seoul National University (Communication) and her BA from Sookmyung Women’s University in South Korea. 

Congratulations to Jessica Moorman, whose projects was competitively selected for the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows Competition through the Humanities Center. This year's theme was Fear and Fragility in the COVID-19 Era. She will present the results of their projects at the Faculty Fellows Conference in April 2023.

Alicia Nails is a sought-after speaker on diversity, equity and inclusion in the media. She recently led a webinar for the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the Emmy people. She moderated "Bring Your Authentic Self to the Newsroom," featuring a panel of young journalists of color and from the LGBT community who answered student questions about entering the career field without culturally conforming beyond their comfort zone. She appeared on a DEI panel for Public Information Officers sponsored by DTE Energy and Wayne State, offering advice on how these communication professionals can be change agents in their organizations. This August when AEJMC meets in Detroit, she will participate on the panel, "Changes comes from the top: Bringing diversity into newsroom leadership."

Pradeep Sopory's project was competitively selected for the 2021-2022 Faculty Fellows Competition through the Humanities Center. This year's theme was Fear and Fragility in the COVID-19 Era. He will also present the results of his project at the Faculty Fellows Conference in April 2023. Congratulations also go to Pradeep on his promotion to Professor!

Congratulations to Stephanie Tong on being elected as a Three-Year Term Member-At-Large on the Academic Senate! To learn more about the Academic, visit the Academic Senate page on the WSU website.

JIM graduate Lisa Allen was promoted to General Manager of Gray’s Washington Operations. Congratulations Lisa!

Israa Darwich, Public Relations and Creative Writing student at Wayne State University, has been making music since she was 14. In 2021, she had the opportunity to audition for a FOX singing competition titled “Alter Ego”. Read more about it here!

Khairul Islam

Doctoral Candidate Khairul Islam's work was featured in The Learning Organization and in The Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research. Another paper was accepted for publication in the Journal-American Water Works Association. Khairul was also awarded with the Top Paper Panel Award from the International Crisis & Risk Communication Conference for the paper tittle “Variability in media content of public health outbreak coverage: A crisis communication approach” with fellow Doctoral Candidate Najma Akhther; and Khairul received the Platform Presentation Award (3rd place) from the 2022 Graduate Research Symposium, Wayne State University for his solo paper titled “Social-mediated communication during water service disruptions.” Congratulations Khairul!

As a boy, Public Relations grauduate Sam Krahn developed a connection with and love for Detroit through regular visits with an aunt and uncle who live in the adjacent Woodbridge neighborhood. And where better for a self-described “big car nerd” to study than the Motor City? But the final push toward Midtown was his desire to swim in college. Read more about it here!

Doctoral Candidate Anna Lindner takes the top student paper in the AEJMC History Division. Congratulations Anna!

Doctoral Candidate Christine Nyawaga was formally offered an internship, starting May 2022, by Microsoft - specifically with its Social Media Collective and Yammer Research Team - where she will study the experiences of professionals of color using enterprise social media. Christine's dissertation research will build on her experiences and work during this internship. Congratulations Christine!

Doctoral Candidate Erin Perry was named to Poynter's Leadership Academy in Media. Congratulations Erin!

John Pompeo

Deptartment of Communication Alumni John Pompeo (2012) won an Investigative reporting Emmy for his work as a photojournalist on WDIV's Missing in the Morgue. (category 209) The award was presented by NATAS-Michigan at the June 11th ceremony. 

Doctoral Student Fatooma Saad focused her MA thesis on exploring the experiences and retention-related decisions of women in the military. Read more about it here.

Congratulations to Media Arts and Studies graduate Jerod Willis on being awarded Best Michigan Filmmaker at the Ann Arbor Film Festival!   

The South End won two awards over Spring Break at the National College Media Convention in New York City. They brought home 2nd place for Best Homepage and Honorable Mention for Best Facebook Page! The student newspaper is led by members of the Journalism Institute for Media Diversity, Editor-in-Chief Jenna Prestininzi and Managing Editor Irving Mejia-Hilario. Institute Director Alicia Nails serves on the paper's Publications Board. Congratulations!

The Wayne State University Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Executive Board had the chance to attend a district conference in Pittsburgh, PA. The district conference was jointly hosted by Point Park University and Duquesne University. Executive Board members - Elizabeth Ryan, Lucas Moody, Amanda Bastein, Cheri Hollie, Leah Pavone, and Deborah Trotter - participated in agency tours at Highmark Health and BCW Global where they had the chance to network with area professionals. In addition, members participated in breakout sessions where they learned about effective ways to work from home, lessons learned after graduation and embedding DEI in storytelling. 

Every year The Graduate Student Association (GSA) of the Department of Communication is elects winners to govern the organization. Click here to see the officer elects. Thank you for your service!

• Akhther, N., Sopory, P. (2022). Seeking and sharing mental health information on social media during COVID-19: Role of depression and anxiety, peer support, and health benefits. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-021-00239-x

• Islam, K., Edwards, A. L., Shi, D., Lim, J. R., Sheppard, R., Liu, B. F., & Seeger, M. (2022). Crisis communication and learning: U.S. higher education’s responses to a global pandemic. The Learning Organization. https://doi.org/10.1108/TLO-10-2021-0121

• Tetteh, D., & Akhther, N. (2021). Openness and topic avoidance in ovarian cancer communication: An uncertainty management perspective. Qualitative Research in Medicine and Healthcare, 5 (3), 9376. https://doi.org/10.4081/qrmh.2021.9376

• Day, A.M., Islam, K., O’Shay-Wallace, S., Taylor, K., McElmurry, S.P., Seeger, M.W. (Accepted). Consumer Response to Boil Water Notifications During Winter Storm Uri. Journal – American Water Works Association.

• Liu, B.F., Shi, D., Lim, J.K.R, Edwards, A., Islam, K., Sheppard, R., Seeger, M.W. (2021). Evolving best practices in crisis communication: Examining U.S. higher education’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research 4(3), 451-484. https://doi.org/10.30658/jicrcr.4.3.1