Ed Manassah, M.A.
Executive Director, School of Communication, Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics / B.S., Business Administration, Youngstown State University; M.A., Communications, University of Florida.

Edward E. Manassah, executive director of the Institute for Media, Culture and Ethics at Bellarmine University, is a retired publisher of The Louisville Courier-Journal (1993-2006) and served in leadership positions from city editor to publisher at six Gannett Co. Inc. newspapers since 1975. He was on the USA Today start-up team in 1982. He has served on numerous civic and professional boards in Louisville and elsewhere, including the Regional Leadership Coalition, Leadership Louisville, the Greater Louisville Fund for the Arts, the Kentucky Economic Development Corporation, the Lincoln Heritage Council, the Louisville Urban League, Leadership Kentucky and Metro United Way. Manassah is a native of Sharon, Pennsylvania.

Gail R. Henson, Ph.D.
Associate Director and Chair, School of Communication, Professor / B.A., English, DePauw University; M.A., English, University of Louisville; Ph.D. English, University of Louisville.

Teaching/research interests: End-of-life communication; media effects on children,communication and the elderly, intercultural communication,international communication, educational policy especially regarding literacy.

Gail Henson, Professor and Chair, founded Bellarmine’s Department of Communication in 1987.  Henson’s academic interests in end-of-life communication, communication and the elderly, and intercultural communication are reflected in her research, teaching, as well service to a great number of organizations, including Louisville’s Metro Healthy Communities Initiative, Highland Community Ministries, and Bellarmine’s Multiculturalism Task Force.

Dr. Henson’s publications include “Managing Anger within Healthcare Systems: Necessary Strategies for Quality” in the Proceedings of International Conference on Healthcare Systems, “Communicating Last Things: Strategies for Teaching about Death and Dying Through Art, Music, and Literature,” in Proceedings of Hawaii International Conference on the Arts and Humanities, and “The Effects of Television on Children and Adolescents” in the Basic Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (John Wiley Publishers, 1999).  She is also the author of The Gentle Agitator: An Oral Biography of Dr. Samuel Robinson (2008, Bellarmine University Press). 

Ruth R. Wagoner, Ph.D.
Director of Graduate Studies / Professor / B.A., History, Bellarmine University; M.A., Rhetoric and Public Address, Western Kentucky University; Ph.D., Organizational and Interpersonal Communication, University of Kentucky.

Teaching/research interests:  organizational communication (how people use communication to get work done), critical thinking skills (identifying most important issues, linking premises and conclusions with evidence), opening statements in trials.

Ruth Wagoner was inducted into the Hall of Fame for the American Mock Trial Association in 2007. She is Director of Graduate Studies for the Master of Arts in Communication. She has won several teaching awards and is included in Who's Who Among America's Teachers. Publications include " “How Supervisors Convey Routine Bad News:  Facework at UPS," Southern Communication Journal, Spring, 1999.  Presentations include "Storytelling in Opening Statements of Courtroom Trials,” Speech Communication Association National Convention, Fall, 1992 and “Mock Trial as a Tool for Teaching Critical Thinking,” National Communication Association Meeting 2004.  Wagoner's current research interest is in how mock trial develops critical thinking skills.

Kyle S. Barnett, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor / B.A., English and Philosophy, Indiana University-Indianapolis; M.A., American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University; Ph.D., Radio-Television-Film, University of Texas-Austin.

Teaching/research interests: media studies (popular music, film, radio, television), media industry studies, critical/cultural studies, urban studies.

Kyle Barnett’s current research focuses on cultural production and genre formation in the U.S. recording industry.  He is a former co-editor of The Velvet Light Trap film studies journal, former graduate editor of Flow: A Critical Forum for Television and New Media. Publications include “Furniture Music: The Phonograph as Furniture,” which appeared in the Journal of Popular Music Studies in Fall 2006 and "The Recording Industry's Role in Media History" in the Convergence Media History anthology (Routledge Press, 2009). Barnett is a research fellow at Bellarmine's Institute for Media, Culture, and Ethics.  He teaches classes in media and society, broadcasting history, film studies, popular music, and sound across media.

David Edwin Meyers, M.F.A.

David Edwin Meyers (M.F.A., Syracuse University) is Assistant Professor in the Communication Department.  In addition to Syracuse, David attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati (Ohio) and the Ringling College of Art and Design (Sarasota, Florida).  He has worked as staff illustrator for a Gannett newspaper, corporate art director for Michelin in North America, and later, art director and senior creative director at several agencies in the Midwest.  At Michelin, David illustrated the well-known Michelin icon “Bib,” more commonly known as the Michelin man.

David has been instrumental in the development and promotion of new media throughout the Midwest, transforming two agencies from traditional design and production methods to “digital” and has led the march in the academic arena by implementing and overseeing two graphic design departments at the university level. David comes to Bellarmine after teaching at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he authored and taught in the Interactive and Game Development Department.

In 1995, David started the new media production house, NTE7.com. NTE7 offers a wide range of tactical and strategic services and has specialized in digital arena. NTE7 touts an impressive list of high-level clientele, including Paul McCartney, Live Aid, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Grand Ole Opry, Sony and more. He continues practicing fine art as a prolific painter and photographer, exhibiting regularly in regional and national juried competitions –and has artwork in corporate and private collections throughout the Midwest and Southeast.

Most recently, David has written, directed and produced the digital short film Wood Diary, which has screened in over fifty film festivals worldwide and has won several prestigious festival awards.

Teaching/research interests: Public communication, including public relations and campaigns, media and children, health communication and political communication; Public speaking and rhetoric, including persuasion, business communication and basic public speaking.

Lara Needham has more than a decade of experience in the field of communication as a health researcher, writer, speaker and educator.  Her research includes an examination of the impact of physician’s persuasive messages on older women’s mammography noncompliance. She is also the founder and CEO of BabyPro, an award-winning children’s media company that produces sports-themed DVDs for babies and toddlers. BabyPro’s products have appeared in numerous national media outlets including Parenting and Scholastic magazine, and have received fifteen national awards. Needham teaches classes in Public Relations, Children and Media, Mass Media and Politics, Public Speaking and Business Communication. 

Kimberly A. Parker Ph.D.
Assistant Professor

Kimberly A. Parker (Ph.D., University of Oklahoma, 2004) is Assistant Professor in the Communication Department. She received her Ph.D. in Interpersonal/Social Influence with an emphasis in Health Communication. Kimberly taught as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Oklahoma, as Assistant Professor at Georgetown College and most recently as Assistant Professor at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has taught Principles of Communication, Public Speaking, Statistics, Persuasion, Interpersonal Communication, Research Methods, Communication Theory, Social Marketing, and Business Communication.

Dr. Parker’s research interest include health communication and particularly adolescent sexual communication. Most recently, her interest has been in applying Politeness Theory to adolescent sexual communication. She is also interested in resistance to influence and is particularly interested in extending our knowledge of Inoculation Theory. Kimberly’s work has appeared in Human Communication Research, Communication Quarterly, and Communication Studies. She has articles currently in press at Communication Monographs and Central Business Review.

In addition to her academic work and teaching, Kimberly worked for the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy for seven years. She worked for a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) project aimed at reducing teen pregnancies. Dr. Parker served as the health communication/social marketing liaison and worked with faith initiatives. In particular, Kimberly coordinated the Teen Outreach Program (TOP), a program aimed at reducing school drop out and teen pregnancy rates and improving school achievement.  Kimberly feels passionately about this work and will continue to advocate for young people.

Winnie Spitza, J.D.
Instructor / B.A., Journalism and Public Relations, Western Kentucky University; M.A., Communications, University of Kentucky; J.D., Law, University of Louisville.

Teaching Experience/Interests:  Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Business and Professional Communication; Public Relations, Communication Theory, Media Law.

Work Experience: Legislative correspondent, United Press International; Asst. Community Relations Manager, Louisville Free Public Library; Editorial Asst., Public Affairs Office, Internal Revenue Service; Private Civil Law Practice, Indiana.

In addition to teaching a variety of communication courses at Bellarmine, Winnie Spitza’s background is in journalism, public relations, and business communication.  She  has worked as a legislative correspondent for United Press International, community relations manager for the Louisville Free Public Library, and as an editorial assistant for the Internal Revenue Services’ Public Affairs Office.  She has also served as an attorney in a private civil law practice in the state of Indiana. 

Regular Part-Time Faculty
Kimberly Conley; Erin Keane; Linda Raymond; Jason Simmons; Matt Schuster; James Wagoner; and Ann Zeman.