October 16, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - An organizational communication pioneer who is NASA’s longtime communication advisor will share his expertise with Western Kentucky University students, faculty and community Oct. 22-24.
Professor Phillip Tompkins began advising NASA on organizational communication in 1967 at the request of legendary rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He continues to serve as a consultant and workshop presenter for the agency.
His findings about the miscommunication that led to the Challenger disaster were cited in congressional hearings. His 2005 book, “Apollo, Challenger, and Columbia: The Decline of the Space Program,” chronicles 45 years of communications triumphs and defeats by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
His public presentation and book signing will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 23, in the Mass Media and Technology Hall Auditorium. His subject will be “Apollo, Challenger, Columbia: Communication as Risk Management at NASA.”
He also will address the Department of Communication, which is his host, on the following afternoon on “Rhetorical Foundations of Organizational Communication” and will speak to graduate students on “Public Scholarship” Thursday evening, Oct. 25. Both presentations will be in the Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center.
Tompkins is a Fellow and Past President of the International Communication Association. He is professor emeritus in communication at the University of Colorado; a former dean of the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education at Purdue University; and the founding chair of the Organizational Communication Program at the State University of Albany. He has authored five books, 23 books chapters and countless articles.
Tompkins’ appearance at WKU is part of the Department of Communication’s Visiting Scholar Series, which has the theme “Disaster and Dialogue: Communication Research in the 21st Century.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Communication Department at (270) 745-3296.
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