Long-time chair Bob Frank to step down in 2015.

MOUNT BERRY, Ga. – Change continues to sweep through Berry’s Laughlin building and the department of Communication.

Dr. Sam Nazione

A pair of new faculty are joining the department this fall “in order to preserve the integrity and value of a converged curriculum and a unique student-to-professor relationship,” said Dr. Tom Kennedy, dean of the Evans School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.

Dr. Samantha Nazione has been hired to teach most of the department’s public relations courses, beginning in fall, filling an opening created when Dr. Kathy Richardson became Berry’s provost two years ago. Nazione, a Cartersville, Ga., resident, earned her Ph.D. at Michigan State and will be on Berry’s tenure track.

Dr. Matt Duffy will be joining Berry for one year as a visiting instructor to teach reporting and writing, as well as multimedia production classes. Duffy will be coming to Berry from Kennesaw State. He earned his Ph.D. from Georgia State.

The department is “forward-looking and populated by the most student-centered faculty [as well as] equally dedicated students,” Frank said. “These hires and the awarding of tenure to Dr. Curt Hersey really help to stabilize our department.”

Dr. Matt Duffy

But more change is coming.

Frank, who came to Berry in 1979 and is the only chair the department has ever had, announced that he will retire from full-time teaching after the next academic year, in May 2015.