The George Mason University Faculty Senate on Wednesday elected Associate Professor of Communication Melissa Broeckelman-Post as chair for 2021-22. She ran unopposed.
Broeckelman-Post, at Mason since 2013, is the Basic Course Director in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and a senior scholar in the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being.
A member of the Faculty Senate since 2014 and chair of the senate’s nominations committee since 2018, Broeckelman-Post served on the Mason Core committee for eight years, including four as co-chair. She has served on the Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force’s Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee, the ADVANCE Advisory Committee, the Faculty Interests Working Group for Online University Expansion, and nearly a dozen other university committees, task forces, and working groups.
“All of those responsibilities required that I develop deep institutional knowledge and collaborate with others from across all parts of campus,” said Broeckelman-Post, currently Faculty Senate chair pro tempore. “In the work across all of those committees, I have seen faculty governance at work.
“I believe deeply in the importance of shared governance, I care deeply about the mission of our university, and I believe I can lead us in continuing to grow as a strong faculty working in collaboration with each other and the administration.”
Broeckelman-Post succeeds Shannon Davis, who is stepping down after serving two one-year terms as Faculty Senate chair. Next month Davis will begin a new post as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs at Mason’s Korea campus.
Broeckelman-Post earned her undergraduate degree in English and master’s in speech rhetoric and communication, both at Kansas State University. She earned her PhD in communication studies at Ohio University in 2009.
She was an assistant professor at California State University, Los Angeles, from 2009 to 2013 before joining the Mason faculty in 2013. Broeckelman-Post is the co-author of 33 peer-reviewed journal articles and three national communication textbooks.