Dr. May Al-Khaja is an associate professor of mass communication at UAE University. She is the first Emirati who specialized in public relations and advertising in her bachelor, master and doctoral degrees from Cairo University.

Dr. May’s research interests include public relations, public opinion mass communication issues, social marketing communication, crisis management, women in media and health promotion. She has published extensively in both Arabic and English journals including Public Relations Review, Social Affairs Journal, Egyptian Journal of Communication, Egyptian Journal of Public Opinion and Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences.

She has served as a visiting scholar at Ohio State University and the University of Iowa. Dr. May’s 2008 AUSACE conference paper on Arabic Cultural Communication Practices in an Interconnected World won a top paper award.

Mian Asim, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Communication and Media Sciences, holds over ten years of professional experience in advertising media planning and strategic communication planning as well as teaching experience at university level.

His research focus is on the effective use of religious symbols in advertising messages.

He is also interested in assessing the moderating roles of religiosity, ethnic, and other aspects of an individual’s social identity toward evaluating message effectiveness in various online and offline environments and situations.

Dr. Asim has presented his research and won grants at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), and American Advertising Association (AAA) conferences.

Badran A. Badran, Ph.D., is Professor at the College of Communication and Media Sciences.

His academic administrative experience at ZU includes serving as Assistant Provost, Executive Assistant to the Vice President, Consultant and Acting Director of the Community Relations Department, CCMS Assistant Dean, and Accreditation Coordinator.

Prof. Badran has scholarly publications and conference participations that cover strategic communication, public relations, health and environmental communication, tourism promotion and other areas.

In addition, Prof. Badran’s expertise includes reviewing academic programs in the Arab region.

Pam Creedon, Acting Dean, College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, started her academic career at The Ohio State University where she taught advertising, public relations and journalism.

She is former director of the Kent State University (Ohio) and University of Iowa Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication.

During her directorships, both Iowa and Kent State programs were fully re-accredited by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

She has served on numerous ACEJMC Site Teams evaluating compliance. She was elected President of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, an educational association composed of some 190 JMC programs at the college and university level.

Ganga S Dhanesh (PhD, National University of Singapore), Assistant Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University, has had experience in corporate and non-profit organizations prior to joining academia.

She has published in the areas of corporate social responsibility, internal relations and strategic communication in books and journals such as Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Inquiry, Management Communication Quarterly and Journal of Communication Management.

She currently serves as Associate Editor for Journal of Communication Management.

Gaelle Picherit-Duthler, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, serves currently as the Associate Dean of the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi.

Prior to this, she served as the Graduate Program Director for the M.A. in Communications.

Duthler has written and presented several papers on issues of public relations, CSR and sustainability, organizational diversity, virtual teams, and organizational culture at regional, and international conventions.

Her works appear in Journal of Middle East Media, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication, and Public Relations Journal. Currently, she is a reviewer for the Journal of Communication Management.

Khaled Gaweesh is an associate professor of public relations & the Assistant Dean College of Communication, University of Sharjah (UoS). He received a Ph.D. in mass communication from Faculty of Mass Communication, Cairo University.

His research interests include Image studies on individual, groups, countries, and culture; and its relationship with communication, the use and effects of social media from social and political perspectives, and interdisciplinary advertising studies especially the one related to politics, culture, image and audience.

Leysan Khakimova Storie, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Communication and Media Sciences, specializes in Public Relations and Strategic Communication.

Her research focuses on international public relations, digital media, and public diplomacy. Prior to academia, she worked in corporate and non-profit communication, including international organizations.

Dr. Storie’s research has been published in International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, and Public Relations Review.

John Mark King (PhD, University of Tennessee), Professor, Department of Mass Communication, American University of Sharjah, has 31 research publications and 44 research presentations in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

His research interests include media framing, political communication and race/gender studies.

He has served as an advertising, public relations, integrated marketing communications, photojournalism, journalism and mass communication professor for 26 years at Pittsburg (Kansas) State University, Louisiana State University, East Tennessee State University, American University in the Emirates and American University of Sharjah.

Dr. King worked in newspapers, magazines, television and public relations for more than 15 years. His areas of professional expertise include integrated marketing communications, public relations, advertising, photojournalism and journalism.

Sarab Kochhar, Ph.D., is the Director of Research for the Institute for Public Relations. Dr.  Kochhar has been Director of Research with the Institute for Public Relations since 2014.

Her background includes not only significant academic achievements (including a Ph.D. degree from the University of Florida) but also significant practical experience working in public relations in her native India and in the US.

She held a major communications position with the Indian government, worked with the Oklahoma Department of Architecture and has held affiliations with Ketchum and Burson-Marsteller. She is also the associate director of measurement and analytics at APCO Worldwide.

Brian Lott is the Chief Communications Officer of Mubadala Investment Company, responsible for stewardship of the Mubadala brand and management of the Group’s corporate communications requirements.

Brian has over 25 years of experience in public relations. He joined Mubadala in 2012 after serving as Executive Director of Communications at the Advanced Technology Investment Company (ATIC), a Mubadala-owned business.

Prior to ATIC, Brian worked at global public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, where he spent ten years providing strategic guidance to the firm’s public affairs, corporate and technology clients.

Tina McCorkindale, Ph.D., APR, is the President and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations, an independent research nonprofit founded in 1956 devoted to research that matters to the profession.

She taught as a professor for 15 years, and has more than 10 years of experience working in corporate communication and analytics.

She has more than 125 presentations and academic publications in books and journals with her research broadly focusing on aspects of digital media.

She is active and serves in leadership positions in several industry groups and serves on the editorial review board of several academic journals. She lives in Seattle, Washington.

As Associate Dean of the Mohammed Bin Rashid School for Communication (MBRSC) for six years, Dr. Carol Melhem-Moufarrej has thoroughly enjoyed her role as a mentor, a team leader, and a researcher.

She spearheaded the MBRSC’s accreditation from the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) in 2015.

Among other things, she has helped organize and host the first Asian Media Information and Communication Center (AMIC) conference in the Middle East. Dr. Melhem-Moufarrej’s research interests converge around health communication having written several conference papers that were presented at the International Communication Association (ICA), the Eastern Communication Association (ECA), and recently the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR).

Mazen Nahawi is founder and president of News Group International, a global company focused on insights and stakeholder engagement.

News Group’s key subsidiaries are CARMA, a global leader in media intelligence with 1,200 clients across 43 countries, and SOCIALEYEZ, an emerging markets leader in social media engagement.

Mazen began his career as a journalist before working in senior positions in PR and management consulting.

Bey-Ling Sha, Ph.D., APR, is professor of public relations and director of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University.

She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Public Relations Research, co-author of the 11th edition of Cutlip and Center’s Effective Public Relations, member of the Arthur W. Page Society, and past chair of the Universal Accreditation Board, which oversees the world’s largest certification program in public relations

The Public Relations Society of America named Dr. Sha its 2012 Outstanding Educator of the Year, and she has won national awards for both public relations practice and research.

Dr. Sha’s primary research program examines the intersection of identity and public relations.

Nataša Slak Valek, PhD, is an Associate Professor at College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University.

Dr. Valek’s research focuses on Tourism and Tourism Marketing, and as a former professional athlete, she is interested in Sport Tourism research as well.

Her most recent work appears in Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, Tourismos and International Journal of Sustainable Society. 

She is a reviewer for the leading international journal in tourism Tourism Management and Acta Turistica.

Russell Blair Williams, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the College of Communications and Media Sciences, Zayed University.

Dr. Williams is a pioneer in the teaching of digital communication, creating and teaching the first communication-based digital media production courses in the United States at Baylor University and Penn State.

His teaching and research interests include tourism, destination image, branding and the experience and outcome of game play.

Dr. Williams also holds a U.S. Utility Patent for the design of an educational game.