Our people

A page within Communication Studies

Department Chair

Linda Dickmeyer  Profile of Linda Dickmeyer  Office hours

Professor
4210 Centennial Hall
ldickmeyer@uwlax.edu
608.785.6715

Specialty areas:

Interpersonal Communication, Instructional Communication, Undergraduate Research

Academic Department Associate

Jenni Pengra  Profile of Jenni Pengra

Academic Department Associate
4206 Centennial Hall
jpengra@uwlax.edu
608.785.8519

Department people

Ashley Edwards  Profile of Ashley Edwards  Meet with me  Office hours

Associate Professor
4310 Centennial Hall
aedwards@uwlax.edu
608.785.6723

Specialty areas:

Interpersonal communication, inclusive pedagogy, social support, leadership & professional communication, computer-mediated communication, culture, and teaching in a multimodal environment 

Ayesha Patnaik  Profile of Ayesha Patnaik

Lecturer
4220 Centennial Hall
apatnaik@uwlax.edu
608.785.6718

Specialty areas:

CST 110 Communicating Effectively
Beth Boser  Profile of Beth Boser  Office hours

Associate Professor
4225 Centennial Hall
bboser@uwlax.edu
608.785.6702

Specialty areas:

Public Communication and Advocacy, Media Studies, Gender and Feminism

Brandon Anderson  Profile of Brandon Anderson  Office hours

Assistant Professor
4217 Centennial Hall
banderson3@uwlax.edu
608.785.8716

Specialty areas:

Public Communication & Advocacy, Dialogue & Deliberation, Social Movement discourse, Public Memory & the Nuclear Public Sphere. 

Daniel Modaff  Profile of Daniel Modaff  Office hours

Associate Professor
4221 Centennial Hall
dmodaff@uwlax.edu
608.785.6716

Specialty areas:

Organizational Communication

David Solie  Profile of David Solie

Teaching Associate Professor
202 Wing Technology Center
dsolie@uwlax.edu
608.785.6721

Gregory Ormes  Profile of Gregory Ormes

Associate Professor
4213 Centennial Hall
gormes@uwlax.edu
608.785.8714

Specialty areas:

Organizational and Professional Communication

Communication in Teams

Jennifer Butler Modaff  Profile of Jennifer Butler Modaff  Office hours

Associate Professor
4219 Centennial Hall
jbutlermodaff@uwlax.edu
608.785.6717

Specialty areas:

Organizational and Professional Communication

Joseph Van Oss  Profile of Joseph Van Oss  Meet with me  Office hours

Teaching Professor
4218 Centennial Hall
jvanoss@uwlax.edu
608.785.6709

Specialty areas:

Human communication, scientific and technical communication

Katherine Lavelle  Profile of Katherine Lavelle  Office hours

Professor
4209 Centennial Hall
klavelle@uwlax.edu
608.785.6698

Specialty areas:

Office hours in person (Zoom on request) 

  • Mondays & Wednesdays 11-11:30am
  • Tuesdays & Thursdays 1-2pm
  • by appointment Monday-Thursday
  •  
  • Phone: 608-785-6698 (voicemail goes to my email and I’ll get in touch with you) 

I teach in the area of Public Communication and Advocacy

I am the First Year Seminar Coordinator

My research area is communication and sport, focused on the rhetoric of female athletes and mental health in sport. 

Linda Dickmeyer  Profile of Linda Dickmeyer  Office hours

Professor
4210 Centennial Hall
ldickmeyer@uwlax.edu
608.785.6715

Specialty areas:

Interpersonal Communication, Instructional Communication, Undergraduate Research

Michael Tollefson  Profile of Michael Tollefson

Associate Professor
4211 Centennial Hall
mtollefson2@uwlax.edu
608.785.6710

Specialty areas:

Persuasion, Argumentation, Undergraduate Research

Nick Raes  Profile of Nick Raes

Teaching Assistant Professor
4207 Centennial Hall
nraes@uwlax.edu

Ronda Leahy  Profile of Ronda Leahy  Office hours

Professor
4212 Centennial Hall
rleahy@uwlax.edu
608.785.6724

Specialty areas:

Professional and Organizational Communication

Rick King Quale  Profile of Rick King Quale  Meet with me  Office hours

Assistant Teaching Professor
4207 Centennial Hall
rkingquale@uwlax.edu
608.785.6705

Specialty areas:

Public Speaking, Small Group Communication, Organizational Communication

Scott Dickmeyer  Profile of Scott Dickmeyer

Associate Professor
4215 Centennial Hall
sdickmeyer@uwlax.edu
608.785.8519

Specialty areas:

Organizational Communication, Organizational Culture, Training & Development and Consulting
Sara Docan-Morgan  Profile of Sara Docan-Morgan

Professor
4229 Centennial Hall
sdocan-morgan@uwlax.edu
608.785.6711

Specialty areas:

interpersonal communication, family communication, Korean adoptees, race and culture

Taylor Cole Miller  Profile of Taylor Cole Miller

Assistant Professor
4227 Centennial Hall
tmiller3@uwlax.edu
608.785.8713

Specialty areas:

Television, Broadcast History, Media Policy, Feminist and Queer Media Studies, Syndication 

Terence Smith  Profile of Terence Smith

Teaching Professor
4206 Centennial Hall
tsmith@uwlax.edu
608.785.8523

Specialty areas:

Public Speaking

Public Speaking Center

Media Literacy

Weixu Lu  Profile of Weixu Lu  Meet with me  Office hours

Assistant Professor
4208 Centennial Hall
wlu@uwlax.edu
608.785.6712

Specialty areas:

Emerging Communication Technologies, Social Networks, Media/Communication/Geography,  Mobile Eye-tracking

UWL colleagues and students: Feel free to message me on MS Teams.
Student appointments: Please use my YouCanBook.Me page to book appointments with me.

Emeriti faculty

  • Cheri Niedzwiecki
  • James Putz
  • Patricia Turner
  • Robert Eberle