Faculty and Staff

Michael Whalen is a documentary filmmaker who teaches screenwriting, film/tv production and history courses on Hollywood and the U.S. film/television industry. Prior to returning to Santa Clara to teach, he spent 10 years living in Los Angeles as a working television writer, producer and director.

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Chris Bachen’s research focuses on media and youth. Her current research focuses on computer game- and web-based learning and youth civic engagement. She also serves as director of assessment and co-director of the Collaborative for Teaching Innovation for the university.

Justin Boren studies the impact of creating socially-supportive organizations and how supportive climates lead to improvements in psychological and physiological stress among coworkers. He teaches courses on organizational and interpersonal communication, organizational training and development, quantitative research methods, and biological approaches to human interaction.

Melissa Brown researches how members of marginalized communities use information and communication technologies to innovate digital practices that shape contemporary society. She teaches courses on research methods, intersectionality, and internet-mediated communication.

Hsin-I Cheng's research interests cross the disciplinary boundaries of communication, intersectionality studies, citizenship and immigration studies from (post)colonial and transnational perspectives. She teaches courses on cultural identity, multiculturalism, and immigration both in the U.S. and Asian contexts. She is an avid backpacker and enjoys playing fetch with her energetic dog, Scout, in their Santa Cruz mountain home.

Rohit Chopra teaches courses on global media and international communication, new media technologies, and postcolonial media. His current research projects focus on the relationship between memory, violence, and digital media.

Lisa Davis teaches a variety of journalism courses and communication law. She has more than 20 years experience as a professional journalist and is the author of The Sins of Brother Curtis: A Story of Betrayal, Conviction and the Mormon Church.

Laura Ellingson teaches classes in gender & communication, health communication, and feminist research methods. She conducts research on communication and collaboration among health care providers in hospitals and clinics and on communication in extended and chosen families.

Amy Tully Eriksson teaches a variety of communication courses, including public speaking and interpersonal communication.

Katharine Heintz teaches courses in media studies/mass communication. She is particularly interested in how the media impact children and families, and the role of the media in social change.

Andrew Ishak is a teacher, researcher, and filmmaker whose work focuses on culture, sports, teams, and time. He also currently serves as the Director of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum at SCU (2021-2024).

David C. Jeong studies VR/XR, social media, and morality. He teaches classes in Technology and Communication, Quantitative Methods, Media Psychology. He also plans to teach classes on VR Design, social media analytics, and social media ethics.

Barbara Kelley teaches a variety of journalism courses and serves as director of the journalism emphasis. She is a journalist, regular Huffington Post columnist, keynote speaker and the co-author of "Undecided: How to Ditch the Endless Quest for Perfect and Find the Career and Life That's Right for You."

Lotta Kratz teaches classes in media studies, diversity, technology, and visual communication (still photography). In 2013, she has shown photography in shows in the United States, Canada, and Australia.

Nico Opper is an Emmy®-nominated filmmaker who teaches production and history courses. Their work focuses on young people's identities in nontraditional families. They're the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for Filmmaking and has been one of Filmmaker Magazine’s annual “25 New Faces of Independent Film.”

Chad Raphael teaches and conducts research on political communication, including communication and the environment, journalism and democracy, community organizing, public dialogue and deliberation, and media for civic education and engagement. He also serves as SCU's Faculty Associate for Sustainability across the Curriculum and Co-Coordinator of the university's Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative.

Emily Ray Reese is a filmmaker from a ghost town in the mountains of New Mexico. Her work has appeared at Sundance, Palm Springs ShortsFest, Outfest, and the New York International Latino Film Festival. She teaches all production labs in the digital filmmaking area and organizes workshops around screenwriting, production and editing.

Guillermo R. Rodríguez is a Puerto Rican filmmaker and scholar who teaches production and film studies courses. His films explore gender, sexuality and Latinx identity through the horror and thriller genres. His academic work focuses on the power of cinema to conjure up thoughts within the viewer otherwise repressed in their socio-cultural environment.

Sreela Sarkar's areas of research and teaching include global media studies, postcolonial studies, feminist theory and methods, urban studies, and critical policy and legal studies.

Michele Sieglitz has been working as an editor and freelance producer for over 25 years, primarily on short films for education and the performing arts. Before coming to SCU, Michele taught in the Broadcast Electronic Media Arts (BEMA) department at City College of San Francisco for 23 years and in the Digital Film & Video program at Art Institute of California-San Francisco for 15 years.

Fern Silva is an accomplished technology professional with experience in directing an Information Services department; the planning, design and implementation of diverse multi-vendor customer training labs, vendor compatibility load and stress labs; and UNIX development environments, including Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, SGI IRIX and Linux. Mr. Silva is also a technical consultant to business owners and individuals.

Paul Soukup, S.J., teaches courses in technology and communication, and does research on religious communication. He has authored or edited a number of books and works with both the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the American Bible Society on communication issues.

SunWolf is a former trial attorney, now a social scientist studying persuasion, social behavior, and storytelling. Her books and research have received numerous national awards, including a university award for a faculty member whose scholarly work over five years represents a major contribution to a field of knowledge.

Chan Thai teaches courses on communication and technology, health communication, and the strategic design of communication campaigns to promote behavior change.

Stephenson Brooks Whitestone teaches public speaking, communication research, and interpersonal communication. Her research investigates the phenomenon of discrimination after death.

Gordon Young teaches a variety of journalism courses and serves as faculty advisor for the university's student newspaper, yearbook, and community radio station. He is the author of "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City."

Emile McAnany has focused his research on the social and cultural impacts of various communication technologies in Third World countries, especially Latin America.