Category: Speakers

Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, George Mason University

Dr. Jennifer Keohane teaches courses in rhetorical criticism, business communication, and public speaking at George Mason University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her expertise lies in social movement rhetoric, labor organizing, and gender. Her current research explores how advocates for the labor movement use gendered narratives to organize workers. Dr. Keohane is also invested in using rhetorical research for civic engagement, and at UW-Madison, she served as the vice president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, the labor union of graduate students on campus. In this role, she worked with university administrators to ensure compliance with campus labor regulations. She has also previously served on the Board of Directors for the Rhetoric Society of America.

Raquel DeSouza graduated in May from George Mason University with a BA in Communication, concentration in Journalism and minors in American Government and Global Affairs. She’s a local to the NoVA area and loved her four years at the Mason Nation. She was involved in Student Media with GMU’s Fourth Estate newspaper and had internships in Virginia and DC, including Northern Virginia Magazine. Raquel is looking forward to working in a creative field that harnesses her writing skills.

Dr. Jennifer Keohane teaches courses in rhetorical criticism, business communication, and public speaking at George Mason University. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her expertise lies in social movement rhetoric, labor organizing, and gender. Her current research explores how advocates for the labor movement use gendered narratives to organize workers. Dr. Keohane is also invested in using rhetorical research for civic engagement, and at UW-Madison, she served as the vice president of the Teaching Assistants’ Association, the labor union of graduate students on campus. In this role, she worked with university administrators to ensure compliance with campus labor regulations. She has also previously served on the Board of Directors for the Rhetoric Society of America.

Lisa M. Gring-Pemble is an Associate Professor in the School of Integrative Studies at George Mason University. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of St. Olaf College, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in communication from the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on political communication and social policy. She is author of Grim Fairy Tales: The Rhetorical Construction of American Welfare Policy and a co-editor of Readings on Political Communication. Her work has appeared in The Quarterly Journal of Speech, Political Communication, and Communication Quarterly.

Gring-Pemble delights in teaching undergraduates and is a George Mason University Teaching Excellence Award recipient. Recently, she served as Director and Principal Investigator for a State Department grant that brought 120 high-achieving, underserved, Afro-Latino and indigenous undergraduates from Central and South America to the United States to study U.S. History and Government and to develop long-term solutions to pressing challenges faced in their home communities.

Dr. Craig is an Assistant Professor of Communication at George Mason University. He has been a part of the university and the communications department since the fall of 2009. Dr. Craig received his BA in Journalism from Olivet College, his MA in Telecommunications Management from Michigan State University, and his PhD in Mass Communication/Media Studies from Howard University.

His research centers on mass media political economy; addressing the production, distribution and consumption of media content. He takes particular interest in exploring the social structure/struggle embedded in media production and interpreted in media consumption. His goal is to use research to influence the development of policy to enhance opportunities for media production and distribution by marginalized cultures.

Hannah Menchhoff is the arts and entertainment editor for the Fairfax County Times. She has worked on a variety of exciting stories, including interviewing “See You Again” singer, Charlie Puth. She graduated from George Mason University with a degree in Communication in 2015. Hannah also does freelance writing and works to do marketing research, analysis and social media with Commonwealth Joe Coffee Roasters.

Jamie Smith is the Global Chief Communications Officer of The BitFury Group – a leading technology company in the transformational financial technology sector dedicated to the breakthrough innovation of the Blockchain. Jamie is leading global initiatives designed to fundamentally change the way the larger global community does business, transfers value, and opens up new doors to prosperity for billions of people throughout the world.

Jamie has dedicated her career to making lives better, enhancing security, and ensuring opportunity is available to all. Jamie brings nearly two decades of communications experience to her role as Global CCO, serving at the highest levels of government and the private sector. She previously served as Special Assistant to President Obama and deputy White House press secretary, Executive Vice President at Edelman Public Relations where she oversaw multi-channel media strategies, Director of Public Affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and General James Clapper, Communications Director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation under its then Chairman John D (Jay) Rockefeller IV, Traveling Press Director for Secretary Hillary Clinton’s 2008 Presidential Campaign, Communications Director for former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and The Albright Group, LLC. and policy aide to Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey (D-NY).

Buzz McClain took every journalism course offered by George Mason in his freshman year (there were only two, 101 and 102); he wrote press releases and sports stories for Mason’s sports information office for four years; and he wrote entertainment stories and essays for the campus newspaper for four years, in addition to being entertainment editor for his last two years. Thoroughly prepared for a career in journalism, Buzz left Mason and began digging ditches for a swimming pool company. But his freelance writing paid off and he was hired by a bi-weekly, then a weekly, then a daily before beginning a career as a magazine writer and a music critic. To complete the circle, he is back at Mason where it all began as a communications manager, writing stories about Mason’s super-smart professors, over-achieving students and global successes.