About our authors
Bill Seiler is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, where he has taught since 1972. He was department chair for over 20 years and now teaches and was the director of the introductory course for over 45 years. The Undergraduate Leadership Award was renamed the William J. Seiler Undergraduate Leadership Award to honor him and his leadership of the department. Other honors include Outstanding Educator of America, Outstanding University and College Teacher by the Nebraska Communication Association, Outstanding Young Alumni and Distinguished Alumni Awards from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, and 2002 Boss of the Year Award. Bill received the 2013 National Communication Association’s Basic Course Division’s “Distinguished Faculty” award and was named to the 2013 Central States Association’s “Hall of Fame.” In 2015, he received the National Communication Association’s “Wallace A. Bacon Lifetime Teaching Excellence Award,” and in 2016, he received the “Robert J. Kibler Memorial Award” for personal and professional qualities of dedication to excellence, commitment to the profession, concern for others, vision of what could be, acceptance of diversity, and forthrightness. Bill earned a bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, a Master of Arts from Kansas State University, and a doctorate from Purdue University. He is an experienced educator, consultant, researcher and author in the area of communication and has an adjunct appointment in the Education & Human Sciences College.
He is an avid golfer who plays every chance he gets, which unfortunately for him is never enough. He loves his Nebraska Huskers. Bill and his wife Kathi’s family includes 2 daughters, Dana and Dionne; 2 sons-in-law, Lee and Wade; 2 grandchildren, Grant and Will; and 3 step-grandchildren, Zach, Stephanie and Taylor.
Melissa Beall is a professor in the Communication Studies Department and a member of the teacher education faculty at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI). Dr. Beall, a proud Husker fan, received all 3 degrees from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Her areas of expertise include listening, intercultural listening, intercultural communication, communication and technology, and communication theory. She teaches oral communication, listening, language and communication, public speaking, critical thinking, college teaching, communication and technology, intercultural communication, interpersonal communication, and communication theory.
Dr. Beall has served on many UNI committees and chaired the Graduate Faculty. Her honors include the 2007 Iowa Board of Regents Faculty Excellence recipient and the 2014 UNI Distinguished Scholar Award. She was inducted into the Central States Communication Association Hall of Fame in 2012, she was named the International Listening Association’s Outstanding Listening Educator in 2008, and she was also inducted into the International Listening Association Hall of Fame. She was the recipient of the National Communication Association’s (NCA’s) Marcella E. Oberle Outstanding K–12 Teaching as a high school teacher, and in 2016 she received NCA’s Donald H. Ecroyd Award for Outstanding Teaching in Higher Education. Dr. Beall was recognized as a Distinguished Faculty member by NCA’s Basic Course Division and received the Iowa Communication Association Citation Award for contributions to Iowa and the communication discipline in 2014. She has served on numerous editorial boards; has presented over 700 papers, programs, and workshops; is a past president of the Iowa Communication Association and the Nebraska Speech Communication and Theatre Association; and is vice president of the World Communication Association, the Pacific and Asian Communication Association, and the International Association of Communication Sciences. She is the current Executive Chair of the Global Listening Centre and speaks about listening all over the world. She was an officer in her local American Association of University Professors (AAUP) chapter and is a past president of the Central States Communication Association and of the International Listening Association; she has also served as an officer in many divisions of the National Communication Association.
Joseph Mazer is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Clemson University. At Clemson, he is Director of the Social Media Listening Center, an interdisciplinary research lab and teaching facility that provides a platform to listen, measure, and engage in more than 650 million sources of social media conversations. Joe’s research interests include communication in teaching and learning contexts, social media and new technologies, communication in interpersonal relationships, and measurement issues and trends in communication research. He has authored or co-authored over 70 research articles, book chapters, and books and has been ranked in the top 1 percent of prolific scholars in the communication discipline for the past 10 years. A July 2017 study named him among the top 5 influential scholars in instructional communication. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and discussed in media outlets, including USA Today, Chronicle of Higher Education and ESPN. He has received international, regional, university-wide and departmental recognition for outstanding teaching. Joe is a past recipient of the Outstanding New Teacher Award from the Central States Communication Association and the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award from Clemson University’s Department of Communication undergraduate student body.
Joe is an active member of the National Communication Association and Central States Communication Association, where he has held several leadership roles. In addition to serving on editorial boards for several journals in the communication discipline, he is serving a 3-year term as Editor of the Basic Communication Course Annual and recently completed a term as Consulting Editor for Forums for Communication Education. Joe received his Ph.D. in communication studies from Ohio University, a master’s degree in communication from Illinois State University, and a bachelor’s degree in mass communication from Mansfield University. He is the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Young Graduate Alumnus Award from the faculty in Illinois State University’s School of Communication. Joe resides in Clemson, South Carolina, with his wife, Chrissy, and their children, Claire and Owen.
