Dr. Vaughn is Chair and Professor of Communication Studies and has been at Belmont for more than twenty years. She teaches courses in courses in interpersonal communication, gender and communication, persuasion and general education.

Her scholarly interests include instructional communication and power in interpersonal relationships. She has researched Montessori education, shelters for battered women, service-learning, and career readiness for communication curriculum design. She has published her work in many venues including Communication Education, Communication Studies, Communication Teacher, and The Journal for Communication Administration.

In her free time, she enjoys volunteering, hiking and watching her kids play soccer

Dr. Davis has his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern Mississippi and Master of Arts and Ph.D. from Indiana University with special study in the Kelly School of Business at Indiana. He came to Belmont in 1987 and taught full-time in the Communication Studies Department for 12 years before shifting his attention to 15 years of administrative work where he served as a Dean and as Associate Provost for Academic Affairs before returning to full-time teaching.

His teaching interests include skills development for individual students in public, small group, and interpersonal settings as well as strategic and tactical leadership communication in organizational settings. He is well-known on campus for his use of the “sticky wall” as a decision-making and consensus-building tool and is particularly interested in the growing social movement around sustainability and local food. His scholarly pursuits have included presentations at many local, regional, and national academic meetings on topics related to improved efficiency and effectiveness in higher education.

At home he tends a small flock of chickens, builds stuff out of wood, thumps around on a dulcimer, reads poetry and prose with his wife (a Professor of English at Belmont), and enjoys the company of his children and friends. His favorite book is Jayber Crow (Wendell Berry). His favorite poems are “Dover Beach” (Matthew Arnold), Holy Sonnet #74 (John Donne), and “The Summer Day” (Mary Oliver). His favorite musician is the late but great John Hartford. And his favorite meal is breakfast.

Dr. Jeremy Fyke is an assistant professor in Communication Studies. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Communication Studies/Organizational Communication from Texas State University-San Marcos. His Ph.D. in Organizational Communication and Organizational Behavior and Human Resources is from Purdue University. Before coming to Belmont in 2016 he taught for five years at Marquette University in the Diederich College of Communication. At Belmont he teaches in the general education curriculum, as well as courses related to organizational communication, corporate social responsibility, training and development, and crisis communication.

Dr. Fyke’s research covers a variety of topics including organizational identity, corporate social responsibility, conscious capitalism, training and consulting, leadership development, and ethics. He believes strongly that no matter the research topic, communication research is only valuable if it impacts real people and helps people communicate better. In addition to presenting at regional and national conferences, his work has been published in such venues as International Journal of Strategic Communication, Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, Business and Society Review, Human Relations, The Review of Communication, The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, and Journal of Business Ethics among others. He is also lead editor of Cases in Organizational and Managerial Communication: Stretching Boundaries (Routledge, 2016). 

In addition to Dr. Fyke’s teaching and scholarship, he conducts training and continuing education programs for communication skills such as feedback, framing, interviewing, and listening.

In his free time he enjoys running, working out, playing golf, and most of all, spending time with his wife, Brooke, and daughter, Emma. He has been skydiving twice, and is an avid sports fan. His favorite teams are the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Cowboys.

Suzanne Lindsey's training at Wright State University was dominated by her participation in forensics, which taught her how to be confident and articulate, how to think on her feet, and how to research anything!!! Her brief sojourn in debate taught her there are two sides to every question, and that most people in this world are far more uncomfortable with that reality than she is. While at Wright State, she earned Honors in Communication and wrote an honors thesis on Government Manipulation of the Media, which enabled her to graduate as a University Honors Scholar in 1979.

Obtaining her Masters' Degree from Louisiana State University (1981) and her Ph.D. from Indiana University (1986), she discovered an interest in how communication functions to change the world, focusing her research on social movements. Her thesis, Forms of Extremism in the Rhetoric of the Christian Right, examined efforts by this contemporary movement to engage Evangelicals with the 1980 political campaign, even though that audience had been largely politically apathetic since Prohibition. Her dissertation, The Land for the People! The Rhetoric of the Irish National Land League as a Response to a Rhetorical Situation, allowed her to focus on a historical, non-American movement that successfully united Catholics and Protestants (for the last time in Irish agitation), and that experimented with the partnership of rhetoric and terrorism (unfortunately, not for the last time in any agitation).

Dr. Lindsey is active in several organizations, from the National Humane Society (this woman cries at cat food commercials!) to Nashville CARES, a help unit for AIDS patients. She acted as the media liaison for an organization that successfully kept Grassmere Wildlife Park from being turned into an office park/condominium/golf course, and she volunteers at the Nashville Zoo that is currently taking over that property.

An associate professor in Rhetoric and Public Address, she teaches Persuasion, Theories of Public Communication, Communication Criticism, Great American Oratory, and the Rhetoric of Social Movements.  She has no children, because her cats are allergic to them.

Michelle E. Shaw is a PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Public Culture at Northwestern University. She earned her BA in Mass Media Arts from Clark Atlanta University, and while working as a full-time journalist she earned a Master of Divinity degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center. She later earned a Master of Theology degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.

Before returning to the classroom to pursue her graduate education, Michelle wrote for several newspapers in the South and Southeast, including The (Nashville) Tennessean and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, over the course of 15 years. As a result of her journalism career, Michelle is passionate about general and interpersonal communication, and particularly helping speakers craft clear, concise messages.

Michelle’s academic interests dwell at the intersection of rhetoric and religion. Her dissertation project focuses on Black women who teach preaching, and questions whether their memories and current experiences of being Black women in the world influence their pedagogical approaches and practices.

In her down time, Michelle enjoys traveling, watching movies, reading and re-reading books, and adding to her growing Build-A-Bear collection. 

Jason Stahl is an Instructor of Communication Studies and director of Belmont's nationally ranked Speech & Debate Program.  He has served as an officer and tournament director for multiple state and national organizations and has been recognized by the American Forensics Association as a new coach of the year.  As an avid proponent of combining educational interests and competition, he serves as an advisor to the recent world champion Belmont Enactus team as well as consults other campus organizations on competitive presentations.

He teaches Fundamentals of Speech Communication, Argumentation & Debate, as well as a course related to social media and computer mediated communication.  

Nathan G. Webb is an Associate Dean of the College of Liberals Arts and Social Sciences and Associate Professor of Communication Studies.  He received a B.S. from College of the Ozarks, an M.A. from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Kansas. Dr. Webb primarily teaches courses related to corporate communications, intercultural communication, and general education. He also regularly teaches in Belmont’s study abroad program in Scandinavia.

Dr. Webb’s research predominantly focuses on teaching and learning. He combines his knowledge and interests in interpersonal and organizational communication to examine how instructor communication behaviors affect student learning. He has presented his research at regional, national, and international conferences, and he has been published in venues such as The Journal of Communication Pedagogy, Teaching and Learning Inquiry, and the Journal of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He is an active member of the National Communication Association and the Central States Communication Association.

In addition to his higher education experience, Dr. Webb worked for five years in the non-profit sector. He also has three years of experience as a legal research analyst, in which he focused on for-profit higher education institutions.

In his free time, Dr. Webb spends a lot of time traveling. He has visited six of the seven continents, dozens of countries, and all 50 states. He is also a die-hard St. Louis Cardinals fan and enjoys spending time in the outdoors.