Amnee Elkhalid

researches identity, diversity, and adversity with a specific interest in how messages influence identity development, identity management, and relationships. Her areas of interest include interfaith, intercultural, immigrant, and refugee identities and relationships. She is currently focusing on research that includes intergenerational communication and adverse experiences in refugee and immigrant families and relationships, as well as interfaith families and religious identification. 

At Mizzou, Amnee is currently a PhD Candidate who has been recognized for her community-based research and outstanding teaching. She also currently serves as Assistant Director of Public Speaking and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies. Amnee received the Mary E. Gutermuth Award for Community-Engaged Research from the University of Missouri Graduate School in 2020. Additionally, Amnee has received teaching awards, such as the University Campus Writing Program Center’s Writing Intensive Teaching Excellence Award in 2021, as well as Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor at Mizzou in 2021 and the University of North Texas in 2018. 

Amnee has presented her work at international, national, and regional conferences. She also has years of experience with non-profit organizations that relate to education and/or refugee family services. Amnee has experience in public relations, marketing, operations management, and as a consultant who specializes in training, organizational culture/structure, and adult learning. 

Ellen Jordan

is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication studying family/interpersonal and health communication. Ellen earned her B.A. in Communication & Journalism from the University of St. Thomas and M.A. in Family Science from Concordia University St. Paul. Ellen’s research examines the communicative development and prevention of eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating in children and adolescents. By examining how parent-child communication influences the development of eating disorders, body image, and disordered eating, Ellen hopes to facilitate eating disorder prevention efforts. 

Ellen is a provisionally certified Family Life Educator (CFLE-P), and this training informs not only her approach to research but also her public scholarship. She enjoys translating research findings, and has created research-based infographics related to parent-child body image communication and children’s emotion regulation that have been shared on social media. Furthermore, Ellen currently works with faculty at the Center for Family Policy and Research, applying her FLE training on a grant related to Dr. Tashel Bordere's children's grief program. 

Ellen enjoys teaching, research, and service. In her time at Mizzou, Ellen has gained experience teaching Public Speaking, Business and Professional Communication, and Family Communication. Ellen is also involved with Dr. Colleen Colaner’s Open Adoption Research Lab and has collaborated with researchers at the Center for Body Image Research and Policy. She is highly engaged in service, as she is part of the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee in the department and has held leadership roles within the Association of Communication Graduate Students. 

Rikki Roscoe

is a fourth-year doctoral candidate specializing in health communication. Rikki currently teaches Comm 4412 – Gender, Language, & Communication and is a research assistant for Dr. Rebecca Meisenbach. Rikki is interested in researching topics related to stigma, identity, and inequality. Ultimately, she hopes to improve health outcomes for historically excluded groups. Rikki’s research has been published in Health Communication and presented at the National Communication Association (NCA) and Central States Communication Association (CSCA) conferences. In addition, Rikki was selected to present at the 2022 NCA Doctoral Honors Seminar at George Mason University. 

In 2022, Rikki was awarded the Steven A. and Susan J. Beebe Doctoral Student Scholarship Endowment from the MU Department of Communication. Rikki has previously been awarded Graduate Student Researcher of the Year (2022), the Graduate Student Service award (2022), and was one of the recipients of the Rebecca Verser Graduate Student Support Fund (2020). 

Rikki is an editorial assistant for Management Communication Quarterly and has previously held roles as secretary for the CSCA health communication interest group, graduate student representative for the Association of Communication Graduate Students (ACGS), and digital media coordinator for the Media and Diversity Center. 

Rikki received her M.A. from South Dakota State University (SDSU) where she won the CSCA Pamela Cooper Award for excellent graduate teaching as a master’s student as well as the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award which is awarded to the top M.A. thesis by the Graduate School at SDSU. 

In terms of professional experience, Rikki was the Health Equity Intern for the South Dakota Department of Health in the Department of Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion. In this position, she worked on advancing initiatives related to minimizing health disparities and helping all South Dakotans achieve the highest level of health possible.