Nicholas David Bowman
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
ndbowman@yhc.edu

B.A., University of Missouri, St. Louis
M.A., University of Missouri, St. Louis
A.B.D., Michigan State University

Professor Bowman is in his first year as an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Young Harris College, where he teaches courses in the Mass Communication concentration. Nick’s areas of emphasis include journalism and media psychology, and he is an active researcher and author of several published articles in such journals as Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, and CyberPsychology and Behavior. He is a dedicated instructor and enjoys working closely with his students to understand the mechanics of the mass media, including the production of mass media messages, the business and legal side of mass media, and the role of psychology in how messages are consumed by the public.

Dr. Joy Goldsmith
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Chair, Communication Studies Department
jgoldsmith@yhc.edu.

B.A., Bethel College
M.A., Southern Illinois University
Ph.D., University of Oklahoma

Joy Goldsmith's research agenda applies qualitative methodologies to the context of palliative and end-of-life health communication. Joy is the co-author of a chapter addressing the ritual drama of pretense in the talk of dying patients and their physicians as well as a complete volume describing the landscape of palliative care and its communication challenges for patients, family and care providers published in 2008 by Routledge Taylor and Francis (Communication as Comfort: Multiple Voices in Palliative Care).  A second volume about palliative care communication and family is under contract with Hampton Press, due for publication in the spring of 2010. Social Science and Medicine recently accepted an article by Joy and author team that critiques the current breaking bad news protocol taught in American medical schools. She currently writes and researches with her team on a new communication protocol specifically addressing terminal conversations between patients and providers. 

Joy is enjoying her sixth year as a faculty member at Young Harris College, the growth of the Communication Studies area, as well as her vivacious baby daughter.

Dr. Jennifer S. Hallett
Assistant Professor of Communication Studies
Faculty Athletics Representative
jhallett@yhc.edu.

B.A., Michigan State University
M.A., University of California, Santa Barbara
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Hallett's teaching interests focus on intergroup and interpersonal communication topics, including gender, family, nonverbal, language, intercultural, deception, relational, social dominance and conflict management. Her research agenda has been guided primarily by intergroup issues including gender and (mis)communication as well as language and intergroup communication. Published articles by Dr. Hallett and colleagues can be found in Human Communication Research, Communication Research, and Health Communication. She also has co-authored book chapters in The Dark Side of Interpersonal Relationships (published by Erlbaum) and The New Handbook of Language and Social Psychology (published by Wiley).

Dr. Ron Roach
Associate Professor of Communication Studies
mailto:jhallett@yhc.edu

B.S., Mid-Atlantic Christian University
M.A., The University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Ph.D., Regent University

Dr. Roach joined the Young Harris College faculty in 2002.  In 2007, he was named the Maxwell Chair of Speech.  His scholarly interests include eighteenth-century Scottish rhetoric, Appalachian rhetoric, and the history of media, particularly radio, comic art, and pulp magazines.  He has published articles in The Christian Standard, Popular Culture Review and Review of Communication and has made numerous scholarly presentations.