Dr. Danielle R. Mehlman-Brightwell is Assistant Professor of Communication of the department of media and visual arts.  Dr. Mehlman-Brightwell earned a Ph.D. in communication media and instructional technology from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Mehlman-Brightwell teaches oral communication, news writing & reporting, writing for radio, TV, and new media, media sales, broadcast performance, and special topics, e.g., production of instructional videos. She serves as the director of student media, The Trumpet and co-executive producer of Newsline 14. She also serves as an adviser to media communication- journalism/public relations majors and broadcasting majors for West Liberty University.

Dr. Mehlman-Brightwell has published peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Communication Technology and International Journal of Communication, including book reviews.  Her dissertation published on ProQuest examined the relationship between Facebook users’ dependency, their perceptions of news credibility, and their concern of foreign interference in the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Presidential elections. Her research interests span mass communication and political communication by studying the effects of mass media on citizens’ communicative activity.

Dr. Mehlman-Brightwell serves as Faculty Senate alternative and co-chair of research, creative activity and performance (RECAP) symposium for graduate and undergraduates. She also serves on the distance education committee and Hughes Lecture series representative for the media and visual arts department. Formally, she was the assistant editor for The Journal of Communications Media Studies.

To view more information about Dr. Mehlman-Brightwell, visit her professional online portfolio.