The ComCentre
           West Chester University
512 Main Hall
West Chester, PA 19383
Phone: 610-430-4414
Fax: 610-436-3614
ksawyer@wcupa.edu

ComCentre Directors and Trainers

ComCentre Directors:
Timothy Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Timothy J. Brown is Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication Studies at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. As a rhetorical scholar, his research, teaching, and consulting focus on culture, identity, and communication. He has presented his work at more than thirty national and regional conferences, including a number of projects related to effective communication while managing a diverse workforce. Dr. Brown is the author of several articles and book chapters addressing issues of diversity as well as the co-author of two textbooks: Public Speaking for Success: Strategies for Diverse Audiences and Occasions and Argumentation and debate, A public speaking approach.

Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Conflict Resolutions
  • Effective Presentation Skills
  • Group Decision Making
  • Listening Skills
  • Managing a Diverse Workforce
  • Recruiting a Diverse Workforce
Edward Lordan, Ph.D.

Dr. Lordan has more than two decades of university, research and consulting experience in public relations, audience analysis, media theory and advertising. With a doctorate from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, he has published two books and more than a dozen scholarly articles on public relations management and media effects. He has written more than five hundred articles for four newspapers in the tri-state region and serves as a consultant for a series of non-profit and for-profit organizations.

Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Conflict Resolutions
  • Listening Skills
  • Negotiations
  • Public Relations
C. Jack Orr, Ph.D.

Dr. Orr, professor of Communication Studies at West Chester University, is an organizational consultant who specializes in leadership development, persuasion, public speaking, and group facilitation. For twenty years, Dr. Orr directed the Leadership Communication Curriculum for the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Organizational Management. Since 1985, he has been a key contributor to DuPont’s Technical Leadership Development Workshop He is equally valued as a speaker, facilitator and executive mentor.

Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Coaching/ Providing Feedback
  • Conflict Resolutions
  • Group Decision Making
  • Leadership Training
  • Negotiations
  • Persuasion
  • Train the Trainer
J. Kanan Sawyer, Ph.D.

Dr. Sawyer is an active consultant in the corporate sector and an Assistant Professor at West Chester University. Her teaching experience includes seminars at Stanford University, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Washington in Seattle, and the University of California Berkeley, and her collegiate courses include Business and Professional Communication, Reports and Media Briefings, Campaign Communication, and Advanced Public Speaking to students majoring in communication and business at the undergraduate and graduate level. Her list of clients includes AvoMex, UShip, the University of Texas at Austin, Pathology Partners, and liaisons to Alamo Theatres, Callaway Golf, and Starbucks.

Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Effective Presentation Skills
  • Leadership Training
  • Listening Skills
  • Negotiations
  • Persuasion
  • PowerPoint Design
  • PowerPoint Presenting
  • Women Back to Work Centre (Director)


ComCentre Trainers:

Anita Foeman, Ph.D.
Dr. Anita Foeman is Professor of Organizational, Public, and Intercultural Communication in the Department of Communication Studies at West Chester University. Dr. Foeman’s more than 20 years of consulting experience emphasizes global and diverse work teams that emphasize a strong sense of mission, effective communication, and respect for a variety of individual and cultural perspectives.
Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Conflict Resolutions
  • Group Decision Making
  • Leadership Training
  • Managing a Diverse Workforce
  • Managing Difficult People
  • Recruiting a Diverse Workforce
  • DiSC Personality Inventory
  • Focus Group Facilitation
David G. Levasseur, Ph.D.
David Levasseur, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at West Chester University, where he specializes in research in Public Speking, Communication Theory and Political Communication. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Maryland-College Park, and a Ph.D. from the University of Kansas.
Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Coaching/ Providing Feedback
  • Effective Presentation Skills
  • Persuasion
  • PowerPoint Design and Use
 
Denise M. Polk, Ph.D.
Dr. Denise Polk is an Assistant Professor in the West Chester University Department of Communication Studies, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conflict resolution, interpersonal communication and public speaking. Polk earned her B. A. in Broadcasting at Baldwin-Wallace College, her M. A. in Speech Communication at Miami University and a Ph.D. from Kent State University. Polk has several research publications, including articles in Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, Health Communication, and the Journal of Management and Organization, and is currently completing a textbook chapter on equity theory.
Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Conflict Resolutions
  • Group Decision Making
  • Listening Skills
  • Managing Difficult People
  • Negotiations
  • Work Family Integration
Martin S. Remland, Ph.D.
Dr. Remland is a Professor of Communication Studies at West Chester University and has been teaching courses in communication for more than thirty years. In addition to authoring more than twenty-five articles in books and academic journals, he is the author of the book, Nonverbal Communication in Everyday Life, one of the leading textbooks on the subject of nonverbal communication. He also co-authored the book Interpersonal Communication through the Lifespan, and the book Argumentation and Debate: A Public Speaking Approach. His recent article on the importance of nonverbal communication in organizational life appears in The Sage Handbook of Nonverbal Communication. He is currently working on a book on intercultural communication.
Specialty Areas/ Seminars:
  • Group Decision Making
  • Listening Skills
  • Negotiations
  • Nonverbal Communication
  • Persuasion
  • Recruiting a Diverse Workforce
  • Work Family Integration