Dr. Deirdre Johnston, professor of communication and chairperson of the department at Hope College, has been honored for professional service by the Michigan chapter of the American Council of Education (ACE).
Johnston received the chapter's "2007 Outstanding Campus Programming Award" on Tuesday, June 12, during the annual state meeting of the ACE Network for Women Leaders in Higher Education, held in Lansing.
The award recognizes her role in organizing a meeting of Hope faculty and administrative staff women this past April. During the meeting, the college's women faculty and administrators committed to gathering on a regular basis beginning this fall to provide leadership development resources and to support and encourage one another to pursue greater leadership roles in higher education.
Johnston has been a member of the Hope faculty since 1994, and has served as department chair since 2003. She has been the college's institutional representative to the ACE's Michigan Network for Women Leaders in Higher Education for the past year, and during the June meeting presented "Balancing Work and Family," based on a six-year research project.
As a scholar she specializes in intercultural communication research, persuasion, interpersonal communication, conflict, mass media effects and motherhood research. She is currently on a year-long sabbatical leave to work on a book on global communication, with a focus on communication ethics and how cultures maintain their identity in the face of globalizing communication.
Johnston has written and co-written several articles published in scholarly journals, and is author of the textbook "The Art and Science of Persuasion," published by McGraw-Hill. She has been conducting her research on motherhood with Dr. Debra H. Swanson, and their most recent publications include a new research study on work-family balance and a book chapter in "Family Communication," published by Allyn & Bacon. In 2003 one of their articles was a finalist for the 2003 Rosabeth Moss Kanter Award for Excellence in Work-Family Research.
Johnston joined the Hope faculty as an assistant professor, and was promoted to associate professor in 1999. In the fall of 2005 she presented the college's Opening Convocation address.
Prior to coming to Hope, Johnston had taught at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis., for five years. She also taught at Ohio University in Athens during 1988-89.
She began her study of communication at Drake University, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism in 1983. She completed her Master of Arts in communication at the University of Texas in 1985, and her doctorate in communication at the University of Iowa in 1988.
The Michigan ACE Network was formed in 1978 to promote the leadership of women in Michigan colleges and universities and to improve the general climate for women in Michigan higher education. The network provides professional development, networking, mentoring, advocacy and support for women in Michigan's higher education system. The network is open to all public and private, two-year and four-year institutions in the state, and requires institutional membership for participation in its activities.