Barcelona Conference 2010

 

Enric Ordeix - Professor, Program Director

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Enric Ordeix is a fulltime professor in Corporate and International Public Relations at Blanquerna School of Communication -Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, Spain. There he is a member of the Research Group on Strategy and Advertising Creativity. As the Public Affairs person for Blanquerna, he has contributed as guest speaker and professor in institutions such as ESADE, Universitat de Barcelona, Universidad de Chile, Erfurt University (Germany) and Emerson College (Boston).

Professor Ordeix collaborates as a speaker for various organizations. He was last year’s keynote speaker of the International Academy of Business Disciplines (IABD). Also, he gives a yearly speech at the International Symposium in Global Communication. At this moment, he is vice-president of the Global Communication Institute, where he deals with 10 other universities in order to coordinate the “Global Communication Project”. 

 
Enric consults for the International Virtual Consulting Firm, organized by Amsterdam University, and for the board management of the Professional Official Association of Advertisers and Public Relations Agents of Catalonia.
He has published articles related to corporate personality and internal public relations in several scientific magazines as: Public Relations Review, American Behavioral Scientist, Sphera Pública, Tripodos, Anàlisi, etc.

Dr. J. Gregory Payne - Associate Professor, Program Director

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Dr. J. Gregory Payne is an Associate Professor and former chair for ten years of Emerson College's Department of Communication Studies. He is Director of the Center for Ethics in Political and Health Communication, which he co-founded in 1996. He is on the Advisory board of the Journal of Health Communication, American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Promotion Management, among others. He is on the Partnership Board for Anthrax Vaccine Education and has been the invited editor for American Behavioral Scientist’s special edition on the U.S. presidential campaign for every election since 1988. He is published and is a frequent commentator for the press on topics related to political communication, crisis communication, health communication, protest rhetoric, public affairs and public diplomacy. He is past President of the International Academy of Business Disciplines, past chair of the Political Communication Division of the National Communication Association, founding U.S. representative of the Global Public Relations Project, and General Director of the Saudi American Exchange, the first grass roots public diplomacy project between Saudi Arabia and the West after 9/11.  For this effort, Dr. Payne was invited to the inaugural Clinton Global Initiative, the Jeddah Economic Forum, among others. 

Dr. Payne is a strong advocate of grass-roots communications campaigns and public diplomacy and has worked for the U.S. State Department on numerous projects in Russia, Turkmenistan, Azberjinan, Indonesia, and the Middle East region.   As a long time visitor to Rosarito Beach, Payne began the Rediscover Rosarito project with students from Emerson College to help restore the image of a once flourishing tourist destination now struggling with the lingering post crisis effects of the drug cartel crisis.  He holds a Ph.D from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He received the first University of Illinois' Speech Communication Alumni Recognition Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Award, IABD Distinguished Service Award, U.S. Treasury Distinguished Service Award, among others.  (see www.gregorypayne.net)





Ada Renedo - International Ambassador, Program Assistant, Webmaster, Team Coordinator

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The Mediterranean Ada Renedo comes from the beautiful Spanish city of Barcelona. With a B.A. in Advertising and Public Relations, she thought that the Emerson College Communication Management Master Degree would be an ideal complement. So, a layover in Paris and 7 suitcases finally brought her to Boston.   

 Since age 12, Ada has studied and interned around the world, which explains her love for anything that includes the word "international." Also, she is the International Ambassador for Emerson College and contributes to the many cross-cultural activities around both the campus and the city of Boston.  

This year, Ada has been a highly active member of the RediscoveRosarito project, an international initiative of crisis management for the town of Rosarito in Mexico. Determined to help to this cause, Ada has used her bilingual skills to improve the perception of Baja California, and communicate with the Mayor of the town and its communications team.

Alumni of Blanquerna School of Communications and current student of Emerson College, she is now serving as a liason to coordinate the 1st edition of this program, counseling the international guests and developing an online media platform to create a website archive of the experience. 


Also, she will be presenting at the International Congress on Research in Public Relations taking place at Blanquerna School of Communication. Ada will be talking about her project on crisis management and image restoration programs, as well as the successful fundraising she coordinated this past april in Boston, MA.

 


Sruthi Vijayan - Blog Platform Coordinator, Graduate Student

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Sruthi Vijayan comes from the land of diverse cultures and spicy food– India. She is currently pursuing her Master’s in Communication Management from Emerson College, Boston. She possesses a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Mass Media and Advertising respectively, from Mumbai University and has worked for over 2 years in the business communications field for a knowledge-solutions and consultancy firm located in Mumbai.

Sruthi loves experiencing new cultures, traveling, and learning from her own and people’s experiences. She strongly believes that culture is one of the strongest influences in the world of marketing and communication.  Her ongoing endeavors in the field of communications include working with the Mayor of Rosarito, Mexico, to restore the city’s image with a communication campaign, more popularly known as RediscoveRosarito.

With a strong background in marketing communication she is working towards setting up a global marketing and communication consultancy firm headquartered in Mumbai, India.

 


Pete Hall - Team Video Coordinator, Graduate Student

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With a B.A. from Emerson College in Visual Media Arts with a focus in Television Production, Pete’s main experiences lie in various TV, Film, and Video productions. He initially wanted to work in Reality TV or Sports Television, But after working in Los Angeles, CA and Boston, MA on various productions, he realized that returning to Graduate School and studying Communication Management would benefit him not only for a future in the Film and TV Industry but also in various public affairs and social advocacy campaigns.

His specific interests lie in how media can be used to deliver a message; whether it be for politics, public affairs, narrative story telling, or documentary coverage of an event, Pete enjoys seeing how various visual mediums can tell stories and how messages can be controlled to achieve an effective means to an end goal.

Pete describes himself as a True American Midwesterner hailing from Ohio.  However, he feels that in today’s globalized world, American’s must know how to work in an international context effectively.  He is a big Baseball fan as he was a member of the Emerson Baseball Team for 5 years, being a team captain for 2 years.   The only Spanish he knows was learned while watching Sesame Street as a child, but is excited to learn more, especially after a few Sangrias. Pete will be coordinating the Video Productions for the group and web video coverage of the events in Barcelona.

Sara Bruya - Global Diplomat Project Coordinator

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Sara Bruya is a communications specialist with over fifteen years of experience in writing, editing, publication design, event planning and citizen diplomacy.

Currently, she works as Acting Managing Editor for the Du Bois Review, a social science research journal of the Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. In her final semester of a Communication Management masters program at Emerson College, Sara also currently serves as the founding director of The Global Diplomat Project, which offers travelers the tools and the forum for effective cross-cultural communication.

Sara’s service in the U.S. Peace Corps in Gabon (2002-2004) and her subsequent role as coordinator of the First Night celebration and Sister Cities programs for the Missoula Cultural Council, have been contributing factors in her profound interest in cross-cultural communication and citizen diplomacy.


Gabrielle Núñez - Contributor, Undergraduate Student

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Gabrielle is a rising Sophomore at Emerson College, majoring in Political Communications in the Department of Communications Studies.  She moved from Virginia in the south of the United States to Connecticut in the north, and attended High School in Old Lyme, Connecticut.  She learned early on that there are significant cultural differences in the different regions of the United States and she embraced those differences as a positive experience.   

Her interest in global political issues arose when she became involved in the national Tents of Hope campaign to raise awareness of the genocide occurring in the Darfur region of the Sudan.  The project was to raise awareness by decorating canvas refugee tents and displaying the tent around the community.  She organized educational activities, candle light vigils, speeches and fund raising activities.

She remains very much interested in grass roots solutions to global problems and the importance of communications in bringing about significant changes to those problems. 

 


Annie Huff - Contributor, Graduate Student

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Annie Huff is from Southern Utah, right in the shadow of the breathtaking Grand Canyon and just two hours from Las Vegas (more commonly known as Loss Wages). She is currently pursuing an MA in Communication Management at Emerson College. Her zealous interest in the field of human communications, particularly in management communication, comes largely from her lifetime of experience with family businesses. She has seen communication at its best and communication gone wrong, first hand, thus deepening her interest to focus on, and even become an expert in, organizations and how they are improved through effective communication.

Ideally, Annie would like to narrow her research to family-owned organizations and specialize in that unique area. Research has shown that only twenty percent of family-owned organizations survive into the second generation. She interprets this statistic as a challenge to answer why and then to accomplish a change. Professionally she envisions herself becoming a professor of higher education, a consultant, and developing training materials that would be of assistance to entrepreneurs in family business.

Annie is thrilled to arrive in Barcelona. She jumps at every opportunity to explore other cultures, and sees this conference as an opportunity to expand her professional network and learn more about crisis communication.


Daniel Tick - Contributor, Undergraduate Student

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Daniel is a rising junior at Emerson College, majoring in Political Communication and pursuing a minor in Political Science.  He is from Albany, New York, about two hours north of the city.

From 2004 – 2008, Daniel traveled regularly to various regions of Mexico participating and leading student delegations, and studying trade and immigration issues.   

From March through November 2008, Daniel worked for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in upstate New York.  Currently he has an on-going internship with the Office of Congressman Paul D. Tonko, representing New York’s 21st Congressional District.  Upon returning from Barcelona, Daniel will be continuing this internship in Washington D.C.

Daniel is a co-founder and former co-president of Emerson College Model United Nations, a member of Emerson’s Communication, Politics, and Law Association, and a Lincoln-Douglas Debater with the Emerson Forensics Team.

Daniel’s interests in politics and current affairs are centered on health, education and economic policy, and he is grateful for the unique and valuable opportunities offered by the Department of Communication Studies at Emerson College to further these interests.


Ying Wang - Contributor, Undergraduate Student

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Ying was born in Houston, Texas, but soon traded in her cowboy boots for a colder and more fast-paced life in Boston, Massachusetts. As a kid growing up in the metropolitan center of the universe, Ying was exposed to the world of marketing at an early age. She is fascinated by the immense influence marketing has on people´s lives and is currently studying Marketing Communications as an undergraduate at Emerson College.

More recently, she´s become interested in how marketing and public relations can be used to address important global social issues. While in high school, she became involved with STAND (the student led division of the Genocide Intervention Network) and helped create a benefit concert and t-shirt campaign that raised awareness about the genocide occurring in Darfur, Sudan. Other cool things she´s done include teaching English at the University of Hunan in China and interning for the public affairs department of the U.S. Army.

She is interested in learning more about public diplomacy and the different trends and challenges that face multicultural communication today.


Zac Our - Team Audio Coordinator

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As a graduating senior at Emerson College, Zac has been working hard to obtain his B.A. in sound design and post-production. He has also worked towards a minor concentration in marketing communications, as he understands the importance of bringing innovation and efficiency to the message. Zac is a Boston native and has been involved in audio production for years before his career at Emerson, with musicians and bands, and setting up live performance events. He mostly involves himself in sound design for film and commercial material, but remarks that location sound and field recording are the bread and butter of audio production.

 Armed to the teeth with an assortment of microphones, Zac will be committed to effectively capturing good location sound for our coverage of events in Barcelona. He will be working alongside Pete Hall to document the coming events as they happen, as well as interviewing experts, professionals and other people of importance to help convey our message.