Communication professor offers leadership training for the Department of State

 

Sandra French, associate professor in the School of Communication, was invited for a second time to lead leadership training sessions for the State Department's US-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) at the University of Delaware.

French's sessions were held on July 22-23.

The goal of MEPI is to foster partnerships between civic-minded young adults from the Middle East and their American counterparts. This year, 24 students from 14 countries took part in the intense six-week program focused on leadership, communication and civic engagement.

"These students are movers and shakers," French said. "I think you could say that if you had a something like a 'top 30 under 30' list in each of their home countries, these students would be on it."

French, whose teaching and research interests lie in organizational communication, business rhetoric, corporate reputation management and leadership, hosted training sessions with seminars and teamwork exercises focused on building leadership.

"It was an exciting opportunity to represent Radford," she said. "It's an honor to be asked and to be recognized by the Department of State."

French '91 earned her B.S. at Radford University, M.A. at Wake Forest University and Ph.D. at Pennsylvania State University. Her research has been published in the Journal of Applied Communication, the Southern Communication Journal, the Journal of Business Communication, and Business Communication Quarterly.

 

Jul 24, 2014