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Welcome Back! The fall semester is already underway, but we're still trying to catch our breath from the busy summer! We have had some great new faculty additions to our department, welcomed a new dean, taught students abroad, planned some exciting events for this year, and sadly, said goodbye to two legends from our program.
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Welcome Dr. Jennifer Greer
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 We are excited to introduce Dr. Jennifer Greer as our new dean in the College of Communication and Information!
Dr. Greer has served in academic administration for 18 years at two state flagship universities (University of Alabama and University of Nevada). She has provided remarkable leadership as an associate provost, as well as an interim/acting dean, department chair, and graduate director.
She is passionate about building a culture of collaboration to support student, staff, and faculty success, and is well-equipped to build upon the College’s significant momentum.
Watch her welcome message from her first day on campus here.
Welcome, Dean Greer!
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New Lecturers in the Department of Communication
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Over the summer we hired three new lectures to meet our ever-growing student demand, as well as round out courses for our new Sport Communication major option.
 Tommy Booras has had two careers: sports broadcasting and teaching broadcasting and communication. Booras worked at TV and radio stations in Houston, suburban Dallas, Shreveport and northwest Arkansas for nearly 17 years. He won twelve awards in TV and radio from three state broadcasting associations. Booras was a TV sports videographer/editor/reporter/producer, and a radio/TV baseball play-by-play announcer for a minor league baseball team. Booras's second career has been teaching broadcasting and communication courses at several universities, including Ole Miss and the University of Arkansas. He joins UK from Tennessee State University in Nashville.
 Jonathan Dellinger is a graduate of UW-Milwaukee (PhD, Communication), where his studies centered on group dynamics, organizational communication, and intercultural communication. His research interests are related to human nature in new contexts, particularly pertaining to intergroup and intercultural conflict. He has collaborated on a range of projects relating to communication, culture, conflict, and health; including a recent foundational textbook in the emerging field of Environmental Health Literacy. His recent research examined the ameliorating effect of group cohesion in directing conflict towards beneficial ends in small groups. As a lecturer, he is looking forward to empowering UKY students with current and accurate knowledge to engage with pressing issues of the global community.
 Brittnie Peck is interested in family and close relationships as sites of social influence for health beliefs and behaviors. Her research examines how communication in parent-child, friendship, sexual partner, and health care provider relationships influences sexual health knowledge and practices. Current projects include a series of meta-analyses examining parent-child sexual communication and sexual health education interventions as related to sexual risk behaviors and attitudes, as well as a survey and evaluation of current perinatal HIV and STI testing practices. Her teaching experience spans a variety of areas in the discipline, including interpersonal and family communication, health communication, and organizational communication. |
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| Summer Adventures in Education Abroad! |
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Students from universities across the Southern United States joined University of Kentucky Communication Majors and Professors Alan DeSantis and Don Lowe for study abroad this summer in London.
For over a month, students explored film locations and learned about British filmmaking with Dr. DeSantis. Students in Don Lowe’s British Sport and Media course attended tennis matches at Wimbledon, toured Manchester City football stadium, took golf, croquet, cricket and even trapeze lessons from local experts.
Part of CCSA (Cooperative Center for Study Abroad), the courses were just two of many taking place during the month of July. Students also enjoyed trips to Stonehenge; Edinburgh, Scotland; and Paris, France. |
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Dr. Anthony Limperos Named Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in Communication
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 Associate Professor, Dr. Anthony Limperos, was named the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs in Communication. In addition to teaching courses for the Department of Communication, Dr. Limperos will now also oversee the master's and doctorate level programs in communication.
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| Alternative Textbook Grant |
 Congratulations to Department of Communication lecturer Pamela Henderson for being awarded an Alternative Textbook Grant from the University of Kentucky Libraries.
A total of 10 grants were awarded to successful applicants who proposed to use open textbooks, free course content, and/or UK Libraries’ licensed information resources as alternative textbooks for their courses. An alternative textbook for COM 287: Persuasive Speaking will be implemented starting this fall.
Click here to read more about the grant program.
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2019 Student-Alumni Networking Event
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| We need your help! To kick off Homecoming Weekend a little early, on October 10, from 3:30-6 p.m., we will be hosting a Student/Alumni Social at the Hilary J. Boone Center. This networking event provides an occasion for our students to get to know you, how you got to where you are today, and how they can better prepare for the job market. Think back to how you were feeling when you were nearing graduation. What questions did you have? What advice do you wish you had received? October 10 is your opportunity to share your experiences with current students and reconnect with old classmates and friends. Please RSVP if you are able to come home to UK for this important event. |
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 Lucien Coleman
Faculty
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
I entered the M.A. in Communication program at U.K. for a very specific reason. When I joined the faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, I was asked to teach courses in religious journalism, and my previous academic work in college and seminary had not been adequate preparation for this. So, the seminary granted me a study leave for this purpose.
Subsequently, I taught religious journalism courses, along with other subjects, in two seminaries, for 27 years. In addition, I led extra-curricular workshops in journalism each semester.
 Dallas Dreher
Human Resource Manager
I love my job as a Human Resources Manager because I am passionate about helping people through human interaction and using the necessary resources available to me to do so. My communication degree helps me effectively use my skill-set that I learned at the University of Kentucky by continuously working with people to help them do better professionally and personally. I am able to communicate effectively to help employees get to the outcome of the situation they're involved in, whether it's by personal choice, or by following company guidelines by holding the employee accountable when they're not meeting the company's expectations.
 Jennifer Fahling
Sales Manager
Schuler Bauer, Real Estate Services
My job as sales manager allows me to help other real estate agents be successful and meet their personal goals, while providing a valuable service to consumers. Without my communication degree, the doors of opportunity would have never opened for me. Effective communication is key to being a successful leader.
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| In Memoriam |
Sadly, this summer we lost two very dear friends of our program.
 Dr. Lewis Donohew, retired professor of communication at the University of Kentucky, was an internationally known scholar in the field of communication. His research was funded for more than two decades by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), especially the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA). He was author of a widely-used Activation Theory of Information Exposure and published 31 books and chapters, 52 journal articles, six special reports and monographs, and presented more than 50 papers at major conferences nationally and in 29 countries internationally. He also served as a consultant for the Pan American Health Organization and was a special review consultant on research on mass media and public health campaigns for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Cancer Institute, and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Professor Donohew earned an Associate of Arts degree in English at Cumberland College (now the University of the Cumberlands), then completed a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and a Master of Arts degree in political science from UK.
 Dr. Mike Farrell was a co-founder of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism and a distinguished journalist and educator.
He earned his Master's and Doctorate in Communication from the University of Kentucky and was a tenured professor in the UK School of Journalism and Media where he taught reporting, journalism history, journalism ethics, and media law, and was honored nationally as an outstanding adviser. He was the director of the Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, and was a consultant on the development of KyForward.com. He was active in the Society of Professional Journalists, serving on the Ethics and Freedom of Information committees and was a founder and board member of the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism, established in late 2013.
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