DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION

GRADUATE STUDENT NEWS 2016 ★ CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS Five COMMGRADS

presented research papers at the February 2015 WSCA convention in San Diego on topics ranging from terrorism to Hong Kong protests and from health communication through social media. They received travel grants from the Graduate School and the Department to support their presentations.

★ TOP PAPER AWARDS Last year, three COMMGRADS, Andy

Gilmore, Jeremy Make, and Kellie Marin, received received top competitive paper awards top competitive paper awards at the Western States Communication Association and the National Communication Association.

★ SERVICE LEARNING & SOCIAL JUSTICE

PROJECTS Madison Krall created a video about sleep-related infant death among black Coloradans for the Community Action Network (CAN), which will be used throughout Colorado and beyond. Chrissy Kunkel designed a social media campaign and video for the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) that ran over the summer. Ashley Reitz created a story-based digital video for Rocky Mountain Children’s Cancer Foundation (RMCCF). Meanwhile, James McNeil, Bryan Reckard, Sarah Sunerlin, Patrycja Humaniek, and Jeremy Make taught public speaking and poetry to Colorado prisoners.

★ SPECIAL WRITING PROJECT Jeremy Make

successfully completed his MA special writing project, "Inviting a Good Death: A Proposal for a Model of Autonomous Choice in End-of-Life Advance Care Planning,” and Andy Gilmore successfully defended his project about social movements in Hong Kong.

CREATING A MORE EQUITABLE AND HUMANE WORLD

Our 2015 external program reviewers called our MA

program “among the very best M.A.-only graduate programs

in the discipline.”

COMMUNICATION MA Alumni Profiles

DAVID PROPER

CONTACT US

Department of Communication 1201 Larimer Street, 3rd Floor Campus Box 176 Denver, CO 80204

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303 | 315-1919 | comminfo@ucdenver.edu

clas.ucdenver.edu/communication https://www.facebook.com/UCDDepartmentofCommunication

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REBECCA BURRIS

I absolutely loved my time in graduate school! The support from the COMM professors and the Department community is unmatchable. The best gift I received from the COMM department was the opportunity to explore my own ethics, beliefs, socially constructed ideals, and life purpose, which led me to be the person I always wanted to be. Attending graduate school at CU Denver COMM is

one of the best decisions I ever made! —Rebecca Burris

David is currently the Director of Communications for the University of Denver’s Josef Korbel School of International Studies. In this position David is responsible for internal and external communications for one of the world’s leading schools of international affairs. Before joining the Korbel School, he oversaw digital advocacy and communications for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains. While at CU, David completed the graduate certificate in public relations and was interested in LGBTQ representations in popular media. David says that all of the classes he took as part of the MA program helped expand his understanding of communication. However, Feminist Rhetorical Theory uniquely piqued his interest how U.S. advocacy and politics might be improved to invite greater political participation and to prevent further ideological polarization. As a result of this curiosity, he will begin a PhD fellowship in Communication at American University in Washington, D.C. in fall 2015, where he plans to study how advocacy groups and politicians use new media.

Rebecca’s graduate work focused on social justice, digital storytelling, and the usefulness of social media to nonprofits. She is particularly passionate about refugee social justice issues. After graduation, Rebecca became the Senior Executive and Resource Development Assistant for Lutheran Family Services (LFS), where she works directly with the CEO on strengthening relationships with community groups. Rebecca’s biggest project is overseeing the distribution of backpacks and school supplies to children in foster care and to refugee children. She uses her knowledge and skills of social media and nonprofit work in promoting LFS across the Internet and social media platforms and her public speaking and teaching skills when she speaks to large groups and coordinates hands-on activities and projects. As LFS continues to grow and become one of the largest refugee resettlement agencies in the nation, Rebecca hopes to continue to build a strong donor base and make a difference in the lives of refugees and foster children.