Presenting at the International Communication Association annual meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 2015 (photo by Keri Stephens).
I am on faculty in the Communication Department at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley.
Research
My research has been focused on communication of teams and organizations that work in high-pressure situations, such as tactical police units, fire crews, and sports teams. Some of my recent research with Elizabeth Williams at Colorado State is aimed at understanding organizational training for lifesaving critical teams (e.g., wildland fire crews, SWAT teams).
I also study communication in sports teams. Here’s a recent review of sports team communication literature in Communication Research Trends. And along with Barry Brummett at University of Texas, I co-edited Sports and Identity: News Agendas in Communication, published by Routledge.
I also love to think about chronemics, which is the study of time and communication. My first publication, co-authored with Dawna Ballard at the University of Texas, looks at the relationship between high-pressure teams and time.
Teaching
As with my research, my teaching is focused on communicating in high-pressure situations, as well as other team settings. I coordinate the public speaking program in the Communication Department at SCU. I also teach Communication and Sport, and Qualitative Research Methods. I have taught senior thesis courses on Team Communication, and will be leading a thesis on Time and Communication in 2019.
Presenting at the Organizational Communication Mini Conference at Rutgers University, October 2010.