The School of Communication faculty and students sincerely thank donors for their support this past year. Donors like you enabled us to send undergraduate and graduate students to key National Communication Association and Western States Communication Association conventions, vital for building career connections beyond the classroom.
Our faculty and students were also quite creative in making connections between coursework and larger research issues with support from your gifts. For example, The Center for Communication, Health, and the Public Good, with the Institute for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Justice, hosted a screening and panel discussion of the SDSU faculty short flm “Code Red.” Our Forensics (speech & debate) Team qualifed for both national and international championship tournaments, sending team members as far away as South Korea to compete on the global stage.
The School of Communication surpassed an enrollment milestone this year, serving more than 1,000 majors in our Communication and Health Communication bachelor’s degree programs. Our Communication graduating class was so large that we ranked as the 6th most popular major of the 2025 SDSU graduating class! Our faculty continue to be committed to high-quality learning experiences inside and outside the classroom, mentoring undergraduate and graduate students across their SDSU educational journeys.
Thank you for your generous, life-changing gifts. Your ongoing support helps students, faculty, and staf enact our vision of sustained excellence in advancing communication scholarship, promoting social justice, fostering relationships, and enhancing the public good.
Heather E. Canary, Ph.D. Professor and Director, School of Communication
Propelling the SDSU Community Forward
Tom and Donna Bergelis Golich Scholarship Endowment in Communication
This planned gift will support SDSU’s School of Communication and the SDSU-afliated radio station KPBS.
This generous contribution to the School of Communication is the largest in the School’s history and is intended to support lifelong learning. Once established as an endowment, it will provide scholarships in perpetuity for Communication students with fnancial need. A portion of the endowment is being funded now, allowing essential scholarship support to be available to students immediately.
Class of 2025 – School of Communication
Thriving in the Aztec Experience
Danielle Gonzales, Class of 2025
Class Level: Master's Candidate
College: Professional Studies and Fine Arts
Major: Communication
“I always joke that I love SDSU so much—of course I had to come back and get my master’s here!”
In her research at SDSU, Danielle Gonzales explored potential strategies to correct the disinformation around COVID-19 vaccinations. Upon graduation, Gonzales hopes to become an instructor or work in medical corporate sales.
Gonzales grew her love for teaching as a graduate student associate, leading a section of COMM 103: Oral Communication. “Without this program, I would have never realized my passion for teaching. I’m secure in my ability to efectively transfer knowledge and relay complex ideas in ways that resonate with my audience. These have been crucial transferable skills that are also helpful in medical sales opportunities, where I’m in a position to relay complex information to physicians, nurses, and medical staf that is relevant to their practice and patients,” Gonzales said.
“There is no more rewarding feeling than watching my students grow from being fearful and insecure to confdent and knowledgeable public speakers,” Gonzales said. “
Without this program, I would have never realized my passion for teaching. – Danielle
Noelle Bunce, Class of 2025 Class Level: Undergraduate Student College: Professional Studies and Fine Arts Major: Health Communication
Noelle Bunce currently works in the reproductive health feld with a company that supports same-sex parents and individuals facing infertility.
While at SDSU, Bunce participated in the Health Communications Student Organization, the Peer Health Education program, and Lambda Pi Eta.
“Being a part of the Peer Health Education program exposed me to the world of public health and the challenges of overcoming stigmatized conversations, translating academic language for diverse audiences, and devoting time and energy toward something larger than a grade or participation award. I found the connection between the people I intended to serve and the skills I had been practicing—without even realizing it—in each and every academic experience,” Bunce said.
She credited Dr. Rebecca DeSouza with helping shape a memorable, critical, and passionate academic journey at SDSU. Dr. DeSouza’s introductory health communication course inspired Bunce to enter the feld.
“If it weren’t for her contagious passion and unrelenting support in my development as a student, researcher, and teacher of others, I may not have had the opportunity to meet the rest of the department,” Bunce said.
“I found the connection between the people I intended to serve and the skills I had been practicing in each and every academic experience. –Noelle
Ektarina Pavlova, Class of 2025 Class Level: Undergraduate Student College: Professional Studies and Fine Arts
Major: Communication
At SDSU, Ekaterina Pavlova has been involved in the Research Apprenticeship Program with Dr. Rachel Record, Lambda Pi Eta, the SDSU Student Symposium, and the Western States Communication Association (WSCA) conference.
She is currently interning with the San Diego County Ofce, where she attends local events, networks, and presents on the county’s initiatives. Pavlova hopes to become a director of communication, focusing on crisis communication or diplomacy.
“I am driven by a desire to make meaningful contributions to the feld by addressing real-world challenges,” Pavlova said.
Pavlova shared that Dr. Kathleen Czech was especially impactful during her time at SDSU. In Dr. Czech’s Qualitative Methods of Communication course, Pavlova wrote a paper that went on to win Top Paper at the WSCA conference.
She is also excited to share that she has been accepted into SDSU’s graduate communication program, beginning in Fall 2025.
“
I
am driven by a desire to make meaningful contributions to the feld by addressing real-world challenges. – Ektarina
Celebrating Shared Success
Statistics of Interest
The School of Communication currently has 12 tenured and tenure-track faculty members, along with 27 full- and part-time lecturers.
We proudly serve more than 950 undergraduate students majoring in communication and health communication.
Our graduate program includes nearly 30 master’s students, most of whom serve as teaching associates or research assistants.
Recent Highlights
The SDSU School of Communication is committed to excellence in teaching, research, and community service. Our faculty are internationally recognized for their research and consistently secure funding from both internal and external sources, including the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. Program reviews show that our faculty’s research productivity surpasses that of many communication doctoral programs.
In 2019, the School of Communication was honored as the Outstanding Master’s Program by the National Communication Association’s Master’s Education Section. In addition, our faculty regularly receive institutional, regional, and national awards for their outstanding teaching. 950+
We proudly serve more than 950 undergraduate students majoring in Communication and Health Communication.
National Recognition
Our faculty are globally recognized researchers who consistently earn funding from internal sources, the NSF, and the National Institutes of Health.
Faculty Achievements
Rachael Record, Ph.D.
Title: Professor, School of Communication College: Professional Studies and Fine Arts
Achievement: Rachael Record has been awarded the 2024–25 Senate Excellence in Teaching Award—a prestigious honor presented to one professor each academic year.
The award honors a faculty member for exceptional teaching and contributions to students, their discipline, and the campus community. The recipient is named Senate Distinguished Professor and receives an honorarium. The University Senate, part of SDSU’s shared governance, grants the award.
“Dr. Record is just a down-to-earth, humble person whose brilliance comes through in all that she does, but she is never one to shine the light on herself,” said Heather Canary, director of the School of Communication. “It’s my joy as her director, her colleague, and her friend to shine the light on her brilliance so others can see it too.”
“Dr. Record has a unique blend of being extremely insightful and rigorous in her scholarly work, while also being very approachable and open in her teaching and student mentoring,” Canary added. “She has a way of guiding her students into becoming rigorous scholars, practitioners, and lifelong learners.”
Record mentors both undergraduate and graduate students on theses, comprehensive exams, and research papers. She also leads an apprenticeship program in the School of Communication that trains undergraduates in team-based research.
“Her dedication and support changed my life. It’s so evident that she deserves such highly praised recognition for the work she does for her students, the School of Communication, and the San Diego community,” one student shared.
School of Communication Professor Matthew Savage described Dr. Record’s commitment to educational excellence, mentorship, and inclusivity as qualities that “have made her a transformative force in the lives of countless students.”
“Dr. Record’s teaching efectiveness is evident in her dynamic, student-centered approach,” Savage said. “She continually creates learning experiences that are both intellectually rigorous and relevant to real-world applications.”
