Greg Davis
Greg Davis is an assistant professor of music at California University of Pennsylvania and a PhD candidate at IUP. At Cal U, Greg teaches courses in music history, music production, and audio engineering. His undergraduate training as a musician and composer serves as the cornerstone of his research intereststechnology's impact upon the artistic process, artistic identity, and technological determinism. Outside of the academic environment, Greg continues to compose electro-acoustic music, freelances as an audio engineer, and spends as much time as possible with his growing family.
Hamdi Echkaou
Hamdi Echkaou is a post-graduate researcher at Mohamed V University of Rabat and was a member of the 2012 Franco-Allemand Dialogue. He has been an affiliated researcher with Centre Jacques Berque in Rabat since 2012, and was also a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for the 2014–15 academic year. Hamdi's previous research includes work on online Islamist discourses, field studies of urban youth culture in Morocco, and a study on Atlas mountain dwellers, a project that was supported by the Orientalisch Institute of Leipzig University in Germany. Hamdi's current research examines online discourses of contemporary protest movements.
Randy Goin, Jr.
Randy's research interests include the intermediary role of new media and their affect on governance and public policy. He serves as chief of staff and senior policy advisor for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Educationleading the public affairs team and working closely with university, government, and business leaders to advance the mission the state's 14 public universities. He previously served in a similar role for the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the nation's second-largest university system. Randy launched his career in the private sector before moving into communications and management roles in higher education at Florida Atlantic University. His professional interests include higher education policy and management, marketing, brand management, corporate communications, public relations, graphic design, and editing.
Laurie Lawrence
l.a.lawrence@iup.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Laurie Lawrence's principal research interest is in human trafficking. Her primary attention is related to media responsibility, as well as game theory as a method of educating young adults on issues of modern-day slavery. Other interests include developing on-campus classes and interdisciplinary minors that consider various forms of communication disciplines, in an effort to educate with regards to social responsibility. Laurie graduated from Edinboro University with a master of arts degree in international and intercultural communications and with a graduate certificate in conflict management. She was the graduate speaker for her class and currently attends IUP on a full graduate assistantship. She has presented at several conferences on the subject of human trafficking, and she aspires to consult for the United Nations or other government organizations.
Annaliese Piraino
a.b.piraino@iup.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Annaliese Piraino is a Pennsylvania-certified secondary English teacher who has worked as a high school and college level instructor over the past five years. Currently working as temporary faculty at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, her teaching focus has been in English, communications media, research methodology, and English writing. As a PhD student, Annaliese's research interests include women's issues in American and British pop culture, as well as English education methodology and pedagogy.
Ramy Shaaban
Ramy Shaaban earned his MD in Egypt in 2009. At that time, his passion was to incorporate technology into medical education. In pursuit of these interests, he worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Medical Education at Alexandria Faculty of Medicine in Egypt, and he founded the Alexandria Virtual School of Medicine, a Khalifa-awarded project for the best innovative educational programs in the Middle East. He came to the United States to pursue his advanced degrees in instructional technology. To that end, he earned his MA in adult education and communication technology from IUP in August 2015. Directly following, Ramy Joined the CMIT that fall to continue his studies. To date, Ramy's research focuses on healthcare communication and instructional design for online virtual patients.
Alessia Zanin-Yost
Alessia Zanin-Yost has worked in the field of information science for over 10 years as a reference and instruction librarian. She is currently an associate librarian at Penn State Libraries where, among other duties, she assists faculty in the implementation of information, media, and visual literacy in the curriculum. She has widely published and presented on these topics. Other areas of interest include pedagogy, using technology in the classroom, self-efficacy, information ethics, and media responsibility. Within the CMIT program, Zanin-Yost is interested in exploring how students in higher education find, use, and produce information through the theories and applications of media literacy. Before joining the program, Zanin-Yost received her master's degree in library information sciences from San Jose State University and a master's degree in art history from University of California-Davis. She is currently the assistant editor for theJournal of Communications Media Studies.