I am an associate professor of strategic communication at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. The way corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and communication develops and maintains relationships between corporations, employees, and communities is the cornerstone of my research. My research takes the position that CSR practices and expectations are intimately tied to everyday life, reflect cultural values, interconnect economic and social interests, and evolve over time. I have published numerous journal articles including publications detailing the experiences of locked out union workers, stakeholder perceptions of corporate social responsibility/irresponsibility that occurs in their hometowns versus elsewhere, and the institutionalization of CSR in the petroleum refining industry. A 2020 bibliometric analysis in Public Relations Review identified me as the “most popular and influential scholar” in the network of communication scholars researching CSR.

My current project is a multi-year ethnography of the CSR practices of nothern Minnesota mining companies. This project exposes the role generational differences, workforce education, shifting demographics, and natural resource accessibility play in the cultural acceptance of CSR and uncovers the micro processes of corporate-community relationship building. 

As an interdisciplinary scholar, I have demonstrated national and international impact. My research has been featured by the Conference Board of Directors including as a webinar guest speaker for corporate executives about corporate social responsibility. I serve on the Business & Society editorial board and am an associate editor for Management Communication Quarterly. In addition, I am the editor of the upcoming Routledge’s Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility Communication. In my role as editor, I have brought together an interdisciplinary group of business, organizational communication, and public relations scholars to interrogate and advance the field of CSR.