As we are about to begin the 2019-2020 academic year, I am excited to share with you some very good news.

 Four members of the C&J faculty received promotions – one of which included the granting of tenure – earlier this summer.  

Dirk Gibson: Professor

As I announced last week, our longest-serving faculty member, Dr. Dirk Gibson, has been promoted to the rank of Professor. Congratulations again, Dirk, on this high honor and its recognition of your many years of service to the department, the university, and the discipline. 

Marco Briziarelli: Associate Professor with Tenure

Dr. Marco Briziarelli joined the full-time C&J faculty as Assistant Professor in 2013 after serving for a year as a part-time instructor. During his years on the UNM tenure track, he has built a national and international reputation with his groundbreaking work on critical media theories, political and social movements, and the links among them. His teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels has been hailed for its intellectual rigor. Last but not least, his service to C&J and UNM has been wide ranging, most recently including leading the successful search for our newest media/journalism faculty member, Mohammad Yousuf. Congratulations, Marco! 

Kathy Isaacson: Senior Lecturer

Dr. Kathy Isaacson joined the department as a Lecturer III in 2014, after serving for nearly a decade at C&J as a part-time instructor as well as a member of our department’s advisory board. Building on a distinguished career as a communication consultant, mediator, and mediation trainer, as well as the author of an impressive range of books and articles about communication conflict and communication leadership, Kathy quickly established herself as an indispensable member of our department. Her most visible recent contributions to C&J include serving as our online curriculum manager, director of our Managed Online Program, and faculty search committees; around the Southwest, Kathy is hailed for her ongoing strategic planning and consulting contributions to Tribal Colleges and Universities. Congratulations, Kathy! 

Cleophas Muneri: Senior Lecturer

Dr. Cleophas Muneri’s connections to UNM and the C&J, specifically, are both broad and deep. Originally from Zimbabwe, where he worked as a journalist, newspaper editor, and university-level journalism instructor, Cleophas moved to the US in 2007 to enter C&J’s doctoral program.  Upon earning his PhD, Cleophas worked as a part-time instructor on UNM’s main campus and our erstwhile UNM West outpost before joining the full-time faculty as a Lecturer III in 2014. Cleophas’s contributions to teaching, research, and service have been many and varied, as he is a teacher/scholar of journalism, intercultural communication, media studies, and organizational communication, among other areas, as well as a former Fulbright Scholar. Most recently, Cleophas served as C&J’s Public Speaking Director and Assessment Coordinator, and will be a member of a faculty search committee (details to soon be announced) this fall. Congratulations, Cleophas! 

Please join me in congratulating C&J’s newest Professor, Tenured Associate Professors, and Senior Lecturers on the recognition of their many accomplishments and contributions!

David Weiss, Ph.D. 
Department Chair and Associate Professor
Dept. of Communication & Journalism
University of New Mexico