Scripps Scholars Explore Pressing Issues at NCA 2025

Saumya Pant and Mohammed Awal, “Grassroots Voices and Strategic Communication for Social Change in the Global South,” paper session.

Sonali Jha and Athar Memon, “Comprehensive Care Model for Human Trafficking Survivors: A Qualitative Inquiry with Ecological and Social Justice Framework,” paper session.

Victoria LaPoe, Sonali Jha, Ben LaPoe, “ ‘I’m tired of sitting on committees while people die’: Designing Trust to Find Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People Effectively,” research in progress session.

Sonali Jha, “Framing Awareness: Assessing the Effectiveness of Anti-Trafficking Intervention Programs in India,” paper session.

Dr. Brittany Peterson and Courtney Hook, Prison Nurseries and the Future of Incarcerated Parenting, paper session.

Jennifer Woolley Barone, “Social Movements, Public Pedagogy, and Applied Scholarship: Elevating Resistance and Mobilization,” panel discussion.

Joshua Kampim, Erica Adzimah, Francis Ametepey, Stephen Gyesi, Saumya Pant, Mary-Magdalene Chumbow, “Decolonizing Development Communication: Advancing a Bottom-Up Approach,” panel discussion.

Jonathan Baker, “Elevating Community-Based Participatory Research: New Visions for Community Engagement.”

Jennifer L. Talbert, “Elevating the Advocates’ Efficacy; Persuasive Theories’ Contributions to Persuasive Speaking,” panel discussion.

Iman Ikram, “Mutual Mentoring, Networking, and Building Community as Asian/Pacific American Scholars,” panel session.

Dr. Angela Hosek, “Basic Course Spotlight: Saluting the Leadership, Mentorship and Scholarship of Dr. Cheri Simonds,” panel discussion.

Jeremy Murphy, “Updating and Elevating: Charting the Future of Resources for the Basic Course Community,” panel discussion.

Jonathan Baker, co-author, “Coverage of Military Policies on Trans Service Members and Veterans: A CCA Analysis,” part of the Top Papers in the Communication Military Division.

Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, “In the Spirit of Innovation: Communicate to Elevate in Community College and Regional Classrooms,” panel discussion.

Dr. Lynn Harter and Chuck Kaminski, “The Socio-Material and Narrative Nature of Inclusive Place-Making,” paper session.

Corporate Power, Greenwashing, and AI in Environmental Narratives

Roger Aden, Dominic Asitanga, Ryan Eisenhuth, Elina Nikolskaya, Dolapo Oyekokun, “Cultural Ambivalences in the Landscape: Conflicting Values in Wayne National Forest,” paper session.

Dominic Asitanga, “Beyond Borders, Beyond Screens: Witnessing #FixTheCountry and Fragments of Home,” part of the Finding Home and Feeling at Home in Precarity: Elevating International Student Narratives of Be/longing and Loss session.

Alex Boesch, “Go Pack Go: Remembering a Journey of Performed Identity as a Green Bay Packers Fan,” part of the Thresholds of Self and Space: Ethnographic Explorations of Identity, Memory and Belonging session.

Dr. Devika Chawla, “Rehearsing, Mending, Gathering Rootes: Finding Home in Imaginative Histories,” part of the Top Papers in the Ethnography Division.

Dr. Devika Chawla, session chair, “Finding Home and Feeling at Home in Precarity: Elevating International Student Narratives of Be/longing and Loss” paper session.

Dr. Devika Chawla, session chair, “Navigating In-Between Spaces: Ethnographic and Autoethnographic Explorations of Identity, Belonging, and Resistance” paper session.

Jessie Gongolo, “Navigating Health and Healing: An Autoethnographic Inquiry into the Lived Experience with Uterine Fibroid, as part of the Top Student Papers in the Ethnography Division.”

Dious Joseph, “Walking Between Worlds: An Autoethnographic Journey of Sacred Trekking, Identity, and Embodied Communication in the Himalayas,” paper session.

Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, “SPARK Leadership: Elevating Regional Campus Student Leadership Through Co-Curricular Engagement,” paper session.

Dr. China Billotte Verhoff, “Elevating the Conversation About Family Communication Research Through Relational Dialectics Theory.”

Ifeoluwatobi Odunsi, Dr. Angela Hosek and Shatakshi Semwal, “ ‘For them it’s a sign of respect’: Examining Mothers’ Adjustment Strategies Using Communication Accommodation Theory,” paper session.

Dious Joseph, “The Impact of Family Communication Patterns on Paternal Postpartum Depression: A Quantitative Study,” research-in-progress session.

Elina Nikolskaya, “Home is my Childhood: Growing Up at Home in Post-Soviet Russia,” paper session.

Michael Rodrigue-Barnes, “From Silence to Song: Communicating to Elevate Intergenerational Mental Health,” paper session.

Shatakshi Semwal, “Navigating Maternal Leave During Adolescence (Teen-ternity Leave): Communication, Work-Life Balance, and Emotional Labor,” paper session.

Rosemary Akweley Charway, “Breaking the Bias: Addressing Gender Stereotypes in Leadership” panel discussion.

Rosemary Akweley Charway, “ ‘After God, Fear Women’: Unmasking the Portrayal of Women in Nigerian and Ghanaian “FearWomen TikTok Comedy Skits.”

Shatakshi Semwal, “Resisting in Silence: Gendered Communication and Relational Dialectics in The Great Indian Kitchen,” paper session.

Siyuan Xiang, “The Myth of Cross-gender Performance: Understanding Male Dan Actors’ Female Impersonality in Beijing Opera,” paper session.

Ebenezer Amartey, “Communicating Human Rights: Social Media and Human Rights Advocacy for LGBTQ+ Rights in Ghana,” part of the International Queer Social Media Use session.

Athar Memon “Delays and barriers in treatment-seeking intentions among transgender individuals, Karachi Pakistan: An analysis using the healthcare access barrier model,” paper session.

Althar Memon, respondent, LGBTQ+ Health Discourses, paper session.

Erika Adzimah, “Practicing Audience Analysis with Bingo.”

Nolan Patrick Bowers, “Communication Apprehension to Communication Confidence: A Roleplaying Approach.”

Iman Ikram, “Power Playlist: Power-based perspective to culture and communication,” paper session.

Dious Joseph, “Empathy Exchange: Elevating Voices Through Intercultural Storytelling,” paper session.

Azmat Khan, “Historicizing Winston Churchill as a Canonical Rhetorical Figure: A Postcolonial Ethics Assignment in Public Speaking,” paper session.

Jonathan Baker, “Spotlight Panel: Elevate, Expand, Empower: Conversations in Women’s Health Communication.”

Dr. Benjamin R. Bates, session chair, Mental Health Communication in Marginalized Communities.

Dr. Benjamin R. Bates, session chair, Health Communication in Global Cultural Context.

Rosemary Akweley Charway, “Applying the Theory of Memorable Messages to Understand Stigmatizing Postpartum Body Narratives, and Coping Strategies Among Ghanaian Postpartum Women,” part of the Constructing Meanings through Health Narratives session.

Rosemary Akweley Charway, “Constructing Reproductive Realities: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Celebrity Infertility Disclosures in Ghana and Nigeria,” part of the Reproductive and Maternal Health session.

Prathana Dodia and Athar Memon, “ ‘Fed is Best, and So Am I,’: Maternal Autonomy and Decision-Making in Infant Feeding – A Critical Feminist Analysis of CDC Data and Online Narratives” paper session.

Dr. Parul Jain, “Framing Menopause: Media Portrayals and Implications for Health Communication,” paper session.

Dr. Parul Jain, “Menopause and Healthcare: Bridging the Communication Gap,” paper session.

Athar Memon and Zahid Wali, Exploring predictors of medication adherence among patients with chronic diseases in Appalachian Ohio: A communication accommodation theory, hierarchical medication adherence model, and teach-back method approach, paper session.

Zahid Wali, Athar Memon, and Namra Nadeem,“Exploring the Impact of Healthcare System Responsiveness on Patient Satisfaction and Trust Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Population,” paper session.

Zahid Wali and Athar Memon, “Health Literacy as a Mediator between Providers’ Communication Accommodative Behavior, Teach-Back Method, and Illness Uncertainty among Patients with Chronic Diseases,” paper session. 

Mohammed Awal, Exploring and Elevating International Graduate Student Experiences in U.S. Communications Programs.

Sheyla Finkelshteyn, “Mentoring and Community-Building in the International and Intercultural Communication Division” professional development session.

Sheyla Finkelshteyn, “Elevating Intercultural and Intergroup Communication: Exploring Areas of Overlap and Collaboration” panel discussion.

Lyzbeth S. King, “Communicating to Elevate International Students’ Voices,” panel discussion.

Athar Memon, Zahid Wali and Roshni Ashiq, “Navigating Uncertainty: Coping Strategies and Well-being among International Students in the United States.”

Dr. China Billotte Verhoff, Dr. Angela Hosek, Tobi Odunsi, “I took a time out. Sometimes you just have to walk away.” An Exploration of U.S. Mothers’ Navigation Behaviors and Boundaries with “Mom Rage,” part of the Making Sense of Messages paper session. 

Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, “Models and Motivations for Student Success,” paper session.

Sonali Jha, session chair, Strategic Communication: Research in Advertising and Disaster Communication, paper session.

Siyuan Xiang, “Constructing Party-centric Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of Contemporary Chinese Cinema on Korean War,” paper session.

Dr. Lynn Harter, “Elevating Faith: Reimagining Organizational Communication in Religious Contexts,” panel discussion.

Sarah Jones and Dr. Brittany Peterson, “ ‘No one is forcing you’: Decoupling Volition and Intent in Organizational Membership,” paper session.

Dr. Brittany Peterson, “Organizational Communication Across the Years, What is – and Should be – Part of the Curriculum?” panel discussion.

Dr. Christina S. Beck, 11^th Annual NCA Anti-Bullying Roundtable Discussion

Zahid Wali, Athar Memon, and Namra Nadeem, “Narrative Strategies and Pastoral Leadership in President Biden’s Address on Mental Health Care Access,” paper session.

Dr. Brittany Peterson, “Pre-conference 04: Elevating Organizational Communication in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.” 

Dr. Devika Chawla and Dr. Angela Hosek, “GEMS: Guidelines for Effective Mentoring,” paper session.

Althar Memon, Mildred Komey, Sonali Jha, Roshni Ashiq, Zahid Wali, Namra Nadeem, “Exploring Public Trust as a Mediator Between System-Level Predictors and Satisfaction with Healthcare Services.” 

Sheyla Finkelshteyn, Short Course 12: Facilitative Leadership: Building Capacity to Elevate Conversations about Complex Issues

Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, Short Course 03: Communicate to Elevate: Practical Tools for Fostering Community in the Classroom

Rosemary Akweley Charway, “From Frustration to Inspiration: Harnessing the Power of Feedback to Transform Learning Experiences.”

Lyzbeth S. King, “Communicating to Elevate Wellness and Awareness: Representing Mental Health Through Ghanaian Popular Music,” paper session.

Michael Rodrigue-Barnes, “Communicating to Elevate: Audio Feedback as a Tool for Resilience,” paper session.

Shatakshi Semwal, “Communicating to Elevate Mental Health and Self-Care,” paper session. 

Jessie Congolo, “An Embodied Experience with Uterine Fibroids: Staging Autoethnography,” paper session.

Jessie Congolo, Participatory Theatre as a Tool for Resistance and Celebration: Voices from the Global South,” paper session

Dr. Vicki Crooks, “Great Creative Pedagogical Ideas in Theatre, Film and New Multi-media” panel.

Dr. Vicki Crooks, “Acting, Performance, and Improv Exercise Exchange in Theatre, Film and New Multi-media” panel.

Dr. Vicki Crooks, respondent, “Student Works in Progress: Exploring Insights into Theatre, Film and New Multi-media Research” paper session.

Dr. Vicki Crooks, session chair, “Top Student Papers in the Theatre, Film and New Multi-media Division.”

Dr. Saumya Pant, “Surrogate Mothers 'Act' their Way to Empowerment: Role of Participatory Theater in Exploring the Narratives of Resistance and Transformation in India,” paper presentation.

Dr. Vicki Crooks, “Communication Skills Slam.”

Sheyla Finkelshteyn, “Community-Engaged Teaching and Feminist Pedagogy” panel discussion.

Dr. Benjamin R. Bates, Eastern Communication Association Executive Council

Dr. Christina S. Beck, NCA past president

Dr. Raymie McKerrow, NCA past president

Dr. Candice Thomas-Maddox, NCA Executive Committee, Legislative Assembly