Scott Talan, M.P.A.

Scott Talan, MPA, has worked in media, PR, and communications in four distinct fields: TV News, Politics, Nonprofits and Higher Education. Scott worked at the United Nations, Harvard University and the New Mexico Legislature. He recently served as the Director of Communications for the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs.

Talan has worked as a writer at ABC News Good Morning America for hosts Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson. He’s also reported on-air for local TV news stations in several states (Florida, New Mexico, California) covering politics including the 2000 presidential recount story.

Before news, Talan was as an elected city council member and Mayor of Lafayette, California. His first career was in nonprofit communications working for the March of Dimes.

Talan received his Master in Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, studied broadcast journalism at Stanford after getting his BA from the University of California at Davis.

Prior to joining American University Scott was an adjunct faculty member at George Washington and Johns Hopkins.

Degrees
BA, University of California Davis; MA Public Administration, Harvard University; Broadcast Journalism Certificate, Stanford

Caty Borum Chattoo, M.A.

Caty Borum Chattoo, a faculty member at the AU School of Communication, is a strategic communication professional and documentary producer. Most recently, she was a senior vice president in the D.C. office of a global communications agency, where she directed issues-focused campaigns utilizing digital, social and traditional media.

Prior to this work, Caty was a longtime collaborator with TV/film producer and philanthropist, Norman Lear, as special projects director and senior producer at the USC Norman Lear Center in Los Angeles; and as a founding director, strategist and media spokesperson for Lear’s Declare Yourself, a national youth civic engagement campaign. She also served as a program officer in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Entertainment Media & Public Health program, where she collaborated on partnership TV specials and public health campaigns with MTV and BET. Caty has produced documentary feature films and TV series, as well as short-subject documentary films for issue-advocacy organizations, and she currently serves as a strategic communication consultant and producer with independent broadcaster Link TV.

Degrees
BA in Communication Studies, Virginia Tech; MA in communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.

Pallavi Kumar, M.A.

Pallavi Damani Kumar joined the Public Communication division in 2009 as an assistant professor after teaching as an adjunct faculty member since 2002. An AU alumna, Kumar has more than 15 years experience in public relations. Most recently, she worked at Fleishman Hillard as a vice president in their social marketing practice. While there, she worked on a social marketing campaign for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. Previously, Kumar was an associate director of international public relations at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, where she led international public relations activities for several products. Prior to joining Wyeth, as vice president/account supervisor in Ketchum Public Relations’ healthcare practice, Kumar was responsible for developing strategic communication plans, implementing consumer media campaigns, coordinating media events, serving as the client contact and managing an account team.

Degrees
B.A., CLEG and Public Communication, American University (magna cum laude); Master’s, Public Relations/Corporate Communications, Georgetown University

Lauren Feldman, Ph.D.

Lauren Feldman joined the SOC faculty in 2008 after receiving a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research interests focus on political communication and media effects, with an emphasis on how less traditional sources of political information, like late-night comedy and opinionated cable news programs, shape citizens’ engagement with and understanding of politics. Her research has been supported by grants from the Carnegie-Knight Task Force on Journalism and published in a number of edited volumes and peer-reviewed journals, including Communication Research, Political Communication, and Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism.

Degrees
BA English, Duke University; MA Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania; PhD Communication, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Yong C. Lee

Yong Lee is a graduate of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he received a B.S. in Information Systems. A former software developer, he currently directs Social Media Club for Education (SMCEDU), an initiative that seeks to advance social media in higher education. He hosts a weekly Twitter chat on these topics every Monday at 12:30pmET under the #smcedu hashtag. Yong also serves as a project assistant in the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) at Georgetown University.

Easten Law, M.A.

Easten Law teaches cross-cultural communication and topics in intercultural studies for the Washington Semester Program at American University. His research focuses on comparative studies between Eastern and Western cultures with a current interest in how Christian, Buddhist, and Confucian traditions interact in forming China’s cultural views of charity and human rights. He has worked in China for several years in a variety of capacities including teaching and lecturing in communication and culture at Anhui Normal University. He has also provided trainings and lectures in cross-cultural dynamics for several organizations such as the US State Department, and both international and local Chinese non-profits responding to the earthquake which struck Southwest China in 2008.

Degrees
MA Intercultural Studies, BA Communication, BA Spiritual Formation, Wheaton College.

Derrick L. Cogburn, Ph.D.

Derrick L. Cogburn is Associate Professor of International Relations at the School of International Service at American University, and Associate Professor of Information at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. He is also executive director of the Center for Research on Collaboratories and Technology Enhanced Learning Communities (COTELCO), an award-winning social science research center at American University and Syracuse University, and the executive director of the Institute on Disability and Public Policy (IDPP).

Dr. Cogburn is also a principal and member of the Scientific Committee of the Internet Governance Project; founding board member and former Vice Chair of the Global Internet Governance Academic Network (GigaNet); and a faculty member of the Syracuse University Africa Initiative. He also serves on the Committee of Visitors for the National Science Foundation, Office of Cyberinfrastructure. Previously, Dr. Cogburn was on the faculty at the School of Information at the University of Michigan, and the Executive Director of GIIC Africa for the Global Information Infrastructure Commission. He is the past president of the Information Technology and Politics section of the American Political Science Association (APSA), as well as past president of the International Communication section of the International Studies Association (ISA). In addition, Dr. Cogburn has served as an adjunct professor at the International School of Information Management at the University of Mysore in southern India; and as adjunct professor at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr. Cogburn is the editor of the Information Technology and Global Governance book series at Palgrave Macmillan. He has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, two edited books, seven book chapters, over 31 peer-reviewed conference proceedings, 21 working papers and public scholarship, and has delivered over 68 invited lectures and conference presentations nationally and 37 internationally.

His research and teaching includes: global information and communication technology and socio-economic development; institutional mechanisms for global governance of ICTs; transnational policy networks and epistemic communities; and the socio-technical infrastructure for geographically distributed collaboration in knowledge work.

Degrees
PhD and MD Political Science, International Relations, Political Economy, Comparative Politics, Howard University; BA History (Africa), University of Oklahoma

Dr. Gwanhoo Lee

Dr. Gwanhoo Lee is an Associate Professor of Information Technology Management in the Kogod School of Business at the American University, Washington, DC. He earned his doctorate in management information systems from the University of Minnesota. He is also the Director of the Center for IT and the Global Economy (CITGE) at the American University in which senior IT executives from the public and private sectors engage in collaborative research programs.

Dr. Lee’s research areas include project management, social media and Web 2.0, open government, technology adoption, IT-enabled open innovation, software development agility and complexity, and distributed software teams. His research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, European Journal of Information Systems, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Information Technology and People, IEEE Pervasive Computing, and Journal of Information Technology Management. In addition, his articles have appeared in CIO magazine, IGM Business Review, IBM Center for the Business of Government monograph series, and American Society for Quality. He was the runner-up for the best paper award for OCIS division in Academy of Management Meeting in 2007.

Dr. Lee conducted a study commissioned by IBM Center for the Business of Government. His study investigated how federal government agencies in general and Department of Health and Human Services in particular can best harness the power of social media to engage the public for their governing processes. Dr. Lee recently won a research grant award from IBM Center for the Business of Government to study how U.S. federal government can engage the public through ICT in reforming its organizational structure, administrative processes, data, systems, and rules.

Dr. Lee is a recipient of European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Scholarship, UPS Scholarship, IBM research grants, Kogod Endowed Fellowship, Juran Fellow, and several teaching and research awards. He was a visiting professor at MIP Business School of Politecnico di Milano, Italy in June 2011. Through various capacities, he has consulted and worked closely with senior IT executives from a number of organizations including 3M, A.G. Edwards, Amtrak, American Red Cross, Cargill, Computech, CSC Consulting, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Deloitte, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, Freddie Mac, General Motors, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, IBM, LG CNS, Marriott, Medtronic, Northwest Airlines, Pillsbury, Samsung Electronics, Samsung SDS, SAP America, St. Paul Companies, and World Bank.

Stef Woods

Stef Woods is a sexuality educator, writer, attorney, and breast cancer survivor and advocate. She teaches Activism and Social Media, Health and Activism, and Sexuality and Social Media through the American Studies Department (CAS). Stef writes about relationships, sexuality, dating, health advocacy and cancer on her website, City Girl’s Blog. Prior to starting her blog, she practiced law for an immigration legal services organization.

Stef was profiled regarding electronic health records on HealthIT.gov and as a breast cancer survivor on Women’s Health magazine’s website. She has been featured on DC news and radio stations, and in numerous online publications and talk shows. She was profiled in the fourth edition of Dr. Janell Carroll’s college textbook, Sexuality Now, and Sibley Hospital’s On Health magazine.

Stef is a frequent panelist, regarding sexuality, cancer, relationships, and social media. She is an active fundraiser for the Washington Humane Society, St. Jude and the Capital Breast Care Center.

Stef received her BA from Wellesley College, her MA from Georgetown University, and her JD from American University. She is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists, the American Bar Association and the Maryland State Bar Association. Follow her on Twitter @citygirlblogs, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Jill Klein

Professor Klein brings more than 30 years of IT and banking management experience to the classroom. She currently directs the Professional MBA program and serves as an Information Technology Executive in Residence at the Kogod School of Business. She teaches at the graduate and undergraduate level, and enjoys developing courses that provide students with “live client” projects and resources. She co-chairs the Kogod Information Technology Executive Council, comprised of 20 corporate and government CIOs. Prior to joining Kogod, Professor Klein worked at JP Morgan, IBM, Riggs Bank, The Advisory Board and managed her own IT consulting firm.

Itir Karaesmen Aydin

B.S. and M.S. in Industrial Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, TURKEY; M.Phil. and PhD in Management Science, Columbia University, New York, USA