WMU News

Communication scholar addresses gender and leadership

March 7, 2001

KALAMAZOO -- One of the leading national experts in the field of communication, Dr. Judy C. Pearson, will explore the links between gender and leadership during a presentation at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 21, in the West Ballroom of the Bernhard Center at Western Michigan University.

Pearson's talk, "Gender and Leadership: The Perils and Promises for the New Millennium," is the last presentation in WMU Keystone Leadership Society's 2000-01 speaker/workshop series and is free and open to the public.

A professor of human development and associate dean of the Graduate School of Virginia Tech Northern Virginia Center, Pearson is widely regarded as one of the nation's outstanding female education executives and leading communication scholars. The Director of Virginia Tech's Northern Virginia Center from 1995 to 1999, she also has held a number of positions at Ohio University, Iowa State University, Indiana University-Purdue University in Fort Wayne, Ind., Indiana University and Bradley University.

Her academic research specializes in families, love, raising children, gender differences and anti-social behavior in young adults. She is the author or coauthor of 17 books, including "Lasting Love: What Keeps Couples Together," "Marriage after Mourning: The Secrets of Surviving Couples" and "Gender and Communication."

Pearson's research has appeared in more than 250 newspapers and a dozen magazines and her television credits include the PBS series "Love and Marriage;" CNN's "Early Prime," ABC's "Sunday Evening News," "CBS This Morning," and the syndicated "Jenny Jones" and "Sally Jesse Raphael" shows.

The current president-elect of the National Communication Association, Pearson was named the 1995 Scholar of the Year by the Central States Communication Association, which also awarded her its Outstanding Young Teacher Award in 1977. She is also former secretary-general and president of the World Communication Association.

Media contact: Marie Lee, 616 387-8400, marie.lee@wmich.edu


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