Communication Competence

Biographical sketches

Tamara Afifi (Ph.D., University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 1999) is a Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on communication patterns that foster risk and resiliency in families and other interpersonal relationships, with particular emphasis on: 1. information regulation (privacy, secrets, disclosures, avoidance, stress contagion), and 2. how people communicate when they are stressed and how these communication patterns harm and/or help personal and relational health.

Philip M. Backlund (Ph.D., University of Denver, 1977) is a Professor of Communication Studies at Central Washington University, where he joined the faculty in 1979. He teaches courses such as public ...