Speakers 2018

Dr. Stuart W. Shulman is the founder and CEO of Texifter. He is also a US Soccer National “C” licensed coach working for the Massachusetts Olympic Development Program (Assistant Coach, 2005 Boys) and NEFC-West (Head Coach, 2001 & 2008 Boys). Stu was formerly a UMass Amherst political science professor and the Vice President for Text Analytics at Vision Critical. He was the founder/Director of the Qualitative Data Analysis Program (QDAP) at the University of Pittsburgh and at UMass.

Kim’s life has centered around questions, and she brings this expertise to her work as MONUM’s Director of Civic Research. Part researcher, part practitioner, and part muppet, Kim has consistently kept one foot in the ivory tower and one foot on the ground, pairing research with practice to seek real solutions to social policy and planning problems. Questioning who we think of as ‘expert’ and how stakeholders identify ‘value’ are two common threads that pervade her work. Kim holds a BA in Psychology and Sociology from UCLA, an MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and Child Development from Tufts University, and puppies anytime she can. She is presently a PhD candidate in Social Policy and Sociology at Brandeis University; her dissertation is an economic sociological exploration of the ‘value’ of the early childhood workforce.

Christopher McClan has spent the last 5 years of his career in Information Technology as a Programme Manager at BAE Systems Applied Intelligence. The organization’s mission is to defend governments and business against cybercrime. Most recently, Christopher has taken on the role of leading the on-boarding of clients in North America onto BAE’s Managed Security Service. This is a platform which monitors and protects client IT assets from cybercrime. Christopher uses a structured and organized approach to deliver complex and demanding projects, whilst at the same time giving project teams sufficient room to find innovative ways of solving problems. Christopher has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Hertfordshire and an MBA from Cass business school.

Stephanie Orme holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the Penn State Belisario College of Communications. Her research focuses on feminism and geek culture, with a particular emphasis on the digital games industry. She is interested in how the intersections of gender, race, sexuality, ability, and other identities relate to video game production and consumption. Her dissertation explored assumptions about “feminine game-play” and women’s leisure, combining survey data from over 3,000 participants and in-depth interviews to explore adult women players’ access to and experiences with video games throughout their lives. She has presented and published on topics including gaming industry labor practices, procedural rhetoric in games, and diversity challenges in indie games development. She recently gave a TEDx talk on the limitations of the “Everyone can make games movement” as a feminist intervention in indie games development. She is the current Vice Chair-Elect of the National Communication Association Game Studies Division.

Carlina DiRusso, a doctoral student in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, earned her bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in strategic communications. After gaining marketing experience in the music industry in Los Angeles, she earned a master’s degree from Cleveland State University in communication theory and methodology. Her doctoral research examines the psychology of communication technology and media, with particular interests in human-computer interaction, health communication, and science communication. She has presented her research at venues like SIGCHI: Human Factors in Computer Systems, National Communication Association, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Ms. Yang Yu is a doctoral student at Temple University’s College of Media and Communication, where she is a recipient of the Presidential Fellowship. Her scholarly work is focused on different aspects of social justice. She has studied feminist and LGBTQ organizations, particularly in the contexts of mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. She also wishes to do experiments to test the persuasive effects of documentary-based interventions on audiences’ perceptions of marginalized populations. She received her master’s degree in International Journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University and bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from Communication University of China.

Carlina DiRusso, a doctoral student in the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, earned her bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in strategic communications. After gaining marketing experience in the music industry in Los Angeles, she earned a master’s degree from Cleveland State University in communication theory and methodology. Her doctoral research examines the psychology of communication technology and media, with particular interests in human-computer interaction, health communication, and science communication. She has presented her research at venues like SIGCHI: Human Factors in Computer Systems, National Communication Association, and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Robert W. McMahon is a third-year doctoral student in the Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA.
He holds a B.A. from West Virginia University in Speech Communication: Theory & Research, and an M.A. from Arcadia University in International Public Relations: New Media Marketing.
He is interested in the study of power and how power manifests in and is exercised through, society, particularly through politics, governance, and technology, as well as media complicity in producing and reproducing the ideologies that buttress that power.

Michael Krieger is a Ph.D. student and University Graduate Fellow at Penn State. Originally from New York City, he completed his bachelor’s degree in communication at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his master’s degree at Sacred Heart University, where he also taught for two years as an adjunct instructor in the School of Communication and Media Arts. His current research is focused on the psychology and philosophy of technology, and his previous research has examined the transmission of culture and ideology through mediated images and messages, how audiences engage with an appropriate culture for their own social, political and economic purposes, as well as the legal and technological frameworks that shape our interaction.

Amanda S. Bradshaw is a second-year doctoral student at The University of Florida. Her research focuses on how social networking interactions influence maternal health decision making, particularly in regards to vaccine hesitancy. She currently serves as the president of the UF chapter of GSMCA. Amanda received her B.A. in Journalism from the University of Alabama and her M.S. in Integrated Marketing Communication from West Virginia University. Her professional experience includes three years as the public relations manager of Preferred Medical Group which includes three clinics and six providers and one year as a Marketing Director for Chick-fil-A in Lawton, Oklahoma. Additionally, Amanda owned her own social media consulting firm, Backward Bullseye Branding, and worked as an adjunct instructor in public speaking at Cameron University.

Korine Powers is a PhD student studying English Literature at Boston University. She focuses on violence and masculinity in post-war American film and fiction, with an emphasis on the valorization of addiction, wounding, and mental illness in popular texts. At BU, she has taught courses on serial killers, westerns, and world literature.

She is currently studying at the Institute of Communications Research in the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Her research interest is in human-computer interaction, focusing on the psychological effects on human users in an interaction process.

She is currently a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Communication and Information Sciences living in Brooklyn, NY. She is focusing my dissertation on Activism and Social Networking Sites. Currently, She is also a lecturer at Brooklyn College teaching Communication Research Methods.

Ema hails from Taiwan and is currently a first-year Master’s student in Communication and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Ema earned her Bachelors of Art in Advertising from National Chengchi University. Her research interests include advertising, online communities, digital art/artist, and internet culture, with a focus on the Taiwanese context. She also enjoys working in industry and is currently an Advertising and Circulation intern at Opera News, The Metropolitan Opera Guild. In her spare time, Ema enjoys traveling, stage performance such as ballet and musicals, and endless food tasting. Ema can be reached at pw2456@tc.columbia.edu!