2025 Organizational Sciences and Communication Newsletter

Message from the Department Chair
Department Spotlights
Faculty Kudos
Alumni Class Notes

Message from the Chair

Lynn Offerman outside sitting with a fluffy golden dog

Greetings to all of our alumni from the George Washington University Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication (OSC)!

It’s been a busy year for us, and in this newsletter, you’ll read about a few of the exciting things happening in the department, including the achievements of our community of alumni, faculty and students.

Thanks to the generosity of Marilyn Gowing, MA ’75, PhD ’81, the Industrial-Organizational (I-O) Psychology PhD program had 10 doctoral students present at the annual SIOP (Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology) conference in Denver. We also sponsored a fun social event for alums, faculty and current students. If you missed this year, we hope to catch you next year in New Orleans!

For the third year in a row, the winner of the Capital Speaker’s Club $7,500 scholarship was a student in our communication program, Lily Cohen. Well done! And OSC was well represented in CCAS’ Research Showcase by 10 groups of undergraduates from OS’s 4161 class. There are photos and more coverage in this newsletter!

Thank you so much for your support and involvement. Please stay in touch and send us information about what’s happening in your world. We love to hear from you!

Sincerely,

Lynn Offermann
Professor and Chair

Department Spotlights

Representatives from the Capital Speakers Club attended the Comm program awards night and presented sophomore communication major Lily Cohen with a scholarship certificate for $7500.

Big Wins, Bigger Impact: Comm Students Leading the Way

For three consecutive years, GW Communication students have placed first or second in the Capital Speaker’s Club scholarship competition, earning over $40,000 in tuition support.

Recent winners include Christine Yared, 1st place (2023); Lois Hargrove, 1st place and Linnea Kerber, 2nd place (2024); and Lily Cohen, 2nd place (2025). Congratulations, Lois and Christine!

Our students are having real-world impact. Dr. Wendy Riemann’s professional communication course partnered with the St. Johns County Clerk's office to produce PSAs on property fraud. Dr. YoungJu Shin’s health comm students worked with local nonprofits on projects addressing mental health, senior wellness to apply scholarship to community needs.

Graduate students are also making waves: Maha Ageeb received a UNA-NCA Graduate Fellowship, and Ali Rizvi was competitively selected to participate in the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings. Through Dr. Hundal’s Community Engaged Scholarship initiative, students are creating marketing campaigns, developing communication plans, leading workshops and producing virtual panels and podcast series to apply communication skills to real-world projects.

OS Students Excel in Research and the Field!

OSC was well represented at this year’s CCAS Research Showcase—as we always are! We had 10 groups of undergraduates from ORSC 4161, our Research Methods capstone class, represented at the event. Way to go, everybody!

Students from the Research Methods capstone class with Dr. Nils Olsen

A large group of students standing with Professor Gelaya Debebe in a marble-floored atrium — Students in Dr. Gelaye Debebe’s undergraduate Global Organizations course at the World Bank

Our OS students learn in the field as well as the lab! Students in Dr. Gelaye Debebe’s undergraduate Global Organizations course had the opportunity to go on a site visit to the World Bank to learn about energy and sustainability, as well as a trip to Accion International’s Center for Financial Inclusion. Talk about action learning! Only at GW!

L to R: current students Anjishnu Chakrabarti and Petra Momcilovic; I-O alums Ahleah Miles and Jenny Perez; current students Gracie Schirle and Greg Lapp. — From left: current students Anjishnu Chakrabarti and Petra Momcilovic; I-O alums Ahleah Miles and Jenny Perez; current students Gracie Schirle and Greg Lapp

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Hosts SIOP Party for Alumni, Students and Faculty

The I-O Psych program was delighted to host an on-site reception (the 1st reception since 2019!) at the SIOP 2025 annual conference in Denver, Colorado. With financial assistance from CCAS Alumni Relations, and contributions from some of our recent alumni (thank you, Ahleah Miles, Jenny Perez and Abbey Salvas!) we were able to reserve the VIP room at the Corner Office near the convention center. The party was a big hit! We had a total of over 34 attendees, with a lot of alumni, current students, faculty and friends. People were very excited and grateful to be able to get together this year and excited to keep the tradition going in future years. Make your plans to be at SIOP in New Orleans next year (4/30-5/2). We’d love to see you again!

Thanks to the generous donations of our alumni who have contributed to the James Mosel Scholarship Fund, we have reached enough balance in the fund to be able to begin to offer an annual Mosel Summer Research Award to support I-O PhD students’ research activities in summer. Our first recipient of this award is Gracie Schirle, a second year I-O PhD student, who was selected to work on her research project titled, “Examining the Impact of Obesity Stigma on Leadership Trajectories.” She will work with I-O faculty on this and a number of other projects this summer. Thanks to all who have contributed to the fund to be able to offer this new award!

Faculty Kudos

Kudos to I-O Professors Drs. Tiffany Bisbey, Lynn Offermann and Yisheng Peng for all having work presented at the annual SIOP meeting in Denver along with their doctoral student co-authors!
Congrats to Dr. Gelaye Debebe for her 2024 chapter, “Defensive Diversity Management as a Tool of Genderwashing in Exclusive Talent Management,” which appeared in Genderwashing in Leadership: Power, Policies, and Politics.
A huge shoutout to Joe McDonald and Don Ritzenhein for their exceptional service in standardizing the Oral Communication course and adopting open-access textbooks—saving students thousands of dollars and raising the bar for teaching excellence!
Congrats to Dr. Yisheng Peng for his 2024 article on “Proactive employees perceive coworker ostracism: The moderating effect of team envy and the behavioral outcome of production deviance” published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
Congratulations to Dr. Wendy Riemann, professor of communication, on publishing her first article in Psychology Today! Check out “5 Real Tips for Supporting Someone Experiencing a Breakup.”
Kudos to Dr. YoungJu Shin, professor and Comm MA graduate director, for receiving a Top Paper Award at the Korea Health Communication Association for her research on suicide typologies. Dr. Shin was also invited to deliver talks at Seoul National University and the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Explore her recent article, “Effects of Acculturation Stress and Identity Gaps on Mexican-heritage Adolescent Depressive Symptoms and Substance Use Behavior.”
Congrats to Comm Prof Dr. Daniel Sude! His latest research was featured in the PsyPost article titled, “'A concerning finding’: New study on fake news detection uncovers a disturbing trend.”

Alumni Class Notes

Demetrius Apostolis, BA ’25, was accepted into the highly competitive United Airlines Pilot Training Program en route to becoming a commercial airlines pilot. He was profiled in GW Today.
Maggie Bahou, MA ’09, is the chief people officer for K-LOVE Media headquartered near Nashville, Tennessee.
Takeisha Carr, MA ’18, successfully defended her PhD dissertation titled “A Phenomenological Study Examining the Impacts of Algorithmic Bias in HR Practices on the Career Trajectories of Black Professionals” at Marymount University.
Nicole Chung, MA ’24, successfully completed her thesis, titled “Trust Through a Screen: How Technology Impacts Trust Building in Hybrid Teams.” She was invited to present her thesis at her employer’s knowledge-sharing initiative.
Max Deem, BA ’15, is COO and VP of COMPASS Coffee
Yujie (Leah) Ji, MA ’24, received doctoral program admission and a full assistantship to the University of Kentucky’s Communication Department. She is currently working with Dr. Shin on a book chapter titled “Mental Health Communication and Loneliness,” which will be published in Communication and Mental Health in Global Contexts: Opportunities for Transformation, Representation, and Social Justice.
Sydney Nelson, BA ’19, is currently completing her first year at Harvard Law School.
David Perchuk, BA ’25 and his “Looks Max” team came in 1st in the U.S. for the L’Oreal "Brandstorm" competition and will be going to Paris this summer to compete against teams from around the world. He credits using some of Kotter’s concepts he learned in Dr. Taylor Ruggles’ Leading Change class to frame his pitch in the competition. The team was profiled in GW Today.
Sarah Reswow, BA ’18, is living in New York City working as a global benefits consultant at Sequoia Consulting Group. She advises VC-backed tech companies on their global employee benefits strategy.
Alexis Sandler, MD., BA ’18, is working as an orthopaedic surgeon
Paul Taylor, MA ’02, is currently the department chair and instructor in the Construction Technology Department at Northwest Arkansas Community College. He was in the Air Force Intern program which partnered with the university for professional development.