Regional Association News
Eastern States Communication Association
ECA Appoints New Executive Director
The Eastern Communication Association is pleased to announce its next Executive Director, Dr. Stacy Smulowitz, of the University of Scranton. Smulowitz will spend the next year shadowing current Executive Director Dr. Cheryl Casey, before officially assuming the position on July 1, 2020.
As an Assistant Professor, Smulowitz teaches courses in advertising, healthcare planning and marketing, and small group and organizational communication. She also advises the Ad Club and the AAF National Student Advertising Competition team. Smulowitz’s research interests focus on theory and strategy for promoting excellence in organizational, women’s, and girls’ leadership.
She holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ, USA), a master’s degree from Ithaca College (Ithaca, NY, USA), a bachelor’s degree from Wilkes University, (Wilkes-Barre, PA, USA), and accreditation through the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Smulowitz is also President of Smulowitz Communications, a strategic communication consulting firm.
Smulowitz resides in Shavertown, PA, with her husband John, daughter Victoria, son Alexander, and a sassy Brussels Griffon named Arlo. ECA congratulates Smulowitz on her appointment!
Submissions Open for ECA 2020 in Baltimore
The 111th Convention of the Eastern Communication Association is now accepting submissions via its online submission site, Attendee Interactive. With the theme of “Harboring Innovation,” the convention will take place April 1-5, 2020, at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore Inner Harbor.
ECA First Vice President Dr. Jennifer Waldeck, of Chapman University, leads the convention planning team. The theme juxtaposes the long histories of both Baltimore and ECA itself, emphasizing the creativity and visionary leadership that have grown and transformed these entities over decades often wrought by adversity. Dr. Waldeck invites participants “to develop programming...that focuses on how we have innovated and how we need to innovate to remain relevant, cutting-edge, and unique—especially in relation to other social science disciplines.”
Calls for submissions from each of the ECA Interest Groups can be found on the convention main page. The deadline for submissions is October 15, 2019 at 11:59 PST.
Southern States Communication Association
For 29 years, the Southern States Communication Association has welcomed undergraduate researchers to the Theodore Clevenger Undergraduate Honors Conference, inviting them to consider themselves a part of the SSCA community. We are thrilled to continue that tradition, for the 30th year, at the annual SSCA conference in Frisco, Texas, to be held April 1-5, 2020. The conference aims to support excellence in undergraduate scholarship, and allows participants to network and exchange ideas with other scholars and to explore graduate study opportunities. The submission deadline is December 13, 2019 and papers/projects will be submitted electronically: https://www.xcdsystem.com/ssca/abstract/index.cfm?ID=PugAYz3.
If you have any questions, please contact Wendy Atkins-Sayre; wltknssy@memphis.edu.
Victoria J. Gallagher, a past president of SSCA, is the principal investigator of the Virtual Martin Luther King (vMLK) Project. Gallagher recently received an NEH Digital Projects for the Public Production Grant of $200,000 to complete the production phase of the vMLK Project. The vMLK Project is geared toward the public with public exhibitions (at museums, libraries, etc.) and resources; toward faculty and students with pedagogical materials, resources, and exhibitions; and toward researchers with archival materials, research resources, etc. There are six different facets or experiences of the project, and there are many great images and much information to share. To learn more about the project, please visit https://vmlk.chass.ncsu.edu/.