Faculty Highlights


Leilani is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Maryville University. Her main areas of teaching and research are organizational communication, intercultural communication and health communication. Dr. Carver’s most recent research explores career communication including career selection processes, college graduates transition to work and generational differences at work. Leilani teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses primarily focusing upon Organizational Communication including Professional and Organizational Communication, Professional and Organizational Ethics, Diversity and Global Communication and Health Communication.

Recent Highlights

  • Taught a summer study abroad course on International Career Development in Sydney, Australia, summer, 2011.
  • Writing an evidence-based popular press book to assist college students in effective career selection.
  • Collaborating with the Director of Maryville’s Health and Wellness Department to create a student centered health campaign in the Fall 2011 Health Communication course.

Recent Conferences

Presented research paper entitled The Bridge of Vocational Calling: Corporate Chaplains and the Stabilizing Discourse of Calling at the National Communication Association’s annual conference in November 2010.

Presented research paper entitled A Whopper of a Stereotype: Burger King’s Racist Mexican Advertisement at the National Communication Association’s annual conference in November 2010.

Selected as Lead Guest Speaker at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s annual Image Seminar hosted
by SIUE’s Career Services in February 2011.


Ph.D., Purdue University, 2010 (Organizational Communication)

MA, Saint Louis University, 2006 (Communication)

BA, Saint Louis University, 2003 (Spanish and International Studies Major)

Rebecca is an Associate Professor of Communication at Maryville University. Her research and teaching interests focus on how organizations meaningfully integrate emerging technologies into their processes and stakeholder communication. Dr. Dohrman has also studied and taught courses in gender and communication for several years and does research and consulting work toward the goal of increasing the number of women in computer science.

Recent Highlights

  • Elected as Faculty Representative to the Board of Trustees (2019)
  • Greater Missouri Leadership Challenge, Participant (2019)
  • Awarded $130k grant from the Bayer Fund. Co-Principal Investigator with PI Steve Coxon, Ph.D. and Paul Gross for grant application titled “CyberReady StL – Year 2”. (January 2019-December 2019)

Recent Publications

Coxon, S., Dohrman, R. L., & Nadler, D. (2018). Children using robotics for engineering, science, technology, and math (CREST-M): The development and evaluation of an engaging math curriculum. Roeper Review, 40 (2), pgs. 86-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783193.2018.1434711

Dohrman, R. L. (2016). The city is depending on us: The dark side of the discourse of
entrepreneurship as urban development. In J. Fyke, J. Faris, & P.M. Buzzanell (Eds.), Case Studies in underresearched and nontraditional topics in organizational communication. New York: Routledge.

Buzzanell, P.M., Arendt, C., Dohrman, R. L. (2013). Crystallization: Performing and analyzing women engineers’ workplace stories. To be published in J. Manning and A. Kunkel (Eds.), Researching interpersonal relationships. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 Duval-Couetil, N. & Dohrman, R. L. (2012). Development of a multi-disciplinary women and leadership course as a means of increasing awareness of and involvement by women in entrepreneurship education. In E. L. Ruminski & A. M. Holba (Eds.), Communicative understandings of women’s leadership development: From ceilings of glass to labyrinth paths (pp. 97-112). Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.

Buzzanell, P. M., Dohrman, R. L., & D’Enbeau, S. (2010). Problematizing political economy differences and their respective work-life policy constructions. In D. K. Mumby (Ed.),  Reframing difference in organizational communication studies: Research, pedagogy, practice (pp. 245-266). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Recent Conferences

Dohrman, R. L., Coxon, S., Gross, P., DeMuri, C., Sellers, C., Ray, R., & Nadler, D. (2019, April). CyberReady StL Curriculum: Tutorial, Best Practices, and Results from Initial Deployment. Presented at the annual meeting of the Consortium for the Computing Sciences in Colleges (South Central). Dallas, TX.

Coxon, S., Dohrman, R. L., & York, D. (2018, June). Project C3: Engaging middle school girls in coding through journalism. Presented to the annual meeting of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Chicago, IL.

Dohrman, R. L., York, D., & Coxon, S. (2017, October). Computing in the Context of
Communication: A pilot study of engaging middle school girls in computing through the study of journalism. Presented to the annual meeting of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language & Gender. Omaha, NE.

Arendt, C., Dohrman, R. L., Buzzanell, P.M., Litera, N., Rajan, P., O’Connor, E., & Armstrong, C. (2012November). ‘You can do it’ vs. ‘I can do anything’: Divergent self-efficacy discursive strategies of men and women engineers. Presented to the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Orlando, Florida.

Arendt, C., Litera, N., Dohrman, R. L., & Buzzanell, P.M. (2012, November) Exploiting fragmented subject positions in engineering. Presented to the annual meeting of the National Communication Association. Orlando, Florida.

Dohrman, R. L. (2012, November). Teaching entrepreneurship skills through strategically ambiguous assignments. Presented to the Focus on Teaching & Technology Conference, St. Louis, Missouri.

Dohrman, R. L., Buzzanell, P.M., & Duval-Couetil, N. (2012, October). The material reality of the contemporary archetypal entrepreneur: Connections between feminism and entrepreneurialism in the role of bodies at work. Presented to the annual meeting of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender. Tacoma, Washington.

Dohrman, R. L. & Buzzanell, P.M. (2012, March). Accessing meaningful work through innovative methodological approaches: Draw-an-Entrepreneur Test and Wordle analyses. Presented to the Central States Communication Association. Cleveland, Ohio.


Dustin York

Dustin York

Associate Professor of Communication
Anheuser-Busch Hall 3210

Phone: 314.529.9455
Email: dyork1@maryville.edu

Dustin is an Associate Professor of Communication at Maryville University. His research and teaching interests include digital marketing, branding, nonverbal communication, and innovation. Dr. York records a weekly Youtube show for students and alumni called Office Hours.

Recent Highlights

  • Earned the University Excellence in Innovation Award
  • Won the FOCUS Teaching & Technology Award
  • Named an Apple Distinguished Educator

Recent Publications

York, D. (2021). What’s Next for Amazon – and Jeff Bezos. O’Dwyers PR & Marketing Communications.
York, D. (2020). How to Build Rapport While Wearing a Mask. Harvard Business Review.
York, D. (2020). Your Employees Who Refuse to Wear Masks – Now What? TLNT.
York, D. (2020). Bouncing Back from Cancel Culture. O’Dwyers PR & Marketing Communications.
York, D. (2020). Branding Lessons from the Relaunch of the Ford Bronco. PR Daily.
York, D. (2020). How COVID-19 is Changing the Way We Communicate. The Hill.
York, D. (2020). Best Practices for Instant Messaging at Work. Harvard Business Review.