University News
Roberta Davilla Named WIU Communication Chair
May 15, 2007
MACOMB, IL - - Roberta A. Davilla has been named the chair of Western Illinois University's communication department, effective July 1, according the College of Fine Arts and Communication (COFAC) Dean Paul Kreider.
Davilla succeeds Kenneth Hawkinson, who has served as department chair since 1998 and in July 2005 accepted additional duties as the COFAC associate dean. Hawkinson will continue as the COFAC associate dean.
"We are pleased to have a person of Dr. Davilla's caliber in the chair position," Kreider said. "She brings excellent credentials and experiences to the department and programs. We look forward to working with her; she surely makes an excellent addition to our administrative team."
Davilla comes to Western from the University of Northern Iowa, where she was an associate professor of communication. Davilla, who started at Northern Iowa in 1994, also served as UNI's graduate coordinator from 2001-2005. She served as president of the Central States Communication Association (2003-2004); she has served on several editorial boards including The Journal of Family Communication, Communication Teacher and Communication Studies; and she was editor of the Iowa Journal of Communication.
Her latest research has involved textbook features and effective student learning, the adolescent as a television consumer and the development of paperless assignments and activities in her classes. She has presented papers and has been a panelist and respondent at more than 40 conferences, has authored four and co-authored four instructors' manuals and workbooks, has written several articles for professional journals and authored and co-authored seven book chapters. Davilla's teaching areas include interpersonal and small group communication, communication theories, qualitative research methods and the basic communication course.
Davilla's previous teaching roles include faculty associate Monmouth (IL) College speech communication and theatre arts department (1982-1989); graduate assistant and adjunct faculty in the School of Interpersonal Communication at Ohio University (1989-1992); assistant professor in the department of communication and creative arts at Purdue University Calumet (1992-1993); and visiting assistant professor in the department of communication at Miami University (1993-1994).
Born in Burlington, IA, and raised in west-central Illinois, Davilla earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in general studies, with an emphasis in sociology, political science and communication from Monmouth (IL) College (1977); her Master's of Science degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University (1979); and her Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication from Ohio University (1992).
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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