Disciplines/Field of Instruction

• Communication

Degrees Received

• Ph.D. in Rhetoric, Duquesne University
• M.A. in Rhetoric, Duquesne University
• B.A. in English, Huntington University

Courses Taught

• COM 215 - Argumentation and Debate
• COM 225 - Culture and Communication

Selected Presentations/Publications

• Assisted Dr. Jonathan Watt with planning and programming "Orality and Literacy in an Age of Social Media" Conference, April 2024.
• Book Chapter: "Dialogic Editing as Pedagogic Relationship: Grading Student’s Writing in Person" in edited volume entitled Dialogic Editing in Academic and Professional Writing, Routledge, December 2023.
• "Familiar Feedback: Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetic Companionship in Question Asking Conversations Between Parents and their Children" published in the journal Listening: Journal of Communication Ethics, Religion and Culture, Fall 2023.
• “Inspiring Consensus in Community: The Faith and Hope in Proximate Speech,” published in Journal of Christian Teaching Practice, 2020.
• The Shape of the Sign: The Space Shared by Walker Percy and Hellen Keller presented at the Religious Communication Association, Salt Lake City, UT November, 2018.
• Talking with Robots: AI Assistant Technology and Speech Development presented at the National Communication Association, Salt Lake City, UT November, 2018.
• Story Telling as Loving Resistance presented at the Eastern Communication Conference, Providence, RI, April 2019.
• "Artistic: Speech: Reviving Forms of Moral Imagination," published in Listening: Journal or Communication, Ethics, Religion and Culture, 54.2, Spring 2019.
• “The Pietistic Institution: A Problem of Organizational Identity” in Whole and Holy Persons: A Pietist Approach to Higher Education. Ed. Chris Gehrz. Westmont: InterVarsity Press.
• Ward, J.S. and David Stern. “A Case for Interfaith Discourse” in Interfaith Dialogue in Practice: Christian Muslim, Jew. Ed. Daniel Brown. Kansas City: Rockhurst University Press, 2012.
• “Third World Identity.” Encyclopedia of Identity Ed. Ronald L. Jackson. SAGE, 2010.
• Book Review: Arthos, John. The Inner Word in Gadamer′s Hermeneutics. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2009 in Journal of Communication and Religion 33.2, 2010.

Current Projects

• Book: Authority and Personality in Mikhail Bakhtin′s “Author and Hero in Aesthetic Activity”
• Article: “Mediated Persona: Digital Time and Aesthetics”

Research Interests

• Mediated Communication
• Persuasion
• Personality Development

Consulting Expertise

• Partner & Content Strategist, Durable LLC

Awards & Distinctions Received

• Dissertation of the Year Award, Religious Communication Assoc., 2014
• Richard H. Thames Teaching Award, 2010
• Top Panel Award, Central States Communication Association, 2014

Professional Society Memberships

• Religious Communication Association (RCA)
• Eastern Communication Association (ECA)
• National Communication Association (NCA)

Miscellaneous, e.g., hobbies, sports, personal info, etc.

• bicycling, coffee brewing, reading, song writing