Associate Professor of Communication

Mary Wilson is an associate professor in the Department of English and Communication. She was awarded a Ph.D. from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California in 2001.

Wilson, who is of Chinese descent, was born in Guyana, South America and raised in Europe and Canada and holds dual citizenship in Canada and the United States of America. She completed her undergraduate work in psychology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and later received an M.B.A. at State University of New York at Buffalo.

While "enjoying" the challenges of the department chair position, she eagerly anticipates being liberated from administrative responsibilites and impatiently awaits the chance to reengage with research and scholarship. For the present, her major rewards and moments of success are found in the strength and cohesiveness of the department, the collegiality of the faculty, and the energetic activities of the students. At every opportunity, Mary seeks to balance her life by digging in her garden, running, and hiding out in beautiful places, particularly in Paris.

Recent Presentations and Publications:

Presentations:

• May 1999, Assessing Organizational Change and Faculty Experiences Through Curricular Revision, Mary Wilson, presented at: Organizational Communication Division, 49^th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association.
• May 1999, Metamorphosis: Transforming the Ties that Bind, Sandra Ball Rokeach, Sorin Matei, Mary Wilson, Jennifer Gibbs, Elizabeth Gutierrez, presented at: Mass Communication Division, 49^th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association.
• October 1999, Does a Networked Society Foster Participatory Democracy, or is Commitment to Place-based Community Still a Necessity for Civic Engagement? Mary Wilson, presented at: Citizens at the Crossroads: Whose Information Society, The University of Western Ontario, Government of Canada’s Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canadian International Development Agency.
• October 1999, Globalization of Everyday Life? Position paper, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Jennifer Gibbs, Elizabeth Gutiererz-Hoyt, Joo-Young Jung, Yong-Chan Kim, Sorin Matei, Mary Wilson, Yu Yuan, Lingling Zhang, presented at: Managing the Global, University of Southern California and the London School of Economics
• May 2001, Leading the Community Chorus: The Role of Organizations in Society. Presented at the Communication Technology and Community: A Communication Infrastructure Perspective Theme Session of the International Communication Association, Washington, D.C.
• July 2002, Communication, Organizations and Diverse Populations. Presented at The Net(s) of Power: Language, Culture and Technology, at the 3rd International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication, Montreal, Canada.
• November 2002, Community Organizations, Communication Infrastructure, and Community. Presented at the Applied Communication Division Session of the National Communication Association, New Orleans, LA.
• November 2003, Constructed Identity: Auto Persona. Presented at the 2003 National Communication Association, Miami, FL.
• May 2004, Chinese, To Go. Presented at the Intergroup Communication, Intergroup Dynamics within Organizations session, 54th Annual International Communication Association: Communication in the Public Interest, New Orleans, LA..
• June 2004, Communication, Organizations, And Diverse Populations, Part Two. Presented at the Cultural Attitudes Toward Communication and Technology conference, Karlstad, Sweden.
• May 2005, Reviving Blue Heaven: Up From Despair via Communication.  Presented at the Home in Real Life: Communication and Community Building theme session of the 55th Annual International Communication Association, New York City, NY.

Papers accepted for Publication:

• The challenge of belonging in the 21st century: the case of Los Angeles (White Paper 1) (2000). S. J. Ball-Rokeach, J. Gibbs, E. Gutierrez Hoyt, J. Y. Jung, Y. C. Kim, S. Matei, M. Wilson, Y. Yuan, & L. Zhang. Los Angeles: Annenberg School for Communication, Communication Technology and Community Program.
• Metamorphosis: A field research methodology for the study of communication technology and community. S. Matei, S. J. Ball-Rokeach, M. Wilson, J. Gibbs, and E. Gutierrez-Hoyt. (2001) Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronique de Communication, Vol 11, No. 2.

• Does a networked society foster participatory democracy, or is commitment to place-based community still a necessity for civic engagement? M. Wilson. (2002) In Citizenship and Participation in the Information Age, M. Pendakur and R. Harris (eds.). Aurora: Garamond Press, pp. 372-387. ISBN: 1-55193-035-8.
• Communication, organizations, and diverse populations, M. Wilson. (2002). In Third International Conference on Cultural Attitudes towards Technology and Communication, F. Sudweeks and C. Ess (eds.). Publisher: Murdoch University, Australia, pp. 68-88. ISBN: 86905-799-5.

Courses taught at La Sierra include: Gender and Communication, Communication Theory, Organizational Communication, Communication Research, and Edutainment.