Rosanne Hartman, PhDProfessor of Communication Studies
Graduate Program Director for the Communication & Leadership Program
Phone: 888-2589
E-mail: hartmanr@canisius.edu
Rosanne Hartman, PhD joined the faculty in the Department of Communication Studies in 2005 as the Graduate Director of the Communication and Leadership program. Dr. Hartman received her Ph.D. from SUNY at Buffalo in 1991 specializing in the area of organizational communication with a minor concentration in interpersonal communication. Her dissertation topic was an intercultural study focusing on patient perceptions of behavior in the patient-physician relationship.
Dr. Hartman focuses on blending theory and practice. She is a strong advocate for service learning approaches as a pedagogical framework and has written articles on this teaching approach. Her experience in teaching began as a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo where she received teaching assistantships while completing her M.A. and Ph.D. in Communication. She was awarded the Carl Naish Teaching Award in 1991 by undergraduate students. Dr. Hartman was an adjunct and temporary full time assistant professor at Canisius College while completing her Ph.D. from 1989-1991.
Dr. Hartman joined the faculty at SUNY at Geneseo in fall of 1991. Her teaching responsibilities included Small Group Communication, Organizational Communication, Conflict, Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, Health Communication and Interpersonal Communication Theory. She has also been a member of the Advisory Council for the Center for Dispute Settlement in Livingston County for over a decade. Over the years, Dr. Hartman mentored several undergraduate students working on research projects. Many of the projects were presented at the Eastern Communication Association’s annual conference winning top awards.
Dr. Hartman’s current writing focuses on teaching pedagogy and on strategies for teaching conflict facilitation skills in various settings. Her research continues in the area of health communication.
As the Director of the Communication and Leadership program, Dr. Hartman is excited about the opportunity to work with graduate students. She feels the program is a strong and the students talented and motivated. She is looking forward to building learning opportunities for graduate students and alumni of the program.
Dr. Hartman is glad to be back at Canisius College and working in Buffalo. She has been married for 20 years and has three children.
Full-time Professors:
John Dahlberg, PhD
Associate Professor of Advertising & Communication Studies
Phone: 888-2111
E-mail: dahlberj@canisius.edu
John Dahlberg, PhD is a husband, father, writer (for over 18 years) and now educator. John taught writing before he went into the advertising business where he worked his way up through the ranks from junior copywriter to creative director, with stints at several advertising agencies in both Rochester and Buffalo.
Dr. Dahlberg's experience includes several Fortune 500 clients including Kodak, Corning, Fisher-Price and Baxter Medical and ranges across consumer, business to business and retail clients. His portfolio includes work in print advertising and collateral, electronic media and film, POP and display material, and sales promotion campaigns.
Dr. Dahlberg has his M.A. from the State University at Fredonia andhis Ph.D in Communication from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Catherine Foster, PhDAssistant Professor of Communication Studies
Phone: 888-2114
E-mail: foster31@canisius.edu
Catherine Foster, PhD, is a long-time practitioner of public relations, now teaching the field to the next generation. She holds a doctorate in Organization and Management from Capella University, Minneapolis, Minn.; an MBA in Organization and Leadership from Lewis University, Romeoville, Ill.; and a master of science in Communications and a bachelor’s in Journalism from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. She was also one of the first recipients of a Vannevar Bush Fellowship in Technology and Science Journalism (now known as the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Foster was manager of media relations at Argonne National Laboratory for 16 years, and also worked as science editor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She was science writer for The Oak Ridger in Tennessee.
Her research interests center on audiences and messages, with a particular focus on emergency and risk communication.
Personal interests include theatre, movies, and mystery novels.
Melissa Wanzer, Ed.D.Professor of Communication Studies
Phone: 888-2119
E-mail: wanzerm@canisius.edu
Melissa Bekelja Wanzer, Ed.D received her Master of Arts degree in Communication Studies from Syracuse University in 1992. She then completed her Ed.D. in Communication in Instruction from West Virginia University. Melissa received teaching scholarships at both Syracuse University and West Virginia University. She taught one year at Kutztown University before joining the faculty at Canisius College in 1995.
Both the graduate and undergraduate courses that Melissa regularly teaches fall under the area of interpersonal or relational communication. In the graduate program in Communication and Leadership, Melissa teaches Interpersonal Communication in Organizational Contexts and Persuasion. In the undergraduate program in Communication Studies she teaches Interpersonal Communication, Family Communication, Health Communication, and Constructive Uses of Humor, and regularly advises approximately 50 undergraduate students.
Melissa is the club advisor for The Association of Women (and Men) in Communication (AWMC). The club has sponsored a variety of events including a shadow program, networking luncheon, speaker series, fundraisers, and departmental newsletter. AWMC members travel each year to the Eastern Communication Association convention where they present research papers in poster format. Over the past 11 years, a number of Canisius College students have received top awards for their impressive poster presentations.
Melissa is a member of the Eastern Communication Association and the National Communication Association. She is currently serving as the Consulting Editor for Communication Education and is an Editorial Board Member for Communication Quarterly, Communication Research Reports, Qualitative Research Reports, and The Journal of Intercultural Research. Dr. Wanzer recently coauthored a textbook in interpersonal communication, “Interpersonal Communication: Building Rewarding Relationships.” Her research has appeared in Communication Education, Communication Research Reports, Communication Teacher, Health Communication and The Journal of Health Communication.
Melissa has been married to Steve for 16 years and they have two daughters —Claire and Gabriella.
Adjunct Professors:
Mike BeatoAdjunct Professor
Phone: 688-6003
E-mail: mike@beato.com
Mike Beato is president of Beato Enterprises Inc., a technology communications company that designs and develops web sites for businesses.
Mike started his business career in 1978 as a systems analyst at the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. As a team member of Kodak’s International Photographic Division, Mike’s responsibilities took him to many countries in Europe, Latin America and the Far East, working on software development, needs analysis, and user training related to the sales and marketing of Kodak products overseas.
Mike left Kodak in 1986 and moved to Buffalo, where he took a year-long consulting assignment at a Western New York advertising agency. He helped the ad agency shift their way of doing business to electronic design and publishing.
In 1987, Mike joined a business start-up called AdWorks, a new state-of-the-art ad agency. After a year as Systems Manager, Mike was promoted to General Manager.
Mike left AdWorks in 1989 to start his own technology consulting business. His focus was to help other firms take advantage of wide-ranging and fast-changing technology in their business communications.
Mike has been on the Canisius adjunct faculty since 1998, teaching classes in the Communication and Leadership and Digital Media Arts programs. Mike has also taught a Digital Presentations course at the University at Buffalo.
Originally from Fairport, New York, Mike received a degree in Information Systems Management from Buffalo State College. He is married and the father of two sons. Mike is an active runner, participating in races ranging from 5K to marathon distances.
Pamela Johnson, PhD
Adjunct Professor
Phone: 888-2107
E-mail: johnso36@canisius.edu
Pamela Johnson, PhD is Vice President for Education and Outreach at WNED. Her professional expertise includes community engagement through public media, content research and development, digital learning services, and collaborations in support of both community and educational improvement. Through her leadership, WNED is known for its award-winning community outreach initiatives and innovative educational service designs.
Dr. Johnson has served as founding director of WNED’s ThinkBright Lifelong Learning, a pioneering digital service originally funded through a 2.5 million dollar grant from The John R. Oishei Foundation. Launched in 2002, this venture serves families, educators, students and citizens throughout Upstate New York via ThinkBright TV, ThinkBright Online, and special television and outreach initiatives that address timely topics such as Dyslexia Education, Family Literacy, Family Health and Civic Engagement.
Dr. Johnson is also proud to direct the national outreach and web components of WNED’s television programming, including the Emmy award-winning children’s series, Reading Rainbow. Having earned over 250 national awards across its 25 years on PBS, Reading Rainbow is among the most-used literacy series in American classrooms. Other national multi-platform project development work includes Demystifying Dyslexia, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo, Financial Literacy for young adults, and the War of 1812.
Under Dr. Johnson’s guidance, WNED has been tapped as a national demonstration site for signature PBS learning services, including “PBS Kids Raising Readers” and “PBS TeacherLine.” These multi-year services, funded by the U.S. Department of Education bring innovative best practices in using public media to advance academic achievement in high need schools and families in the City of Buffalo and across New York State.
Throughout her career, Dr. Johnson has contributed time to various boards on both a regional and national level, including Every Person Influences Children, Good Schools for All, the Read to Succeed Buffalo Coalition, the P2 Collaborative of Western New York, the Education Committee of Public Television’s Affinity Group Coalition, the PBS Communication Advisory Council, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Educational Leadership Council, and the PBS TeacherLine Advisory Board.
Dr. Johnson is a graduate of the University at Buffalo and holds an undergraduate degree in English Honors and Secondary Education, a Masters of Arts in Humanities degree in Media Studies and Communication, and a doctoral degree in Educational Organization, Administration and Policy. Her doctoral dissertation explored the topic of Public Broadcasting and Collaboratives for Educational Improvement.
Neil Melbrod Adjunct Professor of Communication & Leadership
Phone: 888-2107
E-mail: melbrodn@canisius.edu
For nearly 30 years, Neil Melbrod has worked in nonprofit fundraising. He began his career in 1979 as the director of planned giving at Canisius College, where he worked on a successful $8 million capital campaign and helped set up a strong planned giving program that continues to generate many planned gifts for the College to this day. He went on to spend eight years at the Buffalo Museum of Science, where he led the Museum in its successful $3.2 million capital campaign and oversaw an increase in its membership base from 1300 to nearly 11,000 members and a five-fold increase in its annual fund.
This past June, Neil retired as the Assistant Executive Director for Public Support of the Greater Buffalo Chapter of the American Red Cross, a position he held for the past 15 years. While there he built a major gifts program, created the wildly successful M*A*S*H BASH and oversaw a successful $3 million capital campaign to renovate the Chapter’s Delaware Avenue headquarters.
Neil continues to do a great deal of major gift and capital campaign consulting for other non profits in the area. Currently he is working with Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, Buffalo Audubon Society, Buffalo Prep, Tapestry Charter School, and a local arts collaboration made up of CEPA Gallery, Just Buffalo Literary Center and Big Orbit Gallery. He has also worked with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, WNED, and the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens. Neil holds an M.Ed. from the SUNY Buffalo and an MBA from Canisius College.