CMS Welcomes New Members and Kicks Off ’26-’27!

CMS Welcomes New Members and Kicks Off ’26-’27! 

The department has been busy getting the new academic year launched and welcoming new members. On August 19 we oriented 12 new graduate students with a variety of faculty and student sessions followed by gelato at our social event. Dr. Rene Dailey and Jenn Porras once again organized an impressive orientation to help all our new graduate students have a great start here. The officially-enrolled members of the incoming cohort are the following:

On Wednesday, August 19th, our new students joined us in CMA for a full day orientation specifically geared towards the CMS graduate program. During the morning meet and greet, with coffee and a light breakfast, was the first opportunity to meet the Department staff in person! After hearing about the graduate program procedures and policies from Jenn Porras, the Graduate Coordinator, and more about specific academic initiatives by Rene Dailey, the Graduate Advisor, they were welcomed by the Department Chair, Craig Scott and Associate Chair, Stacey Sowards. The new cohort met with faculty in their area of study over lunch as a chance to discuss specific interests and ideas for future involvement in research. 

Interpersonal Communication (INP) area 

  • Chuton Deb Nath (PhD)

  • Kirsten Handler (MA)

  • Qi Zhang (MA) 

Organizational Communication and Technology (OCT) area 

  • Emaly Aguilar (PhD)

Rhetoric, Language, & Political Communication (RLP) area 

  • Mary Webster Burke (MA)
  • Evangeline Cruz (PhD)
  • Felicity Dong (PhD)
  • Yije Feng (MA) 
  • Youngjin Lee (PhD)
  • Eleni Mercer (PhD)
  • Morgan Peterson (PhD)
  • Guiliana Sodaro (MA) 

On August 28, CMS held a department-wide kickoff event to welcome newcomers, highlight summer accomplishments, and preview the year ahead. Department Chair Craig Scott previewed several big events in the department for the coming year:

  • On September 18, Steve Rains will join us to accept our Outstanding Alum Award and to talk about publishing in the field. 
  • The OCT search will begin reviewing applicants in September, do preliminary interviews in Octobers, and bring candidates to campus in November. 
  • In mid-November we’ll return once again to New Orleans for NCA. We’re anticipating several honors at the conference and will once again have our graduate open house and Texas Party. 
  • We’ll be selecting our second annual Barry Brummett Endowed Lecturer and will have that event in the spring. Other spring events include our annual Communication Studies Week, our Graduate Recruitment Day, Honors Day 2027, and hopefully a big retirement event for John Daly. 

Scott also recognized several accomplishments and newcomers in the department:

  • Three successful promotion cases are just about to become official. Robert Caroll and Joe Cutbirth have been promoted to Associate Professors of Instruction and Dawna Ballard is now a full Professor. Congratulations!  
  • Ashwin Rajadesingan was recently named the recipient of Moody College’s Wartella Research Award for one of his publications. Jennifer Betancourt also received Moody’s annual Staff Impact Award for Supervisors. Well done Ashwin and Jennifer!
  • In addition to recognizing our graduate students, Jenny Rosario was announced as a new part-time staff member. 
  • A big welcome went out to our newest tenure-track faculty member: Dr. Brittany Wheeler. Brittany joins us an Assistant Professor in the Organizational Communication and Technology area.

Following those remarks, all members of the department introduced themselves as they talked about something they get a “kick out of,” some habit they are trying to “kick,” and one thing they’d like to “kick up a notch” this year. The event concluded with a big group photo and a reception to welcome our new members and welcome back everyone else.