Featuring Our Faculty

Community Sense of Place

Community Outreach Interests

I am interested in assisting nonprofit organizations and community groups with political advocacy or fundraising to address public needs. I have experience in preparing witnesses to participate in governmental public hearings.  I am especially interested in working with rural communities.  In eastern North Carolina, I helped to collect oral histories of African-American farmers, teachers, and activists in the Tillery community.  I have experience in writing grant applications and in teaching organizational grant writers.  In central Pennsylvania, I helped to acquire public and private funding to protect clean streams and to conserve farmland, wildlife habitat, and cultural resources.

Research Interests

I am a specialist in professional communication with general interests in public discourse.  I am particularly interested in communication in or with government at any level.  Past studies focused on deliberation in Congressional committee public hearings.  Recent studies focus on professional and public communication in operations of county emergency management during hurricanes in eastern North Carolina.  Related studies analyze access to hurricane risk information by diverse publics (residents, businesses, tourists) in the region; the flow of risk information through local social networks, and the effect of emergency communication on risk perception and behavior.

Notable Publications

• Writing Public Policy:  A Practical Guide to Communicating in the Policymaking Process, 2d edition.  Oxford University Press, 2009.
• "Making Sense of Hurricanes:  Public Discourse and Perceived Risk of Extreme Weather."  In Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines,  http://cadaad.net/journal, vol. 4 (2): 180 – 196, 2010.  With Donna J. Kain.  
• "Information Usability Testing."  In Usability of Complex Information Systems:  Evaluation of User Interaction, edited by Michael J. Albers and Brian Still, 305-332.  CRC Press, 2010.   With Donna J. Kain and Menno de Jong. 

Courses

• ENGL 7790: Public Interest WritingSN 3030/1