Mark Brodie

Adjunct Professor Communication Studies, Communications Executive, Content Creator & Patent Holder, Emerson College

Mark is a digital marketing and digital narrative expert with experience in an array of projects, productions, publications and services in markets as diverse as Europe, Asia, Southeast Asia, Central / South America and the Middle East. As a marketing and imaging professional, Mark's leadership and creative skills are focused on the development of programs, organizations, technologies, and audiences that believe in consistently pushing the status quo. His work is manifest in support of a number of health and technology related startups that improve the public's well-being. His current projects include development work with Sustainable Schools International of Cambodia, Public and Sports diplomacy programs in Rosarito Mexico and the USO.

Course: Digital Storytelling

Dr. Deion Hawkins

Assistant Professor, Argumentation and Advocacy; Director, Forensics, Emerson College

Dr. Deion Hawkins, PhD (George Mason University), M.A. (Marshall University), B.A. (Ohio State University) is an assistant professor of Argumentation & Advocacy and the Director of Forensics at Emerson College. He started competitive public speaking and debating at age 13, and began coaching in 2012. Since 2012, Dr. Hawkins has coached multiple national finalists including 2 national championships in debate. In addition to debate, Dr. Hawkins is a health communication scholar whose research utilizes intercultural theory to mitigate health disparities. Deion is an avid social justice advocate for marginalized communities.

Course: The Basics of Public Speaking

Rick Rendon

Founder, Empower Peace

Mr. Rendon is the founder of Empower Peace and Senior Partner of The Rendon Group, a Boston-based communications firm that specializes in public affairs campaigns. Empower Peace was founded on the premise that young people, through communication and the promotion of cultural understanding, could help pave the way for peace. Mr. Rendon holds strong to the beliefthat our future generation has the ability to create change and that they hold the key to breaking down the cultural barriers that threaten to divide the Western, Muslim and Arab worlds.

Throughout his career, Mr. Rendon has taken great pride in creating and developing innovative community-based initiatives and social campaigns. Working with community leaders and activists, Mr. Rendon helped create and organize the world’s largest school-based racial harmony campaign. For seven years “TEAM HARMONY” brought together over 15,000 middle and high school students from throughout New England to discuss the issues of hatred and prejudice and to develop programs to promote diversity and harmony in schools and communities region wide. Team Harmony’s keynote speakers have included former United States President Bill Clinton, United States Senator and former First Lady, Hillary Clinton, former United States Attorney General Janet Reno, and the Reverend Bernice King (daughter of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.).

Mr. Rendon was also the creator and co-founder of the school-based program, “UNITED WE STAND FOR AMERICA”. This program was developed post 9/11 to provide youth with an opportunity to express their emotions and feelings in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Students throughout Massachusetts were recruited to create individual messages of peace, hope, and patriotism on six-inch tiles of red, white and blue fabric. This fabric was then assembled to create a giant quilt of an American flag (nearly half the size of a football field). Over 700 schools and 50,000 students participated in this program.

Mr. Rendon, working with the Islamic Society of Boston, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, and the Governor’s Task Force on Hate Crimes, developed the “OUTNUMBER THE HATE” campaign. This Massachusetts school-based campaign encouraged students to rally against hate, prejudice and intolerance experienced by Muslim and Arabs in the United States post-9/11. In response to the 1,700 hate crimes reported against Muslims and Arabs living in America, Massachusetts’ students responded by creating OVER 1,700 messages of respect, diversity and tolerance. In addition to over thirty years of experience as a senior communications consultant, Mr. Rendon served previously as a Public Information Officer for the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and as a member of United States President Jimmy Carter’s national political staff.

Keri Thompson

Senior Lecturer, Emerson College;
Chair, Cohasset Select Board

Keri Thompson is a Senior Lecturer at Emerson College and specializes in public speaking, politics and social media. She has extensive public speaking experience and has taught, coached and lectured on the subject at various schools and organizations across the country. She specializes in coaching and training political candidates. Her research specialties include nonverbal communication and image, political communication, social media, rhetoric and language. Specifically, her interests are in social media and politics, presidential rhetoric and campaign communication. She has been busy pioneering ways to use Snapchat in both the classroom and the political arena.

Keri was born in Boston and grew up in the suburbs of Acton. After attending Acton-Boxborough public schools, she graduated with a BS in Speech Communication from Bradley University in Peoria, IL. While there she met an obscure State Senator named Barack Obama who convinced her to ditch her Republican roots and become a political activist. She continued her graduate education at Pepperdine University and the University of Texas at Austin, finishing with MAs in Strategic Communication & Rhetoric and Political Communication respectively. Keri lives on the South Shore (in Cohasset) and can often be found near the ocean wearing a Red Sox hat and a "Free Brady Again" hoodie.

Course: The Imposter Syndrome