Sarah Riforgiate (M.A. and Ph.D., Arizona State University, Tempe) is a Professor of Communication and the M.A. Director for the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). Her teaching and research focus on the intersections of organizational and interpersonal communication, particularly regarding paid work and private life, to increase understanding and develop practical solutions to improve interactions. She teaches and researches across a range of communication topics pertaining to work-life concerns, emotions in organizations, conflict negotiation, and organizational leadership.
She is an award-winning educator who is devoted to enhancing her own teaching and developing others’ teaching practices through Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research, facilitating teaching programs, and serving in leadership roles. Dr. Riforgiate’s teaching excellence has been recognized with awards including the 2024 Warren Mentoring Award (Central States Communication Association), 2024 Social Learning Innovator Award: Institution of the year (Hypothes.is), 2022 Outstanding Teaching Award (National Communication Association Organizational Communication Division), the 2022 Joanne Lazirko Teaching Award (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), and the 2018 Global Campus Excellence in Online Teaching Award (Kansas-State University) among others. As a lifelong learner, she regularly participates in educational training, including the 2020-2022 Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program (Universities of Wisconsin), Certificate in Effective College Instruction through the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and the Certified Canvas Educator designation through Instructure.
Her passion for developing innovative educational practices goes beyond the classroom. She is a co-author of the textbook “Transforming Workplace Risk Through Communication” published by Cognella. Her pedagogy-focused and SoTL publications appear in Communication Education, Communication Teacher, Communication Pedagogy, and other journals and books. She consistently leads teaching workshops including facilitating semester long cohorts at UWM through the American Public and Land Grant Universities Student Experience Project (2024-present), teaching a week-long workshop for the National Communication Association Faculty Development Institute (2021), and directing the year-long Peer Review of Teaching Program at Kansas State University (2017-2018). Dr. Riforgiate is thrilled to be the co-director of the Wisconsin Teaching Fellows and Scholars program (2026-present). Her family describes her as a “museum person” and she enjoys art, gardening, and sitting by a lake on warm summer days.
Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. She received her Ph.D. in Social Ecology from the University of California-Irvine. Georjeanna’s field is Environmental Psychology which explores how the built and natural environment impact human behavior and she enjoys applying the many benefits of nature to people’s everyday lives. Her recent collaborative research investigates the benefits of spending time in nature (including virtual reality nature), and individual’s interpretation of sense of community and how neighborhood design can foster or break down that sense of community in residential life. Her other research interests include the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, experiential learning in different modalities, and best practices for teaching statistics. She is the author of the textbook, “SPSS for Research Methods: A Basic Guide, 2e” published by W. W. Norton. She is an award-winning teacher who has taught statistics, research methods, and environmental psychology for more than 30 years, both in-person and online. Throughout her career, Georjeanna has emphasized teaching and writing about data analysis in clear and accessible ways. She is a leader in the Society for the Teaching of Psychology, specifically as the director of the SoTL Workshop. Georjeanna is also a passionate advocate for suicide prevention, including in the K-12 schools and at the college level. Outside of academia, Georjeanna enjoys traveling (most recently to Australia and New Zealand), spending time with family, volunteering at the local animal shelter, and you can always find her enjoying a cup of coffee at a local coffee shop.