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Topic: Communications

Chris Jennings

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Chris Jennings, Ed.D. is chair and professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Production at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He has over two decades of experience in the media education field. Jennings has held positions as training analyst, instructional designer, director of digital media services, digital media producer, consultant and adjunct teaching faculty. He worked as education program specialist at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In addition to teaching, Jennings was assistant director for An Adventure of the American Mind Grant at MSU Denver. He is a member of several professional organizations including e-Learning Consortium of Colorado, American Society of Training and Development, International Society of Performance Improvement and Society of Technical Communications. Jennings received the Humanitarian Service Medal, Expeditionary Medal (Panama), Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the National Defense Medal for his service in the U.S. Army.

His research interests include interactive realities, virtual realities, streaming media, usability testing and human factors with technology. Jennings has authored and co-authored several books with the most recent one in 2010 titled “Educational Virtual Environment Methodologies: Second Life as an Instructional Tool” a textbook for the University of Wyoming. He has given many presentations around the country and on a few occasions in China about the use of media and technology in education.

Jennings received his Doctor of Education in instructional technology from the University of Wyoming in 2010, a master’s in multimedia technologies from Regis University in 2002 and a bachelor’s in speech communication from MSU Denver in 1996.

Samuel Jay

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Samuel Jay, Ph.D., is a professor of Communication Studies and interim executive director of Online Learning at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He joined MSU Denver in 2011 as an adjunct professor and went full-time in 2014. Jay opened his own consulting company in 2015 called Jay Communication Solutions helping individuals and small businesses market themselves. He has developed and implemented content marketing campaigns, handled social media accounts of NCAA Division I sports teams and coached and managed projects for varied clients. Jay also produces and co-hosts a weekly sports podcast and radio show, called Sports Nerds, where he examines how sports influence our perception of things like race, class, gender and power. He also co-hosts a weekly podcast, called Unfiltered, where leaders in the craft beverage industry are featured, providing a behind-the-scenes look at what they do.

His research focus areas include how digital communication technologies and their users generate and circulate emotional energy and how that energy adds rhetoric effectiveness to disparate discourses, including politics, sports, and economics.

Jay received his doctorate in communication studies with a focus on rhetoric and a minor in emergent digital practices from University of Denver in 2014, a master’s in radio-television-film from University of North Texas in 2009 and a bachelor’s in cinema and comparative literature from University of Iowa in 2006.

William Huddy

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William Huddy, Ph.D., is a lecturer in the Department of Communications at Metropolitan State University of Denver where he teaches Communication Research and Theory Building, Campus Communication, Communication and Politics and Public Speaking.

Prior to teaching, Huddy worked in the field of radio and television for 20 year and has experience working in the areas of reporting, anchoring, editing, photojournalism, advertising and news directing. His primary research interests include media and celebrities, dependence on mobile phone technology, student engagement in public speaking, dynamic changes in political campaigning (and the importance of internet campaigning with less reliance on television) and new methods in communication as a means of activism and social justice.

Huddy received his Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Denver in 2012, a master’s in instructional communication from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs in 2003 and a bachelor’s in mass communication and international relations from California State University in 1975.

Mindy Glover

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Mindy Glover, M.A., is an affiliate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise include communication in politics, organizational communication and online communication. She is currently teaching Diversity and Communication in the U.S.

Glover has been teaching at MSU Denver since 2003. Prior to joining MSU Denver, she taught communication courses to commercial art students at the Art Institute. Glover has worked as the executive director of Sage Relationships LLC since 2010, where she combines relationship coaching, communication-skill acquisition and yoga instruction to build relationships. She specializes in teaching public speaking and interpersonal-relationship skills to yoga teachers. She has recently taken on an additional position at CARE Counseling as a mental health counselor working with adults and people in relationships.

Glover received her second master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the University of St. Thomas in 2020. She received her first master’s degree in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University in 2002. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and Political Science from the University of South Dakota in 1996. Glover is currently pursuing her Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor accreditation.

Darrin Duber-Smith

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Darrin C. Duber-Smith, M.S., MBA, is a senior lecturer at Metropolitan State University of Denver’s College of Business, where he teaches Sports Marketing, Green Marketing, Seminar in Marketing Management and Advertising Management courses.

Duber-Smith has more than 30 years of specialized expertise in the marketing and management profession, including decades of work with natural, organic and green/sustainable goods and services.

As president of Green Marketing, Inc. from 2000-16, Duber-Smith was a co-founder of the Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability market/industry model and was leader of the first U.S. industry task force that helped frame the Natural Products Association’s definition of natural in 2005.

He has co-authored several academic papers, including “State of the Economy and Attitudes Toward Sales Careers,” “Student Disposition Towards Sales as a Career,” “The Evolution of an Award-Winning Assessment Plan” and “Gender Bias in Consumer Perceptions of Salespeople.” He has published over 90 marketing-related articles and book chapters in various business publications, and he has been an invited speaker at over 50 executive-level events.

Duber-Smith has been the most frequently-interviewed marketing expert in Colorado media since 2005, and he authored Cengage Learning’s “KnowNow! Marketing” blog from 2011-2019.

Duber-Smith received The Wall Street Journal’s In-Education Distinguished Professor Award in 2009 and WSJ’s Top 125 Professor Award in 2014.

Katia Campbell

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Katia Campbell, Ph.D., is the chair in the Department of Communication Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Her scholarship and teaching focuses on rhetoric, free speech, cultural representation, popular media and critical pedagogy. Campbell is also the Faculty Senate President. Outside of MSU Denver, she consults and facilitates workshops on communication and diversity, media literacy, free speech, public speaking, and dialogic ethics. After completing her doctorate, Campbell worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Communication at University of Colorado Denver.

Her research areas of interest include, but are not limited to, citizenship and civic engagement, cultural diversity and communication within a U.S. cultural context and cultural studies with an emphasis on media studies. Campbell has co-authored three publications in the areas of civic engagement and social justice. Her book, “Neo-Pragmatism, Communication, and the Culture of Creative Democracy,” focuses specifically on the malleable conceptions of citizenship and civic responsibility and explicates the possible social ramifications of our modern practice of citizenship.

Campbell earned her doctorate in human communication studies from University of Denver in 2004.

Kenn Bisio

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Kenn Bisio, MFA, is a emeritus professor in the Department of Journalism and Media Production at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He teaches photojournalism and social documentary.

Bisio is a world-renowned photojournalist with over 40 years of professional experience. His photographs have been published in the world’s most popular and prestigious newspapers and magazines that include Sports Illustrated, National Geographic, Die Zeit, Le Monde, New York Times, Newsweek, U. S. News & World Report and Time International. Bisio received numerous awards for his photographs, which have been displayed at exhibits in America, Europe, Russia and the Far East. His photographs have also been purchased by individuals, corporate companies, museums and gallery collectors. Bisio is represented by the Geraint Smith Gallery in Taos, New Mexico.

He has been teaching as MSU Denver for 25 years, during which Bisio also held the chair positions of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication 1994-2006 and the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences 2002-2006. Bisio was honored as Educator of the Year in 2015. His research interests include new media, convergent media, the role of newspapers and wall street investors, published manipulated photographs, Instagram vs photojournalism, historical and contemporary photographers, film photography as the foundation to digital capture and previsualization as it applies to film and digital photography.

Bisio received his Master of Fine Arts in video from Norwich University and a bachelor’s in photojournalism from San Jose State University.

Lisa Abendroth

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Lisa M. Abendroth is a professor in the Communication Design program at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She led the program as coordinator from 2000 to 2018. Her research focuses on public interest design and the social, economic, and environmental impacts created with, and within, the contexts of underserved people, places, and problems. Her pedagogy is committed to community-centered design practices that embolden access and equity.

Abendroth is a SEED Network cofounder, a SEED Evaluator coauthor, and a recipient of the SEED Award for Leadership in Public Interest Design. She is also a contributor to the Public Interest Design Institute. Abendroth is a coeditor of two books in Routledge’s Public Interest Design Guidebook series: Public Interest Design Practice Guidebook: SEED Methodology, Case Studies, and Critical Issues, published in 2015; and, Public Interest Design Education Guidebook: Curricula, Strategies, and SEED Academic Case Studies, published in 2018.

She has earned degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Abendroth lectures, curates, exhibits and publishes her work nationally and internationally. She was named a 2019 AIGA Fellow.

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