Communication in the Classroom: A Collection of Gifts

John Seiter earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. He is a professor at Utah State University, where he was previously named the university's Teacher of the Year. With Robert Gass, he coauthored the textbook Persuasion, Social Influence, and Compliance Gaining. His research, which has received eight national awards, focuses on a variety of topics, including deception detection, political aggression, and hospitality. In his spare time, he enjoys writing, travelling, stumbling through streams with a fly fishing rod, playing games, watching films, and eating Nutrageous candy bars.

Matthew L. Sanders is an Associate Professor of communication studies at Utah State University. He holds a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Matt conducts research in the areas of nonprofit organizations and student empowerment and his work has been published in academic journals in communication, business, and public administration. He is the author of the book Becoming a Learner: Realizing the Opportunity of Education, which is used in First Year Experience programs at several universities. Awards recognizing his work with students include being named Teacher of the Year for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (2010) at Utah State University; Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (2013) at Utah State University; Certificate of Merit - Outstanding New Faculty Advisor (2011) for the National Academic Advising Association; and the Graduate Teaching Impact Award for the Department of Communication (2008) at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Jennifer Peeples is an award winning teacher, twice nominated for the US Professor of the Year Award from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching by Utah State University (2014, 2015) in addition to departmental and college teaching awards. She is also a Fellow for the Association of American Colleges & Universities Faculty Collaboratives program. In addition, she has presented on classroom innovation for the AAC&U Student Success and the Quality Agenda conference and for the What is an Educated Person? conference for the Utah System of Higher Education. At Utah State, she teaches interpersonal communication, conflict management, and courses dedicated to the rhetorical analysis of written, visual, and environmental discourses.