BCOM, 12th Edition

Dr. Carol Lehman is a professor emerita in the Management and Information Systems Department at Mississippi State University, an AACSB-accredited school. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching business communication. Dr. Lehman earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business education from the University of Southern Mississippi and her doctorate from the University of Arkansas. Dr. Lehman has taught organizational communication, a core requirement for all business majors, and an MBA-level multimedia presentations course. She is a frequent presenter at the national and regional meetings of the Association for Business Communication (ABC). She and Dr. DuFrene sponsor the Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award for ABC. Her consulting and training activities for industry have focused on multimedia development, business presentations and written communication.

Dr. Debbie DuFrene is an associate dean of the Rusche College of Business at Stephen F. Austin State University, an AACSB-accredited school. She has more than 25 years of experience teaching business communication, including 20 years at Stephen F. Austin. Dr. DuFrene earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business education from Nicholls State University and her doctorate from the University of Houston. She serves on the international board of directors for the Association for Business Communication (ABC) and has been a business communication consultant to various organizations from the business, industry and education sectors. She and Dr. Lehman sponsor the Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teacher Award for ABC.

Dr. Robyn Walker is a professor emerita of management communication at the Center for Management Communication at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, where she taught business writing and business communication to undergraduate and graduate students. She earned a master's and a doctoral degree in communication from the University of Utah and a master's degree in professional writing from the University of Southern California. She also holds an M.B.A. Dr. Walker has held faculty appointments at the University of Arizona and California State University-Fullerton. Before entering academia, Dr. Walker worked as a professional writer and editor with such organizations as United Press International, McGraw-Hill and Novell. She also has worked as a writing consultant for companies such as Hoffman LaRoche Pharmaceuticals and Franklin-Covey, Inc. She has published articles and has delivered dozens of conference papers on intercultural communication, computer-mediated communication, communication leadership and business communication pedagogy. She is the editor of Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and former editor of the International Journal of Business Communication. She is co-editor of Discourse Perspectives on Organizational Communication (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press); co-author of LEADERSHIP TALK: A DISCOURSE APPROACH TO LEADER EMERGENCE (Business Expert Press) and FUNDAMENTAL THEORIES OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION: LAYING A FOUNDATION FOR THE FIELD (Palgrave-Macmillan). She is also a member of the Association of Business Communication (ABC).