CCI Recognizes 2024 Retirees, Students, and Award Winners
Every spring, the College of Communication and Information recognizes and honors those who have made significant achievements in their work, whether it be excellence in teaching, research, or volunteering, or the time that they have contributed before retiring. In 2023, CCI has had much to celebrate from its graduate students, faculty, and staff. The following are those who were recognized this spring.
Celebrating CCI Graduate Students
The CCI Graduate Student Research Award recognizes outstanding research and creative activity by a current graduate student in the college. This year’s recipient is Kibum Youn with the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, who successfully defended his doctoral dissertation this spring. Youn has an impressive research record for a graduate student. He has published four referred journal articles, three of which are first-author publications, and featured in outlets such as the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of Advertising. He also has several manuscripts in progress or under review, and 19 proceedings at conferences. Of course, quantity is not the only marker of an impressive researcher. He is a great conceptual thinker with a strong grasp of research methodology, and he shows promise of having a strong and innovative research career ahead of him.
The CCI Graduate Student Teaching Award recognizes outstanding classroom instruction by a current graduate student in the college. This year’s recipient is Aman Misra, a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Media. Misra This year’s winner is an accomplished instructor, teaching several classes for CCI including Sports Reporting Across the Media and Intro to Journalism and Creative Media. Both students and faculty note his passion and enthusiasm for instruction, which he infuses into every class period.
He has coordinated several guest speakers for his classes, including Jarrod Kimber, a former ESPN writer, and Joe Posnanski, who has won the AP sportswriter of the year award. He is an instructor who can both connect with students and facilitate their learning. One comment from his course evaluations sums it up perfectly: “He was a great professor who cared about giving all of his students a solid foundation for a career in journalism.”
The Graduate Student Dissertation Award recognizes outstanding scholarship as exemplified in the dissertation. This year’s recipient is Katie Knight, who recently successfully defended her dissertation, A Relational Ontological Framework for Identifying Unstated Assumptions in Scientific Data. Her dissertation focused on the role of fundamental epistemological questions in creating systems to manage and analyze scientific data. It has the ability to make a significant impact on the field, because it illuminates how neglecting unstated assumptions in scientific data sets can lead artificial intelligence and machine learning applications to create biased outcomes. Her nominators highlighted how this is simply one of the best dissertations they have read. In the words of one nominator, “The work touches on the foundations of science and has great potential to impact so many disciplines, a rare feat.”
CCI is also celebrating eight graduated doctoral students and their dedicated advisors, who are:
- Jessica Barfield, PhD, and her advisor Chancellor’s Professor Suzie Allard, School of Information Sciences. In Barfield’s dissertation, she proposed that an important factor in achieving diversity, equity, and inclusion for human-robot interaction is the user’s ethnicity in comparison to the perceived ethnicity of a robot when experienced in a social context. The results of her research indicated that users assign an ethnic identity to a robot based on cues to ethnicity, that a robot presented with cues signaling an American ethnicity was favored more so than a robot presented with cues signaling a Chinese or Mexican ethnicity and that participants classified robots with a similar ethnicity as themselves as an in-group member resulting in a more favorable evaluation than for robots categorized as an out-group member. Barfield will be joining the School of Information Sciences at the University of Kentucky as a tenure-track assistant professor this fall.
- Tori Bertram, PhD, and her advisors Professor Joan Rentsch and Professor Emily Paskewitz Associate, School of Communication Studies. Bertram’s dissertation tested the relationally driven socializing potential of memorable messages. To determine the effects of memorable messages on a new employee’s relational development, participants completed an online survey about their experiences with memorable messages and their organizational experiences. Overall, the findings of her dissertation suggested that memorable messages have the potential to improve socialization outcomes when mediated by coworker relationship development. Based on the results, practitioners are recommended to take an integrated task and relational approach to onboarding. Bertram is now an assistant professor teaching organizational communication at James Madison University.
- James Cartee, PhD, and his Advisor Associate Professor Laura Miller, School of Communication Studies. Cartee’s dissertation examined help-seeking tendencies and motivations among college students in the utilization of professional psychological services. Through a grounded theory approach, twenty-eight young adults were interviewed based on specific criteria that established two sets of questions. One set of questions addressed the five participants who only seriously considered the use of mental health services. The other set of questions served the twenty-three participants who actually utilized professional psychological services. In thematic categorization, nine themes emerged as facilitators that prompted the use of professional psychological services. Eight themes materialized that functioned as barriers, which prevented or at least stalled the successful utilization of professional mental health assistance. Interpersonal relationships surfaced as another main category with the three following subthemes: hate speech and bullying, discouraging conversations and statements, and encouraging conversations and statements. Cartee plans to continue teaching communication courses in higher education, refine an active research agenda, and start a consulting business.
- Minjeong Kim, PhD, her advisor Professor Eric Haley, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. Kim’s dissertation examined consumer behavior, particularly among materialistic individuals, focusing on their inclination towards unsustainable consumption and reluctance towards brands’ purpose-driven initiatives. It proposes strategies to mitigate the negative effects of materialism on environmental concerns, emphasizing the importance of aligning with materialistic values. The study explores perceived value across various dimensions and highlights the role of scarcity in appealing to materialistic consumers. By integrating consumer psychology insights, it investigates the interaction between scarcity and prosocial attributes in shaping ethical behavior. Her dissertation contributes to promoting sustainability among materialistic consumers. Ultimately, it aims to inform strategic advertising approaches and foster more ethical consumption patterns aligned with materialistic values. Kim will be joining Millikin University in Illinois in fall 2024 as an assistant professor of marketing.
- Katie Knight and her advisor Chancellor’s Professor Suzie Allard, School of Information Sciences. Knight’s dissertation focused on the role of fundamental epistemological questions in creating systems to manage and analyze scientific data. Knight proposed a novel theoretical framework for explicating unstated assumptions in scientific data sets. This provides a basis for any future work on formalizing and operationalizing these unstated assumptions, which is especially significant as science progresses toward increased automation and use of machine learning for analysis and decision-based outcomes. Knight has been working at Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the past 10 years. She started as a metadata librarian and has gradually transitioned to a position in high performance computing and data engineering, where she currently works on large-scale data management and analytics within the Research Computing Support Division.
- Kibum Youn and his advisor Professor Eric Haley, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. Youn’s dissertation examines the reasons and mechanisms behind the positive impact of data-driven advertising on consumers’ judgment processes along with product types. It proposes the optimal level of personalized information that can be utilized in data-driven advertising while minimizing the unintended triggering of consumers’ privacy risks, which may lead to negative evaluations. The study investigated the dynamic relationships between the degree of ad personalization and consumers’ attitudes toward data-driven advertising, considering the moderating role of product types and the mediating roles of both perceived benefits of ad relevance and perceived risks stemming from the invasion of privacy. The results of this study contribute to the literature on data-driven advertising and privacy concerns by offering new insights into how and why data-driven advertising influences consumers’ psychological evaluations differently. Youn will be starting a new position as a full-time, tenure-track Associate Professor of Marketing in the Department of Business Administration, which is housed in the College of Business at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, beginning in the fall semester of 2024.
Celebrating CCI Board of Visitors Professorships
This endowed professorship was made possible by generous gifts from several current and past members of the CCI Board of Visitors. It was established to reward and recognize outstanding CCI faculty whose research and creative activity, teaching, and academic and professional service have uniquely contributed to the mission of their school, the college, and the university. CCI is recognizing excellence across tenure-track faculty ranks by awarding two Board of Visitors Professorships for a three-year term. One professorship will be awarded to a tenured faculty member, which is consistent with prior college practice. To recognize exceptional performance among CCI’s tenure-track faculty, one professorship will be awarded to an assistant professor with at least three years of completed service in CCI.
- Professor Eric Haley, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations, is the first recipient and his career has spanned over 32 years at the University of Tennessee. He has published regularly in every major advertising journal: Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Interactive Advertising, and Journal of Advertising Research. In this academic year alone, he has published five articles in these journals, showcasing his outstanding record of research, publication, and scholarly achievement. In 2023, he received the American Academy of Advertising Ivan L. Preston Award for career-long outstanding contribution to advertising research. He continues to teach at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, directing sixteen dissertations since 2004. With this professorship, he plans to support his ongoing work in three research areas over the next three years in political advertising literacy, purpose advertising, and industry issues.
- The second recipient is Assistant Professor Ben Horne, who has established a strong record of interdisciplinary, high-impact research. In his nearly four years of being at UT, he has published twelve journal papers, three computing conference papers, two workshop papers, two dataset papers, and five non-computing conference papers. In total, his work has been cited 1,719 times, with 1,185 of those citations happening during his time at UT. His curated data sets are widely used by other researchers, with 22,559 downloads. Within the Computational Social Science community, he is known as an expert in disinformation, particularly in fringe news media. His research crosses many disciplinary boundaries, providing CCI visibility both within and outside of its core disciplines. His work has been published in venues from computer science, business, social sciences, psychology, communications, and complex systems, and collaborations with researchers from thirteen other universities. The interdisciplinary nature of his research is exemplified by his additional affiliations across campus. He has a joint appointment in the data science and engineering program within The Bredesen Center and has an affiliation with the Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs within The Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs. He serves as a fellow with CCI’s Information Integrity Institute and serves on several other committees across his area of study. His teaching provides high-quality education with an emphasis on practical skills and student job placement. The funds from the professorship will be used to conduct at least three studies on the appropriateness of automated content labeling and its alternatives. These funded studies will then be used to secure external funding from agencies such as NSF and The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation.
Celebrating Faculty and Staff Award Recipients
Every year, CCI honors the work and commitment of faculty and staff with awards, and this year CCI has revised and expanded its awards to align with the college’s strategic vision. This year, those award recipients are:
The Innovation in Student Success Award recognizes excellence in delivering and broadening academic opportunities. The winner also demonstrates commitment to innovation, equity, and accessibility for academics through a strong and visible commitment to student success. There are two recipients of this award this year.
The first recipient, Assistant Professor Mustafa Oz, School of Journalism and Media, is committed to fostering an academic environment that encourages student excellence and engages them in innovative educational experiences beyond traditional learning. He demonstrates outstanding performance in education through high student evaluations and peer reviews. He has developed and taught innovative courses including Communicating with Data and Audience Analytics, which have received positive feedback from students and colleagues. The nominee’s efforts have led to increased student engagement, retention, and enrollment in his classes. He also enhanced academic accessibility by attending workshops and implementing inclusive teaching strategies. Additionally, he leads a study abroad program in Valencia, Spain, providing students with valuable internships and cultural experiences. Oz’s comprehensive efforts across these areas not only demonstrate his unwavering commitment to student success but also reflect his belief in the transformative power of education. He is deeply invested in continuing to develop and implement strategies that enhance our students’ academic journeys, prepare them for future challenges, and foster a lifelong love of learning.
The second recipient is Whitney Mattson, associate director in the CCI Office of Undergraduate Programs and Advising. As a committed member of our college, she has consistently demonstrated an unwavering focus on student success and a strong work ethic that sets her apart. Her dedication to improving the advisor training process has been instrumental in enhancing the support system for both students and advisors alike. Mattson has taken the initiative to not only excel professionally as an academic advisor but also to actively engage in initiatives aimed at improving the overall student experience. An example of her commitment is her role as a change agent for the university’s new CRM, Salesforce. She has been involved in process development and design since the beginning of the program’s development and will serve to assist in training and onboarding our staff. In addition to supervising the advisors within the college, she carries an advising load of approximately 70-100 students each semester. She also has a passion for working with student athletes and collaborates with the Thornton Center academic counselors to help our student athletes excel in their chosen majors. She has worked very hard to develop rapport and ongoing relationships with student-athletes and their academic counselors. This has helped to increase our student-athletes’ success. What truly sets her apart is her ability to combine academic advising excellence with a genuine passion for helping others succeed. She consistently goes above and beyond expectations, taking on leadership roles and actively seeking out opportunities to make a positive impact within our college.
This Making a Difference through Research and Creative Achievement Award recognizes excellence in research and creative achievement. The recipient of this award demonstrates commitment to meaningful rigorous research or creative achievement that develops new knowledge or provides new insights to help advance innovative solutions to challenges for our disciplines, our communities, and our society.
The recipient of this year’s award is Assistant Professor Matthew Pittman, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. There are different ways to measure meaningful research achievement; and he has met many of them. He uses and expands dual-processing theories, social judgment theory, processing fluency, and accountability to increase sustainable consumption. Per Google Scholar, his work has already garnered 2,507 citations—with seventeen of his articles on the h-index. Since 2015, he has published twenty-five peer-reviewed journal articles across the top outlets in his field, including all big five advertising journals. He has co-authored a methods book and has more articles under review. He is the sole author of four of the articles and the lead author of eighteen. He has presented at least two papers yearly at national and international conferences. He is an associate editor at the International Journal of Advertising and sits on the review board of several other journals. He is also on two large NIH grant proposals currently under review. These quantitative metrics are but one way to show the impact and influence of his work. He does all this while regularly publishing with graduate students, winning our college’s faculty and student collaboration research award. He received a UT Teaching Support Award Grant to run social media ads to promote non-profits with another PhD student. That work has earned him a Green Fee Award for sustainability research, several generous CCI grants over the years, and UT’s 2020 Graduate Professor of the Year. His research is impressive enough to nominate on its own merit, but his creative activity is also worth mentioning. To give students in his social media class experience making popular videos, they create content for TikTok and Instagram to see what will be successful. Many of his videos have gone viral and earned a lot of exposure for CCI and UT. What the extensive list of accomplishments and achievements does not capture is the fact that he accomplishes all of this with the utmost collegiality, a contagious energy, and a genuine investment in his students as well as advertising research and education.
The Access and Engagement Initiatives Award recognizes extraordinary efforts to progress and sustain a nurturing college culture through innovative and impactful access and engagement efforts. As a cornerstone in developing the next generation of Vols, CCI faculty and staff who embrace these efforts to make a difference are celebrated with this award.
This year’s recipient is Dionne George, Tombras Program Manager in the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations and CCI’s Interim Director of Access and Engagement. She works every day, to make our university community—and far beyond—more diverse and equitable. The energy in her work is matched only by the passion in her belief we can make a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community. She works to address underrepresentation in majors of the Tombras School through its unique and innovative Tombras Program and to create a more inclusive atmosphere. She takes an intentional and proactive approach to DE&I, engaging early at the pre-collegiate level. Central to her approach for the Tombras School is providing educational and professional development opportunities for underrepresented youth who may not have otherwise been afforded them through strategic interventions and opportunities. She engages with high school teachers from Flagship high schools to support their efforts to stay current with theoretical and industry applications to integrate into their lessons. These efforts reach a broad audience of underrepresented students as well as first generation students for whom college otherwise may not be considered and expose them to a possible, tangible career path. This recipient started a new mentoring program designed for both the students and their mentors to provide a more inclusive professional development mentoring experience for our students. This 8-month program connects ADPR students with professional advocates to provide encouragement and support during the junior and senior years of college. In this past year alone, her efforts reached 146 middle school students, 1,202 high school students, and 29 high school teachers and counselors.
The Innovation and Collaboration Award recognizes excellence in leading innovative solutions or building meaningful collaborations that improve processes for the college, university, or society. The recipient demonstrates vision to create innovative ideas and/or build collaborations that serve the CCI community or the broader community-at-large. This award will be given to two individuals this year.
The first recipient is Associate Professor Moonhee Choo, Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. She has demonstrated a commitment to pioneering initiatives and fostering partnerships that drive positive change. As an international scholar, she consistently encourages students to seize opportunities in enhancing their intercultural competency by stepping out of their comfort zone and expanding their horizon. Recognizing that virtual exchange programs are critical educational tools for 21st century skill development and global competency building and acknowledging that only a small percentage of students can afford to participate in study abroad programs, she adopted the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) program in spring 2022, which was sponsored by the Central Asia University Partnerships Program. This marked the inception of the first-ever COIL program at the university. Since then, she has been closely involved as a COIL ambassador to the university community, presenting the COIL ideas and experiences at various on campus and national conferences. In addition to COIL, she is also actively involved in various collaborative opportunities working with the Center for Global Engagement. In the summer of 2022, she was a part of UT delegation for the global outreach and engagement during the June 2022 UT Asia trip. Since the visit, she has been diligently working with both the universities and business to foster and enhance relationships for potential collaborations. These efforts aim to broaden the university’s visibility, promote faculty research collaboration, and increase student engagement opportunities. This recipient has embraced various innovation and collaboration research opportunities as well. She has been actively involved in several collaborative research projects within the institution and other multi-institutions securing some research grants. She was nominated to be a member of UT’s Expanding Horizon cohort for 2023-2024 and has actively sought multiple research opportunities to broaden her research within a potentially convergent research context, focusing on purpose/impact-driven communication. Her experience in spearheading innovative initiatives and cultivating strategic collaborations makes her well-suited for the CCI Innovation and Collaboration Award. She is deeply committed to driving positive change through creativity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
The next recipient for this award is Amy Forrester, assistant director of the CCI Research and Innovation Center. She regularly contributes innovative ideas to improve RIC processes to better serve our faculty, staff, and students, and she is key to building and maintaining relationships with our CCI research community partners. She has led several innovative processes for RIC and provided the energy to bring them to reality. This individual was key during the development of the initial concept for RIC’s Knowledge Clips proposal to CCI’s Strategic Initiative Plan program in spring 2023. During the proposal brainstorming session, she provided ideas about how the series could be designed, built, and measured. When the project was funded, she took over as the “product owner” developing the timeline for development of the modules including managing team input and coordination with OIT. RIC’s Knowledge Clips have been online since December 2023. It has also been shared with the Office of Research, Innovation and Economic Development, with one member of the ORIED team noting “CCI beat us to it. Just want to tell you how much I love this!!” It has received similar enthusiastic reception from associate deans for research from across the campus. This recipient is process driven and has a keen eye for identifying process gaps that need a solution to provide a more seamless and efficient experience for our CCI research community. She created the online forms for the Graduate Student Completion Fund and the Faculty Research Innovation Fund application process. These forms allow students and faculty to apply for these funds in a fast, easy fashion so their time is optimized. During the RIC strategic planning exercise, RIC learned that they needed a better way to understand how workflows through the team time across the various services RIC provides. This individual designed an internal activity tracking system that we use to better understand our workflows. She has also embraced the one of the unique aspects of being the assistant director, developing and maintaining positive working relationships with RIC’s external partners including, but not limited to, those at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Information. Each of these groups requires a different approach for interaction and she has developed strategies to communicate effectively with each. She exemplifies the spirit of innovation and collaboration in all she does at the center and in her service to CCI.
Th Volunteer Spirit Award recognizes a full-time CCI staff member for strong work ethic, positive attitude, strong work efficiency and productivity, and notable service to constituents in the College of Communication and Information. This year’s recipient is Mike Schaffer, financial associate in the Office of Finance, Administration, and Operations. Since he joined the team at CCI, he has developed a solid reputation for being open to new, sometimes temporary, roles within the Office of Finance, Administration, and Operations, and various CCI units. He has willingly shouldered the administrative responsibilities of multiple units across the college, and at the same time to fill gaps made by departing employees. He did so without a whisper of trepidation. While all the units have different needs, he was able to serve all of them well and with accuracy. He took time to quickly develop new skills to accommodate differences, all while having a positive attitude that we have come to enjoy. His sunny disposition is a credit to OFA and the units he serves. In addition, in his normal course of duties he has gone above and beyond his normal tasks by developing a habit of seeing each person he helps as an individual with unique strengths and abilities. He tailors his interactions with others with those in mind and makes a point to interact in person rather than strictly relying on email. Beyond this, he is always the first to and often is the last to depart.
The Career Achievement Award honors individuals who have made sustained and systematic contributions to the College of Communication and Information. This award is intended to recognize full-time CCI faculty and staff members who have made outstanding, sustained contributions over the course of their career and who have called CCI home for the majority of their career. As such, nominees must have served as a full-time faculty or staff member of CCI for at least 20 years.
This year’s recipient is Professor Rob Heller, who began his career in the School of Journalism and Media in 1986. This year marks his 38th year at UT. He is a phenomenal educator with an emphasis on creative media, specifically photojournalism, and graphics. For thirty years, he has led the Eyes on LaFollette” project. There are more than 500 total students who had their time in the School of Journalism and Media positively impacted by his leadership. There is quite possibly no better hands-on, experiential learning opportunity in our college than Eyes on Lafollette, and he has made this happen for over thirty years. The tremendous outreach that he brings to the school, college, and university with his creative work focused on Holocaust survivors via his Living On: Portraits of Tennessee Survivors and Liberators book and photo galleries. He also serves on countless committees across campus and beyond with major contributions of service to all. He also received the Dr. Gilya Schmidt Endowed Faculty Award in Judaic Studies this May.
Celebrating CCI Retirements
Professor Mariea Hoy has served the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations for 35 years. She is nationally and internationally known as an expert in advertising policy, privacy, and consumer well-being. She has created a valuable connection between academia and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission through an extensive publication record and numerous presentations to the FTC in Washington, D.C. Hoy was awarded the Inaugural DeForrest Jackson Professorship in 2017, which recognized her outstanding scholarly contributions to the field as well as her excellence in the classroom. She was also appointed in the first cohort of Information Integrity Institute Fellows. Hoy has received numerous awards for her excellence in teaching along with several prestigious research honors. She has received consistently excellent evaluations for her instruction of undergraduate and graduate courses in advertising research, campaigns, management, principles, consumer behavior, and promotional management, with a special expertise in advertising and society and advertising issues.
Professor Virginia Kupritz, School of Communication Studies, has also served as CCI’s associate dean for academic programs and graduate studies since 2019. Her academic and professional career spans 30 plus years across several universities both in the US and abroad as a professor, administrator, and consultant. She is nationally and internationally known for her expertise in workplace privacy. She has over fifty publications that include original contributions to privacy, such as her environmental privacy theory that incorporates a systems perspective of privacy. Kupritz was awarded the Inaugural William H. Swain Professorship in 2016, recognizing an outstanding record of research, teaching, and service. She was also awarded the highest teaching award at the university, the UT Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her honors and research awards also include first place research awards in communication and workplace aging issues and online instruction and learning. Her leadership roles at UT include serving as the acting director and associate director for the School of Communication Studies, and her current role as associate dean of graduate programs. Kupritz has served as principal investigator on multiple grants and contracts, graduate coordinator for several programs, committee chair and member for multiple master’s and doctoral students, and an editorial board member for several leading journals. She also served on a board of directors for three years as the network chair, in which she oversaw thirty-four network divisions for an international research association. Kupritz has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in organizational communication and ethnographic research methods. Her passion and commitment to teaching are the same today as they were when she was awarded the UT Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
CCI Recognizes 2024 Retirees, Students, and Award Winners written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.