Jessica Jameson Named Head, Department of Communication

NC State’s Department of Communication will welcome Jessica Jameson as head, effective July 1, 2019.

Jameson served as the department’s associate head and director of undergraduate programs from 2006-2013. She teaches undergraduate courses in organizational communication, conflict management, public relations and nonprofit leadership. She is a member of the graduate faculty and a core member of the doctoral program in Communication, Rhetoric and Digital Media. A recipient of NC State University’s Outstanding Teaching Award and the Alumni Association Outstanding Teaching Award, Jameson has been inducted into the Academy of Outstanding Teachers. The College of Humanities and Social Sciences nominated her for the 2018-2019 Board of Governors’ Teaching Award.

She is a 2019 Senior Lady Davis Fellow and is spending two months working with students and faculty in the Department of Communication and the Swiss Center for Conflict Research, Management and Resolution at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel.

Jameson, who received her Ph.D. in Communication from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, conducts, presents and publishes interdisciplinary research related to organizational communication and conflict management with colleagues in NC State’s Colleges of Design, Education and Management, as well as with her college’s political science and public administration departments. 

She is a Community Engaged Faculty Fellow and an affiliated faculty member with NC State’s Institute for Nonprofit Research, Education and Engagement. She serves as a mediator for NC State’s Employee Mediation Program, and has facilitated mediation training for faculty and college administrators. She has worked with NC State’s Laboratory for Analytic Sciences since 2014. Her professional activities include faculty development related to service-learning and community-based scholarship; workshops on conflict management, interdisciplinary collaboration, and leadership; and  facilitating team planning sessions for nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Jameson takes over the department’s leadership from Ken Zagacki, who will return to the faculty after serving as head with energy and distinction for 12 years.

The Department of Communication is one of the largest departments on NC State’s campus, with an average yearly count of 750 undergraduate majors and some 70 full- or part-time graduate students. The department offers three areas of specialization for undergraduates; a master’s program; an interdisciplinary doctoral program; and several professional certificates.