Communication Studies - Faculty

Dr. Michelle Calka
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

Michelle Calka (Ph.D. Ohio University, 2012) teaches courses in media, small group communication, interpersonal communication, research methods, rhetoric, and gender. She also directs the communication studies internship program. Her research interests focus on the intersections of technology, rhetoric, and identity. Her dissertation focused on performances of identity in virtual worlds. She challenges and encourages students to get excited about the importance of communication, consider how communication theories apply to their own experiences, and apply their knowledge outside of the classroom.

Dr. Judd Case
Department Chair of Communication Studies

Dr. Case (Ph.D., University of Iowa, 2010) specializes in media studies, and teaches courses in media literacy, new media, telecommunications, guerrilla journalism, and TV criticism. He is a member of the review board of the Journal of Media & Religion. He has recently published in that journal, and is a featured interviewee in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Empire Studies. He has recently presented papers on Second Life, guerrilla journalism, and the broadcasting of ritual performance. His dissertation explored radar as a medium that prefigures the “situation rooms” of today’s newscasts. He is an enthusiastic teacher who is eager to help students prepare, present, and publish their own work.

Dr. Mary Lahman
Professor of Communication Studies
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Mary Lahman incorporates appreciative inquiry and diversity-affirming ethics into her teaching of intercultural communication, listening and general semantics. She encourages students to give voice to and make sense of their experiences in light of applied communication theories. Her publications include articles in ETC: A Review of General Semantics and Communication Teacher, in addition to two textbooks: Action & Awareness: A General Semantics Approach to Effective Language Behavior (a free download on the IGS website) and Communication Across Contexts: A Listening-centered Approach (Kendall Hunt, 2014).

Professor Lahman is a 1983 graduate of Manchester University and holds advanced degrees from Miami University of Ohio (MA, 1984) and Indiana University (Ph.D., 1996). Before teaching at Manchester, Mary worked in professional sales for 11 years: four years for Eastman Kodak Company in upstate New York, followed by seven years for Johnson & Johnson in northeast Indiana. She recently worked with Steel Dynamics to present listening workshops for managers and sales representatives.

Tim McKenna-Buchanan, Ph.D.
Director of Honors Program
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
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Dr. Tim McKenna-Buchanan (Ph.D., Ohio University, 2014) teaches courses in organizational communication, public relations and ethics. He strives to create learning environments that guide, develop and challenge students to recognize the value and importance of communication in (and out of) the workplace. His research interests influence his teaching, which explore the intersection of difference (or diversity) and organizational life, with an emphasis on the ways narratives empower differences and the stories that create, maintain and change individuals’ lived experience. His research has been published in journals such as Communication Education, Communication Teacher, and Health Communication, as well as several book chapters.  

Gabriela I. Morales, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Health Communication

Dr. Gabriela “Gabby” Morales (Ph.D. University of New Mexico, 2017) teaches courses in health communication, intercultural communication, and foundations of communication. She encourages an interactive, creative, and discussion-based learning environment in the classroom that challenges students to get out of their comfort zone. Her research interests focus on the intersectionality of culture and health, with an emphasis on health disparities, health literacy, cancer coping strategies, patient-provider communication, and patient-centered communication. She has also done research in areas like disabilities studies, with a focus on media representations of mental health, as well as wrestling studies, where she and her partner have examined health representations and media effects in professional wrestling. Her dissertation focused on analyzing the narratives, and social cognitive modeling of Hispanic/Latina breast cancer survivors, with an emphasis on social support systems. She also worked at an NPR affiliate station where she was an audio engineer and producer.