Communication Faculty and Staff

Bio

Ms. Baird was born in Decatur, Illinois. As a military brat, she has lived in many places, including Mississippi, Montauk, Germany, Nevada, Turkey, England, South Carolina, and now New Mexico, which she calls home. Ms. Baird received her bachelor of science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, in Community Health Education and her Master?s of Art in Communication from Eastern New Mexico University. She is now pursuing her doctorate from Capella University in Leadership in Higher Education. Ms. Baird has been an adjunct for the Communication Department since 2019

Bio

Lonnie Berry was born and raised in Roosevelt County and comes from a line of early county settlers. After working in city government for 28 years, he returned to ENMU and graduated with his B.A., and then his M.A. Lonnie has worked in Television for 6 years, as an on air anchor, and as a News producer. Lonnie is also a free lance writer, having articles and stories in various publications. Lonnie was a weekly writer for the local newspaper for several years.

Lonnie loves all things video, from shooting to editing, and spends much of his spare time doing video projects. Lonnie also likes playing guitar and spending time with his animals. Lonnie is the official family videographer for his 7 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren.

Bio

Dr. Dobson is a military brat, originally from the East Coast. She chose to remain in New Mexico following her father's retirement from the Air Force. Dobson is a first-generation college student who took the "long way" through higher education. Working her way through school, she earned a BS in Journalism, MA in Communication, and Ph.D. in Education. She has worked as a journalist and public relations practitioner, including stints as a reporter, photographer, copy editor, feature writer, news editor, magazine publisher and free-lance writer. For ten years, she was the Promotions Coordinator for the College of Fine Arts at Eastern New Mexico University, while teaching part time for the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In 2001, she left the College of Fine Arts to teach full time in the Department of Communication, where she has served as department chair since Fall 2010. Her research interests include gender communication and media/mass communication, and she is currently working on a project examining bullying in academia. At the undergraduate and graduate levels, she teaches courses in journalism, photojournalism, public relations, and interpersonal communication. Dobson and her husband, Wayne Head, live in Curry County where they supervise an eclectic collection of rescued animals. She is also a youth minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Clovis. Along with serving as the director of Christian education, she leads the adult, youth, and puppet troupe drama ministries. She is a Certified Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and travels throughout the Presbytery of Sierra Blanca to fulfill those duties.

Bio

Jeff Gentry is a professor of communication at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico. He earned a BA in Communication Arts from Eastern Montana College, an MA in Speech Communication from Colorado State University, and a Ph.D. in Communication from Oklahoma University. His current research interests include political communication and the rhetoric of science, among others. He enjoys helping students overcome their inhibitions in sharing their ideas and talents.

Gentry has produced six public affairs specials for television and many Readers Theatre productions. He is a songwriter and has authored several plays (see the New Play Exchange at https://newplayexchange.org). A full-time college faculty member since 1988, he is trained in rhetorical criticism, content analysis, survey research, statistics, and ethnography.

Originally from Denver, Colorado, he has also lived in Montana, Kansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. His outside interests include world geography, outdoor activities, and long-distance running. Jeff thoroughly enjoys meeting prospective students and participating in community events.

Bio

Stephen M. Hardin has been teaching at the college level for over 13 years. The first half of his teaching career was structured in what most would consider to be the traditional style of face-to-face learning. The second half of his career has consisted of online instruction, which spans across four institutions. Over the years Stephen has taught a variety communication courses which include, public speaking, interpersonal communication, introduction to communication and small group communication. Instructor Hardin holds his bachelor?s in visual communication from Lubbock Christian University and his master?s in mass communication from ENMU. Mr. Hardin has plans to pursue his doctorate but needs to carve out time in his busy schedule to achieve this goal.

Stephen is the director of development for a non-profit organization, which is near and dear to his heart. He is also a member of SAG-AFTRA, so you may see him in a movie or television show every now and then. Stephen has been married to his wife for over ten years and they have a 3-year-old son.

A couple quotes Hardin has come across and shares with his students each semester are as follows, "Every expert was once a beginner" and "Be stubborn about your goals, but flexible about your methods". Hardin wants his students to know, you don?t have to start off as a pro, but you do need to progress as the semester goes on and be more equipped by the end. He also wants them to know if they put in the work and keep at it, they will reach their desired destination.

Bio

Colt Owens is from a family that settled in eastern New Mexico over a century ago. As a child he had an opportunity to work as an extra in Television and movies. This led to a love of visual storytelling and the technical craft of working on a soundstage.

He earned a BS in Anthropology with a minor in broadcast in 2005. He then worked for PBS for 5 years as a Director on Duty before returning to ENMU to receive a MA in Communication. He has been a full time faculty member at ENMU since 2014. He spends his free time over analyzing both good and bad movies, as well as observing internet culture.

Bio

Dr. Darrell Roe, Associate Professor of Communication at Eastern New Mexico University, is originally from the Waco, Texas area. He attended Baylor University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in German and in Radio Television in 1986 and a Masters Degree in Communication Studies in 1988. He received his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Georgia in 1998. Dr. Roe began teaching media production and communication in 1989 at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma and has since taught at Sam Houston State, Marist College, Texas A&M University, and East Texas Baptist University.

Dr. Roe has studied the history of broadcasting, but recently much of his work has focused on the influences that media have on audiences. He especially enjoys studying political communication and analyzing media rhetoric. His recent studies include nine research papers analyzing the tweets made by President Donald Trump, and he has studied social media conspiracies and low information rationality (anti intellectualism) regarding COVID messaging, and critical race theory. His most recent project looks at audiences para social interactions with TV personalities.

Bio

Qian Yu is the Assistant Professor of Mass Communication in the department of Communication. After more than ten years of significant professional experience in a wide range of media industry, she is making the transition to scholar exploring digital change in relation to journalism professionalism and media management. When she was a business reporter and columnist in a large national media firm, she traveled across the globe, interviewing top international executives, and wrote numbers of long form cover stories. As an active scholar, she has maintained a strong academic performance, some of her studies were accepted by several international conferences, such as AEJMC