School of Media & Communication

Organizational Rhetoric/Advocacy, Communication Theory, Persuasion, Organizational Communication, Issues Management, and Business and Professional Speaking (Honors),

Organizational Apologia (Image Repair), Sports Rhetoric

A native of Louisville, KY, Dr. Jerome graduated from WKU in 1997 with a B.A. in Corporate and Organizational Communication and in 1999 with an M.A. in Communication. She went on to receive her Ph.D. from the University of Kansas in 2002, where her studies focused on organizational communication and rhetorical studies. Dr. Jerome teaches Honors Business and Professional Speaking, Communication Foundations, Advanced Organizational Communication, Advanced Public Speaking, and Persuasion at the undergraduate level and Persuasive Communication, Issues Management, Corporate and Organizational Advocacy, and Crisis Communication and Image Repair at the graduate level. She is the author or co-author of four chapters in the department’s Communication theory: The interactive experience ebook/app used in Communication Foundations.

Her research interests are organizational image repair and sports rhetoric. A piece she co-authored with Robert C. Rowland, a leading rhetorical scholar in the discipline, was listed by Cheney and Lair (2005) as one of the works that makes up the intellectual history of organizational rhetoric. Her most recent publication is titled A death, a family feud, and a merger: The image repair of Teresa Earnhardt and Dale Earnhardt, Inc. and appears in the book Repairing the athlete’s image edited by Blaney, Lippert, and Smith (2012). She is active in the Central States Communication Association where she is currently serving as the Vice Chair of the Public Relations Interest Group, and she is the department’s representative to the Faculty Senate. She also serves as the Potter College of Arts and Letters’ representative to the Senate Executive Committee.

Selected Publications
Jerome, A. M., & Rowland, R. C. (2009). The rhetoric of inter-organizational conflict: A sub-genre of
          organizational apologia. Western Journal of Communication, 73, 395-417.

Jerome, A. M. (2008). Toward prescription: Testing the rhetoric of atonement’s usefulness and
          applicability in the athletic arena. Public Relations Review, 34, 124-134.

Rowland, R. C., & Jerome, A. M. (2004). On organizational apologia: A reconceptualization.
          Communication Theory, 14, 191-211. 

Additional Information
Advisor for WKU’s student chapter of International Association of Business Communicators

Departmental Representative to the Faculty Senate

Professional Affiliations
National Communication Association
Central States Communication Association

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