Vanessa Bravo, Associate Professor of Strategic Communications and Chair of the Department of Strategic Communications, Elon University

B.A., Universidad de Costa Rica; M.A., University of Florida; Ph.D., University of Florida. Fulbright Scholar at the University of Florida in 2001-2003. Fourteen years as a journalist and editor at newspaper La Nacion (Grupo Nacion) in Costa Rica in positions such as online editor and features editor. Strategic communications director at Paniamor Foundation for a year. Co-editor of the book Latin American Diasporas in Public Diplomacy, has also published work in the journals Public Relations Review, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, International Journal of Communication, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Contingencies & Crisis Management, Diplomatica Journal, Rising Powers Quarterly, Mortality: Promoting the Interdisciplinary Study of Death and Dying, Global Media Journal, Revista Internacional de Relaciones Públicas (Universidad de Málaga, Spain) and Palabra Clave (Universidad de La Sabana, Colombia). Has authored book chapters in Cases in Public Relations Ethics (Oxford University Press); Communication and Community (Hampton Press) and International Public Relations and Public Diplomacy: Communication and Engagement (Peter Lang). Has presented research papers at AEJMC, ICA, ISA, and IPRRC, among others. Taught at the University of Florida, as a Ph.D. teaching assistant and instructor of record, from 2008-2011, and at the Universidad de Costa Rica in 2005. Came to Elon University in Fall 2011. Received the Elon School of Communications’ Faculty Excellence in Research Award in 2017. Tenured and promoted to Associate Professor in Fall of 2017. Strategic Communications Department Chair as of June 1, 2020.

Maria DeMoya, (she/her) Associate Professor, Program Chair – Public Relations and Advertising, DePaul University

Maria DeMoya, PhD is an Associate Professor of Communication and Chair of the Public Relations and Advertising program. She is a member of the university’s President’s Diversity Council and represents the college in Faculty Council’s Committee on Equity, Inclusion and Diversity.

De Moya’s teaching focuses on social change communication, professional responsibility, law and ethics, and public relations and advertising efforts to engage ethnic communities. In her classes, students learn to design campaigns and research strategic communication applied to social issues such as student debt, mental health, diversity, equity and inclusion, civic engagement and media representation.

Her research centers on ethnic and international strategic communications, exploring practices that cut across public diplomacy, advocacy, political communication and tourism. Her work is published in a variety of scholarly journals including Public Relations Review, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Public Relations Inquiry and the Hague Journal of Diplomacy. Her book, “Latin American Diasporas in Public Diplomacy” (co-edited with Vanessa Bravo of Elon University), was published by the Palgrave Series in Global Public Diplomacy in 2021.

Alina Dolea, (she/her) Principal Academic in Media, Communication & Politics, Bournemouth University

Alina Dolea is Principal Academic at Bournemouth University, UK. Her research is situated at the intersection of public diplomacy, migration, media and communication studies, with a focus on discourse. She is particularly interested in the role non-state actors have come to play in public diplomacy, reproducing, but also contesting and disrupting the state’s strategic communication. She is currently focusing on diasporas and emotions, exploring the opportunities as well as the consequences of their transnational existence for public diplomacy. 

Alina was Fulbright Senior Scholar 2015-2016 at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism (USA), as well as SCIEX Postdoc Visiting Scholar 2015 at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). She is the author of the monograph Twenty years of (re)branding post-communist Romania. Actors, discourses, perspectives – 1990-2010 (Editura Institutul European, 2015). Alina is one of the founders and Chair 2020-2022 of the Public Diplomacy Interest Group within the International Communication Association.

Ilan Manor, (he/him) Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Communications, Tel Aviv University

Ilan Manor is a digital diplomacy scholar and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University. Manor obtained his PhD from The University of Oxford. His thesis focused on the use of social media in times of geo-political crises. Manor’s book, The Digitalization of Public Diplomacy, was published in 2019 while his co-edited book, Public Diplomacy and the Politics of Uncertainty, was published in 2021. Manor’s work examines how digital technologies impact the work of diplomats and their institutions. He also studies the use of humor by states in official, online communications. Manor has contributed to numerous academic journals including International Studies Review, Place Branding & Public Diplomacy, Media, War & Conflict, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, Global Policy and The Cambridge Review of International Affairs. 

Eduardo Luciano Tadeo Hernández, (he/him) Profesor de Cátedra, Departamento de Estudios Internacionales, Universidad Iberoamericana

Now a Profesor de Cátedra in the Departamento de Estudios Internacionales at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Luciano Tadeo Hernández recently completed his PhD in Communication at Iberoamericana. His research explores the public diplomacy of the Mexican and Korean diaspora in the US, as the means to construct their own image in the digital sphere. In 2017, a paper based on this project won the second place at the Conference on Korea’s Soft Power and Public Diplomacy organized by the Hangang Network and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Korea.

He studied a bachelor on International Relations at UPAEP, Mexico and went on exchange programs to Korea University, Korea and UCLA, United States. Later, he specialized on Korean Studies at El Colegio de México, Mexico. Eduardo Luciano is the co-founder of the Mexican Circle of Korean Studies (CMEC), a national organization that promotes Korean studies and culture in Mexican Museums, Universities, Political Institutions and in the digital sphere. He is a collaborator at Revista Ñ, the first magazine in Seoul for spanish speaking people, which publishes articles on Spain, Latin America and the Koreas.

His research interests include public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, democratization and foreign policy and gender issues in Korea and Mexico. His last research to be published is a study on the importance of Korean language for constructing soft power in Mexico City.