Sandra Metts, emeritus professor in the School of Communication at Illinois State University, will be inducted into the Central States Communication Association’s (CSCA) Hall of Fame in April 2013.
The CSCA Hall of Fame recognizes the highest level of service to the association through mentoring of fellow members, fulfilling the responsibilities of various offices at the interest group and/or association level, regular participation on conference panels as a presenter or respondent, and/or advancing the mission of the association through scholarship and other means. Inductees must have shown a strong pattern of dedicated and continued service to the association over time; and, to qualify for induction, the candidate must have reached the rank of Emeritus Professor or be in the later stages of her/his career.
Metts has served CSCA throughout her lengthy membership with the association and her long career at Illinois State University. She served as vice-president and program planner in 1997-1998 and president in 1998-1999. While Metts’ record of service to CSCA is impressive, it is only a small part of her record of service in the Central States region and beyond. Metts currently serves on the Executive Committee for the Western States Communication Association. She held several offices including Program Planner for the International Association for Relationship Research and the International Network on Personal Relationships. Metts has also been a member of the Planning Committee for the International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships. She has served on 11 editorial boards, including that of CSCA’s Communication Studies and has reviewed countless articles for other journals on an ad hoc basis.
Beyond her service to the discipline, the CSCA Hall of Fame Committee also recognized Metts’ enormous scholarly and teaching contributions. Since her first publication in 1985 on the newly discovered area of emotion in interpersonal communication, Metts has published more than 20 empirical articles and more than 50 chapters in scholarly books and encyclopedias. She is also highly visible at regional, national, and international conventions with over 150 competitively selected papers, 25 of which have won top scholarship awards.
“Dr. Metts’ scholarship is important because it has not simply enriched the historical or traditional areas of interpersonal communication, but has actually brought new areas of investigation into the discipline,” said Larry Long, executive director of the School of Communication. “For example, a decade ago, the topics that Metts’ has advanced in her research program would not have been found in convention programs or in interpersonal communication textbooks.”
Metts’ contributions to the discipline of communication are also evident through her work with students and her love for teaching. This has occurred first of all through her leadership in the development of our training model for graduate students teaching the introductory communication course. This program, largely influenced by Metts’ work, is a flagship model for other schools in the nation. In her courses, she works diligently with masters students leading several each year to present their work at regional and national conferences. This taste of academic research and presentation often inspires students to proceed to doctoral work. Dr. Metts continues working with them, frequently publishing book chapters and studies with these students continuing as their mentor, even as they are in doctoral programs around the nation.
Metts will travel to Kansas City, Missouri, to be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in April 2013 during the annual CSCA convention.
The Central States Communication Association is a professional, academic organization of primary and secondary school teachers, students, college and university professors, and communication professionals. CSCA was founded in 1931 to promote the communication discipline in educational, scholarly, and professional endeavors. The association, which consists of the 13 Midwestern states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio.
The School of Communication at Illinois State University is a leader in communication education. The School’s legacy is more than 150 years old, stemming from the founding of the Forensics Union two days after ISU’s founding. Over its history, the School of Communication has built a tradition of excellence in teaching, research and service. The School is the largest academic unit in the College of Arts & Sciences with nearly 1000 undergraduate and graduate students. In addition to it nationally recognized graduate program, the School is home to degrees in Communication Studies, Journalism, Mass Media, and Public Relations.
To learn more about the School of Communication at Illinois State University, please visit Communication.IllinoisState.edu.
