Communication Studies - Faculty

Judd Case (Ph.D., University of Iowa) specializes in media studies, and teaches courses in media literacy, digital storytelling, professional communication, and communication theory. He has recently presented at the Popular Culture Association. He is an enthusiastic teacher who encourages the understanding of communication through activities that utilize fan cultures, movies, video games, TV shows, VR, graphic novels, and popular music.

Dr. Mary Lahman '83 is an emerita Professor of Communication Studies at Manchester University in North Manchester, Indiana. She is the former Education Chair of the International Listening Association and one of the first five people nationwide to become a Certified Practitioner of the ECHO Listening Profile. In 2018 she developed and implemented a new curriculum at the University dedicated to listening. Her book Awareness and Action: A Travel Companion, published by the Institute of General Semantics in August 2018, is a practical guide for learning to communicate well.

Mary 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.

Dr. Tim McKenna-Buchanan (Ph.D., Ohio University, 2014) teaches courses in public relations, organizational communication, and communication theory. 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 create, maintain and change individuals’ lived experience. His work has been published in Communication Education,  Basic Communication Course Annual, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Communication Teacher, and Health Communication. He has a co-authored basic course textbook titled: Communication across Contexts: A Listening-Centered Approach (which is used in COMM110). As well as book chapters in Routledge’s COVID-19 Pandemic Series: Cultural Change and Institutional Adaptations (Vol. III), Contemporary Issues in Sexuality and Communication, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods, and Communicating Hope and Resilience across the Lifespan. 

Jacob Mertens (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2022) joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor for Communication Studies. He has received awards for teaching and research during his time at UW Madison and has published chapters in two edited collections, Saving New Sounds: Podcasting Preservation and Historiography (2021) and From Networks to Netflix: A Guide to Changing Channels 2^nd Edition (forthcoming), and journal articles in Digital Humanities Quarterly (2021), Games and Culture (2021), and International Journal of Cultural Studies (forthcoming). He recently finished his dissertation studying digital revisionist practices and update cultures in the video game console industry. His expertise includes digital media studies and production.