Tim Kiska joined the UM-D faculty in 2001 after more than 30 years in journalism.  He began his career at the Detroit Free Press in 1970, where he covered Wayne County government, the automotive business, the downriver suburbs, and worked as an investigative reporter.  He worked as a columnist at the Detroit News between 1987 and 2002. Kiska also conducted exit polls and election night projections for Detroit television stations, beginning in 1974.  In 2005, he was the only analyst to correctly project Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's victory.  He earned his M.A. and PhD in history from Wayne State University.  He is married to Patricia Anstett, a Detroit Free Press medical writer. They have three children.

Carolyn Kraus, a specialist in narrative journalism and nonfiction prose, has an MA from Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan-AnnArbor. Her work has appeared in academic, literary, and general audience publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, Partisan Review, and The Antioch Review. Her courses in memoir, travel writing, narrative journalism, and magazine feature writing are cross-listed in Communications and English. She also teaches in the Honors and Masters in Liberal Studies programs, and directs the Humanities/History Internship Program.

Rashmi Luthra received her Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She has lived, studied and worked in India, the Philippines and the United States.  She has published numerous articles in communication journals and edited collections.  She teaches and does research in the areas of International Communication, Gender and Media Studies and Critical Media Studies, as part of the Public Culture and Communication Studies discipline.  She has directed the Communication program and the Women's Studies program on campus.  She has also provided leadership in the field by serving as Chair of the Feminist Scholarship Division of the International Communication Association and Honorary Editor for UNESCO's (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems.

Wayne Woodward is Associate Professor of Communication.  His academic degrees include a B.A. in Humanistic Studies and an M.A. in Fiction Writing, both from The Johns Hopkins University, and the Ph.D. in Communication from the Institute of Communications Research of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. At UMD, he has taught in the areas of communication ethics, communication research, organizational communication, environmental communication, international communication, critical media studies, and public relations. His research concentrates on communication theory and
philosophy of communication, with emphases on technology, culture, and society; dialogue; mental health communication; communication and philosophical pragmatism. Published work has appeared in such journals as Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Communication Theory, Cultural Studies, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Cultural Studies € Critical Methodologies. He is currently helping to initiate a new curriculum at UMD in Public Communication and Culture Studies. His overall career includes 18 years of full-time experience as writer, research director and account manager for public relations and marketing consulting firms and for numerous higher educational institutions.

Charlie Meyers received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication from Wayne State University in Detroit, and a B.A. in Communication/Film Aesthetics and History from Oakland University in Rochester, MI.  She studied 16mm film production at NYU, and has taught courses in film, storytelling and animation, video production, mass communication, speech, composition, and women’s studies at Wayne State University, Henry Ford Community College, CCS, IADT, UM-Flint and here at UM-D.  In addition to being a Lecturer II, she also holds a position as Manager of the Communications Audio/Video Labs and TV Studio.   From its inception, she has been involved in UM-D’s partnership with OACES Schools, providing instruction in filmmaking and digital storytelling to middle-school students from Detroit. She is the faculty advisor for Campus Video (student organization); and is the Director of the Michigan Film and Video Festival, the nation’s first and oldest film festival for children K-12.

Ivan Kernisky earned his Ph.D. in 1984 (Wayne State University) with a concentration in radio, television, film, and a minor in statistical evaluation.  He has an eclectic background in media production, conference presentations, publications. He is the recipient of six awards amongst them radio journalism, and documentary film.  In other related professional experiences Ivan was an associate in the firm Canadian Social Research, a radio news producer, and an independent documentary videographer.  Ivan's research focus is the critical analysis of methodological procedures in information gathering and dissemination.