Communication Faculty
Steve Master, MS – Program Coordinator
Steve Master, assistant professor of communication, is the program coordinator for the Communication degree. Mr. Master teaches upper-level courses in the Communication program as well as composition classes in support of general education. He holds a Master of Science in Journalism degree from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Tulane University.
Mr. Master joined Embry-Riddle's faculty in 2007 after an award-winning, 20-year career as a professional newspaper journalist. He spent the majority of his newspaper career with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, where he still works as a correspondent. He received a multitude of writing awards throughout his tenure, including a 2007 national award from the Associated Press Sports Editors. He writes a monthly column for NASCAR Illustrated magazine.
Mr. Master served as an adjunct faculty member in the Embry-Riddle Humanities and Social Sciences department from 2000 to 2007. He has taught Introduction to News Writing, Introduction to Media, Aviation/Aerospace Communication, Journalism, Introduction to Sports Writing, Introduction to Rhetoric, Freshman Composition, Technical Writing and Mass Media & Current Events.
Donna Barbie, PhD – Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department
Dr. Donna Barbie, professor of communication and humanities, is the Chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Department. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Mary University in Bismarck, North Dakota; a Master of Arts in English Language and Literature from North Dakota State University in Fargo; and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Barbie’s North Dakota upbringing has shaped her interest in American perceptions of native peoples, which ultimately led to the publication of The Making of Sacagawea: A Euro-American Legend. Recent bicentennial celebrations of the Lewis and Clark Expedition resulted in Dr. Barbie’s participation in a National Public Radio production, as well as serving as a key-note speaker in two national signature events.
Dr. Barbie also contributed to Sifters: Native American Women’s Lives. Additional publications and presentations centering on native women have included "Disney's Pocahontas," "Perpetuating the `Myth of Male Dominance,'” and "The Impact of Colonization upon Traditional Lakota Women." Other research interests include “cultural work” accomplished in popular texts, which led to the publication of “Tiger Woods: Golf’s Modern Catalyst for Change,” in Horeshide, Pigskin, Oval Tracks, and Apple Pie.
Since coming to Embry-Riddle more than 26 years ago, Dr. Barbie has taught a wide variety of courses, including Nonverbal Communication, a senior-level course in which students engage in designing and reporting primary research in nonverbal behaviors.
Sarah Fogle, MA
Sarah Fogle, tenured Professor of Humanities, did her graduate work at the University of Florida. She has over thirty-five years of experience in higher education in both academic administration and teaching. In eighteen years as an administrator, including four deans’ positions, she has had responsibilities which include an institutional (multi-campus) self-study for SACS, the curriculum, academic budget, faculty governance, and academic support services. She also has extensive experience in facilitation and training for nonprofit organizations.
In the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ms. Fogle has over the years chaired numerous committees (tenure, curriculum, faculty search). She is currently the Program Coordinator for the Aerospace Studies B.S. degree program, and she serves on the Promotion and Tenure, Planning, and Curriculum Committees. She also chairs the department’s Full-Time Faculty Evaluation Committee. An at-large member of the PCAS Executive Council, she has presented papers annually at both PCAS and PCA for over ten years.
Ms. Fogle has published articles on detective and crime fiction in Crime Fiction and Film in the Sunshine State: Florida Noir and Crime Fiction and Film in the Southwest: Bad Boys and Bad Girls in the Badlands, both edited by Steve Glassman and Maurice O’Sullivan. She is a contributing editor, with Dr. Mary Hadley at Georgia Southern University, of Murder and Menace: Minette Walters’ Crime Fiction, (McFarland 2008). She teaches undergraduate courses in the genre and has a special research interest in Florida crime fiction. Currently she is working on a critical analysis of the work of mystery novelist Martha Grimes.
Lynn Koller, PhD
Dr. Lynn Koller, assistant professor of communication, teaches upper-level courses in the Communication program, as well as professional writing classes in support of general education. Dr. Koller holds a Ph.D. in Texts and Technology and Master of Arts in English from the University of Central Florida.
She has served as a lecturer in Embry-Riddle's Humanities and Social Sciences Department since 2003, teaching such courses as Freshman Composition, Visual Design, Environmental Communication, Technical Writing, and Web Publishing. She also has taught Studies in Literature for ERAU's Worldwide Online, as well as technology classes at Stetson University.
Dr. Koller completed the Texts & Technology doctoral program at UCF. Her dissertation outlines a methodology for reframing problems by analyzing the artifacts produced by medical imaging technologies. The text is a rhetorical study that uses methodologies adapted from surrealist, literary, and theatre theories, with a focus on fragmentation of texts.
Dr. Koller's professional experience includes public relations and marketing for a financial services technology consulting firm. As a freelance writer, she has published more than 130 articles, covering issues such as digital technology, medicine (including radiology and oncology), financial services technology, Web development, auditing, commercial real estate, banking, travel, and legal issues. She has developed and maintains several Web sites and wrote a screenplay, Revelations in Plastic, a dark comedy.
Daryl Labello, MA
Daryl LaBello teaches digital photography in the Communication program and was part of Embry-Riddle's educational technology department for many years. Mr. LaBello earned his Master of Computer Education degree from Jacksonville University and his undergraduate degree in Science Education (Physics) from the University of Central Florida.
He is currently a Digital Media Specialist with Embry-Riddle's Information Technology division. In his current position, duties include transferring VHS tapes to DVD, creating short video segments, creating basic Flash interactives, and taking still photographs.
Mr. LaBello's teaching experience includes several years as a middle school computer applications teacher and technology coordinator. He is currently working on a Master of Fine Arts degree in Photography from Academy of Arts University. Mr. LaBello's photographs are shown in the Abbott Tract Artists Gallery in St. Augustine, and his work was recently featured in a show titled “Cloud Escapes.” He also shows his work at the Environmental Education Center of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. He is a past president of the Flagler County (Fla.) Photography Club.
Margaret Mishoe, PhD
Dr. Margaret Mishoe, assistant professor of communication, earned her PhD in Linguistics at the University of South Carolina, where she also earned her Master’s degree. She specializes in sociolinguistics with a secondary field in teaching English as a foreign language.
She has taught at Embry Riddle since 2001. Her courses include Freshman Composition, Speech, Literature, and a literature course designed for international students. She also teaches an upper level course in linguistics that promotes cultural and language differences and understanding. Dr. Mishoe has presented papers at conferences that promote second language acquisition, teaching pedagogy and popular culture.
Lynnette Porter, PhD
Dr. Lynnette Porter, associate professor, received her PhD in English, with specializations in technical communication, rhetoric, and composition, from Bowling Green State University, where she also received her M.A. in English and technical writing. Her B.A. is in history and radio/TV/film from Ball State University. She is the author of ten books, with more in various stages of development.
Since 2005, she has written The Hobbits: The Many Lives of Bilbo, Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin (Tauris); Unsung Heroes of The Lord of the Rings: From the Page to the Screen (Greenwood/Praeger), several editions of Lost's Buried Treasures and Unlocking the Meaning of Lost (about the TV series Lost; Sourcebooks), Finding Battlestar Galactica: An Unauthorized Guide (Sourcebooks), Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes (about the TV series Heroes; ECW Press), and the introduction to a new edition of the SF classic, The Moon Pool (Overlook Press).
Dr. Porter has presented more than 100 papers at academic conferences in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and across the US. In addition, she has been an invited speaker in the US at Creation Entertainment's ORC and ELF conventions and Dragon Con, as well as the Fellowship Festival in London. In 2009 she returns to the Cornerstone Festival to discuss heroes and monsters on TV and film; in 2006 she presented seminars about Doctor Who and Lost. Dr. Porter has been interviewed by more than 60 radio, TV, and press outlets in the US and Canada regarding her insights into Lost.
Stephen Zeigler, PhD
Dr. Stephen Zeigler, associate professor, led the renewal of the Communication Program as the original program coordinator. Zeigler earned a Bachelor of Arts from Wake Forest University, a Master of Arts from the University of Alabama, and a Ph.D. from St. Louis University.
He has taught at Valdosta State University, where he headed the journalism program and oversaw its rise to statewide prominence; at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock; at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; and Belmont University in Nashville. He has also taught in community colleges and middle and high school.
His experience in print journalism includes work as a reporter, copy editor, editor of a weekly newspaper, weekend editor of a daily newspaper, and editor of a daily newspaper.
His broadcast media experience includes being a moderator of an issues interview weekly television show with an ABC affiliate in Valdosta, Georgia, and a weekly editorial commentator with a PBS radio station in Milwaukee. Zeigler is currently at work on a book about the history of Florida’s last family-owned newspaper with a circulation over 100,000, the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
