Our Year
It was another busy year here at UW Communication! This summer newsletter offers a round-up of our recent activities so you can learn a bit more about the ways our scholarship is making a difference in our discipline and broader community and how we’re preparing the next generation of communicators for life and careers beyond UW. As always, we welcome your engagement with us in whatever ways work for you!
Thanks to alumni support, journalism students had a number of incredible professional development opportunities, such as covering the Washington state legislative session as part of our longstanding “Olympia program,” interning as working journalists in Thailand, Samoa, and India, and working in Spain as part of our donor-sponsored ¡SpainWorks! Internship program. The department also launched Emerging Scholars, a new initiative designed to expand understanding of, and access to, graduate education for promising students who might not otherwise consider graduate study.
UW Communication also celebrated the twentieth anniversary of our Alumni Hall of Fame, inducting three new members as well as honoring distinguished alumni for their excellence in leadership, mentoring, and early career success. You can learn more about this annual celebration and other alumni news on our webpage for alumni, your homebase for keeping up with us and each other.
We hosted a number of public events this year, on some of the most critical issues of our time. In Fall, Dr. Silvio Waisbord of George Washington University delivered the Department’s annual Scheidel Lecture, exploring the question “Can Journalists Be Safe in a Violent World?” In Winter, content creators and journalists convened for an event to discuss The Social Shift, the ways social media has changed the way people consume the news. And, in Spring, our Center for Journalism, Media, and Democracy hosted the presidents of KUOW, Cascade PBS, and KNKX for a discussion, Public Media Under Pressure: Why it Matters and What Can be Done?, about the future of public media in the face of recent political and economic challenges. In addition to these events, we hosted a number of national and international communication scholars to deliver research colloquia talks, sharing their scholarship with our community. As always, we continue to share videos of these talks and all public events on our Department’s YouTube channel.
The Department also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Center for Communication, Difference, and Equity, with a retrospective panel and birthday celebration. These festivities also included a fond farewell to CCDE founder, Dr. Ralina Joseph, who will begin a new position this Autumn at UCLA.
Our Communication Leadership (CommLead) professional master’s program continues to flourish and innovate, welcoming students from all over the world to develop their professional skills and knowledge as they prepare for careers in ever-evolving communication industries. CommLead offers a variety of courses, workshops, and public events, such as their annual Connects event and their student project showcase, Screen Summit.
We closed our year by celebrating students for their academic and research accomplishments at our annual Scholarship and Excellence Awards ceremony. In June, over 350 graduates joined our robust network of alumni at our department’s commencement celebration in UW’s Alaska Airlines Arena.
Finally, UW Communication celebrated the careers of two faculty members who both retired in Spring 2025, becoming members of our emeritus faculty. Kirsten Foot is an award winning scholar who studies organizing processes between groups, organizations, and sectors of society, and the communication practices that advance collaboration for social change. Her scholarship, especially her book Collaborating Against Human Trafficking, led her to consultative roles with the State of Washington and other stakeholders, and ultimately to her new role, leading an anti-human trafficking non-profit organization. Valerie Mansov is a leading scholar in the area of interpersonal communication. Her scholarship and national leadership has shaped the field in countless ways. In recognition of her stellar career, Professor Manusov was the 2022 recipient of the Mark L. Knapp award in Interpersonal Communication that recognizes individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to the study of interaction and/or relational processes. Both Professors Foot and Manusov are incredible scholars, teachers, and leaders in our field. We wish them every success and happiness in their next endeavors.
UW Communication continues to foster community and connections well beyond graduation. Our alumni network is tens of thousands strong and includes professionals working across a variety of communication fields. We invite you to explore our new alumni page to stay connected with us and each other, and to learn more about how you can get involved as we train the next generation of ethical, innovative communicators. And, we hope you will continue to stay connected to the COMMunity by letting us know what you’re up to! To learn how to update your LinkedIn page to connect with other UW Communication alumni, visit our step-by-step guide, here.
To learn more about the accomplishments of our incredible students, alumni, faculty, and staff, please view our Year in Review Video.
Happy Summer!