Carolyn Cunningham
Executive Director
Ph.D., Assistant Professor, MA in Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University
Carolyn Cunningham is Professor and Chair of the Communication and Leadership Studies Department at Gonzaga University. She teaches classes in social media, women and leadership and digital storytelling. She is the author (with NW-AML board member Heather Crandall) of “The Climate Girl Effect” and has researched and presented widely on gender, communication and media. She is passionate about helping kids use media to express themselves.
John S. Caputo
Board Member
Ph.D., Professor Emeritus and founder of the Master‘s Program in Communication and Leadership at Gonzaga University.
Dr. John Caputo is co-founder of NW-AML (formerly NW-ARM), which he founded because he cares deeply about the impact of media on our daily lives. Dr. Caputo has taught communication courses for more than 50 years, including a distinguished career at Gonzaga University. His areas of expertise include media and social values, communication theory, intercultural and interpersonal communication. He is the author of six books, a lecturer and consultant and has been a guest on many radio and television programs. Dr. Caputo has been honored as a Visiting Scholar In-Residence at the University of Kent at Canterbury, England, and at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He has directed many students overseas in Cagli and Florence, Italy, and Derry and Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Kristina Johnson Morehouse
Board Member
M.S., senior lecturer in Communication Studies at Gonzaga University, adjunct professor in the Communication and Leadership program.
Ms. Morehouse spent 13 years writing as a journalist at newspapers including The Kansas City Star and The Spokesman-Review. She is a long-time faculty member with Gonzaga University, where she serves as a senior lecturer in Communication Studies teaching a variety of classes, including communication and culture, communication and technology, ethnography, academic and journalistic writing, and media literacy courses.
She is very involved in mentoring programs for first- generation college students from under-represented populations. Her research interests include storytelling, media literacy, the intersection of social media and social change, and communication pedagogy in the multicultural classroom.
Heather Crandall
Board Member
Associate Professor, MA in Communication and Leadership Studies at Gonzaga University
Dr. Heather Crandall has been an active member of our Board for over 15 years. Dr. Crandall is a professor in Communication Studies at Gonzaga University. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies from Washington State University where she studied narratives of the working poor in prime-time television crime dramas. That experience, combined with a long stint teaching a Mass Media and Society course, motivated her to serve on NW-AML to further promote media literacy. Her day job includes teaching the courses Rhetoric in Civic Life, Rhetoric of Social Change, and Analyzing Public Texts and Discourse.
Nichole Bogarosh
Board Member
Ph.D., Faculty, Communication Studies & Women and Gender Studies, Whitworth University
Dr. Nichole Bogarosh is a freelance strategic communication professional (having formerly worked full-time in the profession for nonprofits and businesses in the Northwest) and an associate professor of Communication Studies at Whitworth University. She teaches a variety of communication courses at Whitworth and is the former director of their Women’s & Gender Studies Program, current director of the Communication & Culture Minor and advisor for the student-run public relations agency, Beyond the Pines, which works with local nonprofit clients on strategic communication projects. Her research focuses on the representation of marginalized groups in media, particularly in popular culture, and the development of critical media analysis skills.
She is also passionate about volunteering for causes she cares about, and is especially involved in organizations and events connected to media and the arts. Some highlights include working with the Spokane International Film Festival during their 25th anniversary, being elected to the Spark Central Board of Directors in spring 2024, and serving as a volunteer for the 10th anniversary of the Bentonville Film Festival.
Dawn Bayman
Board Member
KSPS Public Television
Dawn Bayman is station manager at KSPS Public Television. She has many years of experience as a television producer, executive producer and manager at commercial and non-commercial television stations, including directing news, local programming, production and promotion departments. Dawn also formerly taught as an adjunct instructor at Whitworth University, educating students in news and production.
Mary Stamp
Board Member
Editor of The Fig Tree
Freelance ecumenical journalist Mary Stamp, co-founded the newspaper “The Fig Tree” in the spring of 1984 under the Spokane Christian Coalition, later the Spokane Council of Ecumenical Ministries. In 2000, it became an independent nonprofit that eventually added the Resource Directory, website, social media, interfaith dialogue and educational events. As the paper’s editor and publisher, she was thrilled to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the publication, spring 2024.
Mary has been involved with the Northwest Alliance for Media Literacy for more than 20 years, refining understandings of peace and solutions journalism that she was putting into practice with The Fig Tree. Her editorials continue to raise issues of media awareness and call for both responsible journalism and responsible media consumption.
James McPherson
Professor of Communication Studies at Whitworth University, Retired
James McPherson is a former professional newspaper journalist who recently retired from Whitworth, where he taught media studies and journalism. He is a past president of the American Journalism Historians Association. He has authored two books, The Conservatism Resurgence and the Press: The Media’s Role in the Rise of the Right and Journalism at the End of the American Century, 1965-Present, along with numerous other book chapters and journal articles. He also advised Whitworth University’s student newspaper, which the Society of Professional Journalists tabbed as 2009’s best non-daily student newspaper in the nation. He blogs about media and politics at http://jmcpherson.wordpress.com/.
Northwest Alliance for Media Literacy 