Communication & Leadership

The West Chester Master's Program in Communication Studies focuses on building better leaders by improving their communication skills.  Effective leaders must be effective communicators, and effective communicators need to develop a broad array of communication skills;  effective leaders must have strong interpersonal communication skills, strong small group communication skills, strong public communication skills, strong persuasive/rhetorical abilities, and strong public relations skills. etc.  Consequently, the West Chester MA in Communication Studies offers students courses designed to foster leadership abilities in a broad array of communication contexts.  

photograph of Phillips Hall

 

Professional Enhancement

Our graduates pursue three types of vocational interest in studying Communication:

New Careers
As a result of their Masters in Communication, students have launched new careers in Internet Web Design, Training and Development, Community Organization, Consultation, Marketing, Association Management, Public Relations, and University Teaching.

 

Career Development
Many students pursue their degrees while maintaining positions in the Delaware Valley's major corporations.  They seek vocational advances, as they acquire the conceptual foundations and professional skills for becoming a leader in their organization's communicative competence.

 

Continuous Learning
Some students have used their West Chester M.A. to launch a Ph.D. in Communication and now teach in Universities throughout the United States.

 

 

Teaching Excellence

All of our faculty members hold Ph.D.s.  They have written books and ground-breaking articles.  They are distinguished by national teaching awards, prestigious international fellowships, and Fortune 500 consultancies.  They bring to our graduate students expertise in four major areas of the New Millennium's communication challenge: leadership communication, conflict management, organizational training and development, and internet communication.

 


Student Choice

Our students take ONLY two required courses: Communication and Leadership (COM 500) and Communication Research (COM 502).  These fundamental courses comprise six hours of a student's program.  The remaining 30 hours are planned by the student in consultation with a faculty advisor.  As a result, graduates hold a degree tailored to their personal and professional interests in the exciting world of communication.


photograph of students at 2001 colloquium

 

 

Program News & Events

·         The Communication Studies Department recognizes its newest faculty member, Dr. Denise Polk.  Dr. Polk, who specializes in interpersonal communication, health communication and research methods, received her Ph.D. from Kent State University.

·         Dr. Polk's essay "Speaking the Language of Love: Scale Validation and Test of Chapman's Five Love Languages on Couples' Perceived Relational Quality," has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming issue of the journal Communication Research Reports. (ARTICLE ABSTRACT)

·         Dr. Polk's essay "A Case Study of Family Caregiving for Alzheimer's Dementia: Critiquing a Model of Family Caregiving" will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Qualitative Research Reports in Communication.   (ARTICLE ABSTRACT)   

Denise Polk

 

Ed Lordan

v     Dr. Ed. Lordan's new book titled Politics, Ink: How American Editorial Cartoonists Skewer Politicians, from George III to George Dubya was recently published by Rowman and Littlefield.

v     Dr. Lordan’s article titled “The Sago Mine Disaster: A Crisis in Crisis Communications” appeared in the Spring 2006 issue of Public Relations Quarterly.  

·         Dr. Anita Foeman has recently had an article accepted for publication in The Howard Journal of Communications.  The article is entitled "Building New Cultures, Reframing Old Images: Success Strategies of Interracial Couples" (ARTICLE ABSTRACT).

·         Dr. Foeman continues her training work on "Diversity," and "Community Building" with Corporations and Educational Institutions in the Area.  Recently, she has used her training expertise in these areas to assist the Chester County Leadership Commission.    

Anita Foeman

v     In 2005, the West Chester Inter-Fraternity and Panhellenic Councils recognized a handful of faculty on campus as "Outstanding Faculty."  Almost half of those  faculty members came from West Chester's Communication Studies Department.  Specifically, that designation was given to Communication Studies Professors Tim Brown, Anita Foeman, Ed Lordan & Marty Remland.    

·         Dr. Marty Remland's textbook Interpersonal Communication through the Lifespan will be released by Houghton Mifflin in 2006. 

·         Dr. Remland recently contributed a chapter, titled "Uses and Consequences of Nonverbal Communication in the Context of Organizational Life," to the prestigious Handbook of Nonverbal Communication.   

Marty Remland

Tim Brown

·         Dr. Tim Brown's article titled "Allen Iverson as America's Most Wanted: Black Masculinity as a Cultural Site of Struggle" appeared in a recent issue of Journal of Intercultural Communication Research.  (ARTICLE ABSTRACT). 

·         In 2005, Hayden-McNeil Publishers released a new edition of Dr. Brown's public speaking textbook (book titled Public Speaking for Success: Strategies for Diverse Audiences and Occassions).   

·         Dr. Brown is serving as the Second Vice-President for the 2006 Eastern Communication Association Conference in Philadelphia.   

 

·         A collaborative research project between two Communication Studies faculty members (Drs. David Levasseur and Kevin Dean) and a MA student from our program (Julie Pfaff) has resulted in an article that appeared the in the July 2004 issue of Communication Education (one of the top national journals in the field).  Julie started work on this project as part of a summer independent study.  She is now listed as one of the essay's co-authors (ARTICLE ABSTRACT).    

Kevin Dean

·         Dr. Kevin W. Dean will be taking students on a trip to South Africa during the Summer of 2006 to study community leadership in this emerging democracy.    

·         Dr. Dean's essay titled "Rhetoric for Leaders" appeared in the 2004 Encyclopedia of Leadership.  

·         Dr. Dean recently received a $7,500 grant from the Bonner Foundation to develop a certificate program in Civic Engagement and Leadership. 

 

·         West Chester Communication Studies Professors David Levasseur and Kanan Sawyer’s article titled “Pedagogy Meets PowerPoint: A Review of the Effects of Computer-Generated Slides in the Classroom” is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming issue of Review of Communication.

·         Dr. Levasseur, along with his co-author Diana Carlin (a professor from the University of Kansas), are under contract from Roxbury Publishing to complete a text, titled Political Communication: The Ongoing Conversation that Shapes American Democracy.  Their book is scheduled for release sometime in 2006. 

·         Dr. David Levasseur's article titled "The Role of Public Opinion in Policy Argument: An Examination of Public Opinion Rhetoric in the Federal Budget Process" appeared in the Winter 2005 issue of the journal Argumentation & Advocacy (ARTICLE ABSTRACT     

David Levasseur

Lisa Millhous

·         Dr. Lisa Millhous has a received a grant for work on the West Chester Chamber of Commerce Small Business Initiative. As part of this project she will be conducting interviews and focus groups with area organizations and specialists to identify their needs and develop a series of workshops to address those needs.