PhD Placements
About Our PhD Placements
Graduates of the PhD program in the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication pursue careers in academia, research, and professional practice across the country and around the world. This page highlights the first positions our PhD graduates accepted after completing the program, showcasing the wide-ranging impact of advanced scholarship in communication studies.
2024
Benjamin Brandley (ben)
Dissertation: A Communication Approach to Asexual People of Color's Experiences with Allonormativity
Co-Chairs: Lore/tta LeMaster; Alaina Zanin
Committee: Kristina Gupta (Wake Forest University)
Position: Assistant Professor, Eastern Arizona College
Marco Dehnert
Dissertation: Human-Machine Relationality and the Illusion of Being Cared For: An In-Depth Exploration of Relationships with Communicative Machines
Co-Chairs: Liesel Sharabi; Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Autumn Edwards (Western Michigan University)
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas
Jihyun Kang
Dissertation: Startup Leaders' Vision Communication in Dynamic Environments
Co-Chairs: Joris Van Ouytsel; Steve Corman
Committee: Ned Wellman
Position: Assistant Professor, Ball State University
Julie Martin
Dissertation: Seeing Through the Vapor: A Mixed-Methods Approach to Investigate Parent-Child Communication About E-Cigarette Use and Measure Subsequent Health Outcomes
Co-Chairs: Jonathan Pettigrew; YoungJu Shin
Committee: Scott Leischow (College of Health Solutions); Jeong Kyu Lee (University of Oklahoma)
Position: Postdoctoral Fellow, Louisiana State University
LD Mattson
Dissertation: Trust-Building Communication and Climate Risk Decision Making
Chair: Bradley Adame
Committee: Steven Corman; Hallie Eakin (School of Sustainability)
Position: Assistant Professor, Embry Riddle University
Cassandra Ryder
Dissertation: Suspiciously Swiping: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis of Online Dating Misrepresentation
Co-Chairs: Liesel Sharabi; Laura Guerrero
Committee: Joris Van Ouytsel; Erin Basinger (University of North Carolina, Charlotte)
Position: Senior Lecturer, North Central College
Christina (Kiki) van Essen
Dissertation: Associations Between Expectancy Violations and International Students' Perceptions of Acculturation, Loneliness and Emotional Well-Being
Co-Chairs: Joris Van Ouytsel; Laura Guerrero
Committee: Kristen Cvancara (Minnesota State University)
Position: Qualitative and Quantitative Researcher, UX Research
Dacheng (DC) Zhang
Dissertation: A Critical Qualitative Study of Community-Driven Artmaking and its Praxis in Cultural Resistance
Co-Chairs: Lore/tta LeMaster; Heewon Kim
Committee: Godfried Asante (San Diego State University); Rocío García, (Sociology)
Position: Assistant Professor, Utah Tech University
2023
Brianna Avalos
Dissertation: Exploring Relational Dissolution Behaviors within Friendships
Chair: Laura Guerrero
Committee: Liesel Sharabi; Amanda Tachine
Position: Faculty Associate, ASU
Angela Labador
Dissertation: Philippine Sea Theorizing: Activism, Communication, and Performance
Chair: Lore/tta LeMaster
Committee: Heewon Kim
Position: Instructor, ASU
Cary López
Dissertation: How Teams Navigate the Ebbs and Flows of Hope in Organizational Life
Chair: Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Vince Waldron (ASU West); Elissa Adame; Blake Ashforth (Management); Alaina Zanin
Position: Co-founder and CEO, Design Convo
B. Liahnna Stanley
Dissertation: An Indigenous Rhetorical Praxis of Futurity: Indigeneity, Spatiality, and Relationality in Speculative Fiction Literature
Co-Chairs: Lore/tta LeMaster, Heewon Kim
Committee: Michael Lechuga (University of New Mexico), Myla Vicenti Carpio (American Indian Studies)
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
2022
Reslie Cortés
Dissertation: Mujeres del Recetario Nacional: Stories of Women's Cultural Stewardship in the Puerto Rican Kitchen
Co-Chairs: Manu Avilés-Santiago; Amira de la Garza
Committee: Lore/tta LeMaster
Position: Assistant Professor, James Madison University
Callie Graham
Dissertation: Demystifying Toxic Romantic Relationships: Identifying Behaviors and Post-Breakup Outcomes
Chair: Laura Guerrero
Committee: Jess Alberts, Ashley Randall
Allison Hawn
Dissertation: Indelibly Drawn Together: How Tattoo Artists Can Help Redefine and Rediscover the Meanings of Art, Communication, and Community
Chair: Lindsey Mean
Committee: Laura Guerrero, Corine Schleif
Position: Public Scholar, Phoenix College
Mary Kiura
Dissertation: Toward reconceptualizing constructive employee voice: Understanding the process of voicing in the renewable energy industry in Kenya
Chair: Heewon Kim
Committee: Ryan Bisel, Paul Mongeau and Vince Waldron
Position: Assistant Professor, Purdue University, Ft. Wayne
Rebecca Leach
Dissertation: Collective Compassion: How Structures and Agency Influence Individual, Group, and Organizational Compassion in Healthcare Organizations
Co-Chairs: Elissa Adame, Sarah Tracy and Alaina Zanin
Committee: Heather Canary
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Arkansas
Laura Martinez
Dissertation: Circus Hurts: Exploring the Occupational Identification and Socialization of Pain Work of Aerial Acrobats
Co-Chairs: Sarah J. Tracy, Alaina Zanin
Committee: Boris Brummans
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Las Vegas, Las Vegas
Lucy Niess
Dissertation: Why Can't You Have Both?: Theorizing Compulsive Monogamy and its Influences upon Polyamorous Identities
Co-Chairs: Laura Guerrero, Lore/tta LeMaster
Committee: Eric Margolis
Position: Associate User Experience Researcher, Epic Games
2021
Anna Marie Campbell
Dissertation: Expanding the Boundaries: Using Communication Privacy Management Theory to Explore the Disclosure of the Diagnosis of a Chronic Illness by Pediatric Healthcare Providers and Parents to Adolescent Patients
Co-Chairs: Jess Alberts and Paul Mongeau
Position: Campbell Grants & Consulting, L.L.C.
Ian Derk
Dissertation: A New Kind of Community Belonging and Community Formation through Community Radio in South Phoenix
Chair: Pauline Cheong
Position: Lecturer, ASU
Anna Hommadova Lu
Dissertation: Nonverbal Immediacy and Similarity Effects on Initial Intercultural Interaction: First Impressions of U.S. and Middle Eastern Students
Co-Chairs: Laura Guererro, Judith Martin
Committee: Stephen Carradini
Position: Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University
Lauren Mark
Dissertation: Bringing Asian Epistemologies to Western Contexts: A Relational Approach in Times of Crisis
Chair: Sarah Amira de la Garza
Committee: Lore/tta LeMaster, Gregory Wise, David Carlson
Position: Assistant Professor of Communication and Culture, SUNY New Paltz
Corey Reutlinger
Dissertation: Towards a game theoretic analysis for the study of disability microaggressions as a communicative phenomenon
Chair: Sarah Amira de la Garza
Committee: Jess Alberts, Nicolas Lanchier, and James Cherney
Position: Instructor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, ASU
Tyler Rife
Dissertation: Here Comes the Sun!: Toward a Critical Ecological Rhetoric for the Anthropocene
Co-Chairs: Lore/tta LeMaster, Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Greg Wise, Kevin McHugh
Position: Assistant Professor, St. Lawrence University
Kevin Shufford
Dissertation: Fitness Clients’ Experiences of Self-Expansion by Working with a Certified Personal Trainer
Co-Chairs: Bradley Adame
Position: Residential Faculty at Glendale Community College
Cristopher Tietsort
Dissertation: Compassionate leadership at work: Cultivating compassion by reducing uncertainty, emphasizing personal well-being, and aligning compassionate actions
Co-Chairs: Elissa Adame, Sarah J. Tracy
Position: Assistant Professor, University of Denver
Rikki Tremblay
Dissertation: The Fermentation Orientation: Cultivating a Microbial Methodology of Creative Inquiry!
Chair: Sarah Amira de la Garza
Committee: Lore/tta LeMaster, Irena Praitis
Position: Instructor, ASU
Ashley Wheeler
Dissertation: Remembering a Nation’s Historic Property: Ambiguities, Opportunities, and Poetries in the National Historic Preservation Act
Chair:Daniel Brouwer
Position: Historic Trails Fellow, American Conservation Experience
2020
Kelsey Abele
Dissertation: The Man in the High Castle or the History that Never Happened: The Conflation of Alternative History, Memory, and Ideology
Chair: Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Cheree Carlson, Ana Hedberg Olenina
Position: Assistant Professor and Director of Forensics, West Texas A & M University
Bhoomika Bhagchandani
Dissertation: The Effects of a Visual Disability on Marital Relationships
Chair: Jeffrey W. Kassing
Position: UX Researcher, Accessibility, Amazon Web Services
Catalina Cayetano
Dissertation: Dialogic Cultural Relationships of Expertise, Knowledge, (Inter)dependence and Power Within the Acculturating Family: Exploring the Technolinguistic Brokering Experiences of Adolescents and Their Immigrant Non-English Speaking Mothers
Chairs: Pauline Cheong
Committee: Jonathan Pettigrew, Mary Romero, YoungJu Shin
Position: Director of Learning Enterprise (LE) and Community Engagement, ASU
Katrina Hanna
Dissertation: Neoliberal Dis/Investments at a Charter School Teaching the Whole Child
Co-Chairs: Daniel Brouwer, Aaron Hess
Committee: Jeanne Powers
Position: Assistant Professor, California State University, Long Beach
Robert Razzante
Dissertation: Communicatively Co-Constituting Pathways of an Inclusive Workplace: A Participant-Driven Methodology
Co-Chairs: Benjamin Broome, Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Devika Chawla, Michael Hogan
Position: Faculty Associate, ASU
Michael Tristano, Jr.
Dissertation: After the 49: Pulse's Performative Afterlife
Chair: Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Marlon Bailey, Lore/tta LeMaster, Marivel Danielson
Position: Assistant Professor, Towson University
Nikki Truscelli
Dissertation: Couples' Conflict through an Attachment Lens: A Brief, Theory-Driven Writing Intervention
Chair: Paul Mongeau
Committee: Laura Guerrero, Ashley Randall
Position: Lecturer, UC Santa Barbara
Erin Zamora
Dissertation: Buried Under Dodger Blue: Racial Rhetorical Criticism, Public Memory, and Fernandomania
Chair: Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Ersula Ore, Lindsey Mean
Position: Lecturer, California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
2019
Matthew Donovan
Dissertation: Pop-up hacktivism: A case study of organizational, pharmaceutical, and biohacker narratives Innovation Development Manager and Strategist, MedImpact Healthcare
Co-Chairs: Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Alexander Halavais, Heewon Kim, Majia Nadesan
Position: MedImpact Healthcare Systems
Brandon Ferderer
Dissertation: "Tumbling through Space in a Gold Box": Reconceptualizing New Communication Technologies as Atmospheric
Chair: Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Aaron Hess, Kevin McHugh
Position: Instructor, Arizona State University
Rosalie Fisher
Dissertation: Film and Emotional Contagion: Audiencing, Witnessing, and Performing the Lingua Franca of Compassion
Chair: Eric Margolis
Committee: Benjamin Broome, Clark Olson
Position: Instructor, Arizona State University
Sarah Jones
Dissertation: Breast/milk as (In)visible Currency: Alternative Organizing, Inequality Regimes, and Corporeal Commodification in the Milk Banking Industry
Chair: Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Daniel Brouwer, Laura Ellingson
Position: Assistant Professor, Ohio University
Karlee Posteher
Dissertation: Winning the recruiting game: The student-athlete perspective
Co-Chairs: Paul Mongeau, Jeffrey Kassing
Committee: Naomi Mandel
Position: Assistant Professor, California State University, Monterey
Summer Preston
Dissertation: Bearing the Weight of Healthism: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Women's Health, Fitness & Body Image in the Gym
Chair: Linda Lederman
Committee: Olga Davis, Mary Margaret Fonow
Position: Visiting Teaching Assistant Professor, University of Denver
Elena Steiner
Dissertation: A Worldview MAP Approach to Intercultural Competence in a Multinational Organization in Europe and Japan
Chair: Steve Corman
Committee: Heewon Kim, Takeyuki Tysuda
Position: Research Specialist, PRN, ASU
Nandita Sabnis
Dissertation: Mediated Transnational Communication: Digital Technology Use and Transnational Communication Practices of Resettled Refugees
Chair: Pauline Cheong
Committee: Elissa Adame, Takeyuki Tsuda
Position: Sr. UX Researcher, USAA Contract
Sophia Town
Dissertation: Mindful Dis/engagement': Extending the Constitutive View of Organizational Paradox by Exploring Leaders' Mindfulness, Discursive Consciousness, and More-Than Responses
Co-Chairs: Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Elissa Adame, Boris Brummans, Gail Fairhurst, Don Lange
Position: Assistant Professor, Fordham University
2018
Carlos Flores
Dissertation: Young at Heart: Advocating a Rhetorical Theory for Youth in the Public Sphere
Chair: Daniel Brouwer
Committee: Elenore Long
Position: Assistant Professor in Residence, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
Qingqing Hu
Dissertation: Cultural Values, Connection, and Participatory Cultural Divide: Chinese Generation Cohort Differences in Adoption and Use of WeChat
Chair: Pauline Cheong
Committee: Robert Shuter, Karen Mossberger
Position: Faculty, Northwest University in Xi'An, China
Jessica Kamrath
Dissertation: The Social Construction and Reciprocity of Resilience: An Empirical Investigation of an Organizational Context
Chair: Sarah J. Tracy
Committee: Elissa Adame, Scott Cloutier, Vincent Waldron
Position: Assistant Professor, California State University, Fullerton
Yanqin Liu
Dissertation: Exploring Factors Influencing Chinese American Older Adults' Intentions to Plan for End-of-Life Care
Chair: Anthony Roberto
Committee: Paul Mongeau, Marilyn Thompson
Position: Research Scientist, North Mountain Consulting Group, LLC
Bailey Oliver
Dissertation: Blended Family Resilience: Communication Practices in Positive Adult Half Sibling Relationships
Chair: Jess Alberts
Committee: Ashley Randall, Vincent Waldron
Position: Assistant Professor, The University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Colter Ray
Dissertation: Effects of Message Planning on Support Message Effectiveness, Nonverbal Behaviors, and Supporter Stress and Anxiety
Co-Chairs: Kory Floyd, Paul Mongeau
Committee: Ashley Randall
Position: Director of the Human Communication Laboratory, San Diego State University
James Stein
Dissertation: Incorporating Social Network Variables into Relational Turbulence Theory: Popping the Dyadic Bubble
Chair: Paul Mongeau
Committee: Laura Guerrero, Larry Dumka
Position: Assistant Professor, Interpersonal Curriculum Director, Dixie State University
Alaina Veluscek
Dissertation: Military Couples' Communication During Deployment: A Proposed Expansion of Affection Exchange Theory
Chair: Laura Guerrero
Committee: Jess Albert, Jennifer Brougham
Position: Lecturer, Mississippi State University
2017
Versha Anderson
Dissertation: Understanding Intercultural Transitions and Migrant-Host Relationships: How Empathy, Social Support, and Intercultural Competency Facilitate Positive Intercultural Interactions Between German Citizens and Refugees
Co-Chairs: Jess Alberts, Benjamin Broome
Committee: Judith Martin, Kazuma Matoba
Position: Paradise Valley Community College
Luke Brenneman
Dissertation: You Had to Be There: Extending Intergroup Contact Theory to Positive Contexts through a Participant-Centered Analysis of Fans' Experiences at the Olympics
Co-Chairs: Jess Alberts, Benjamin Broome
Committee: Dikaia Chatziefstathiou, Judith Martin
Position: Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Global Sports Institute, ASU
Yashu Chen
Dissertation: Civic Engagement within China: Explore the Influence of Social Network Sites Use, Media Exposure, Internet Censorship, Political Attitudes and Social Capital
Chair: Pauline Cheong
Committee: Laura Guerrero, Steven Neuberg
Position: Lecturer, California State University, San Marcos
Matthew Nolen
Dissertation: The Theory of Narrative Conflict
Chair: Steven Corman
Committee: Bradley Adame, Denis Simon
Position: Lead Instructor, Grand Canyon University
Lisa van Raalte
Dissertation: The Influence of Cuddling on Relational Health for Cohabitating Couples
Co-Chairs: Kory Floyd, Paul Mongeau
Committee: Mary Burleson
Position: Assistant Professor, Sam Houston State University