Leadership and Local Partners

Dr. Saumya Pant is an activist, a teacher, a mother, and a woman who is passionate about using communication strategies for social change and transformation. Saumya has a Ph.D. and master's from Ohio University, focusing on communication for social change and interpersonal communication. She is an activist with more than twenty years’ experience working with grassroots communities on areas of equity and empowerment. Her expertise is in topics related to communication for social change, gender equity, gender empowerment, participatory community-based research, field-based research design and implementation, participatory theater for development and entertainment education media strategy for social change. Strong writer and scholar with established publication record, extensive teaching, and research experience across five continents, she has worked on several projects funded by international agencies, including Population Communication International and UNAIDS. In her free time, Dr. Pant enjoys playing dholak and singing north Indian folk songs, cooking with her daughters, and watching lots of Bollywood entertainment. 

Eric R. Williams teaches New Media Storytelling for the McClure School and serves as director of the Scripps College MFA in Communication Media Arts program . Eric writes and directs cinematic VR experiences (360° films) and oversees the cine-VR arm of the Game Research and Immersive Design (GRID) Lab. His most recent project won the 2023 Science and Innovation Award from the FBI National Academy for its combination of technology and narrative to improve law enforcement practices.  Eric has written three books on storytelling techniques and co-edited two others.  He is the host and head writer of the television series Imagining Tomorrow’s Entertainment, released in 2023 on the Wondrium network. You can learn more about Eric and his work on his website: Williams on Story .

Dr. Brittany L. Peterson is a Professor in the School of Communication Studies and the Director of e-Learning for the Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University. She aims to understand (and upend assumptions surrounding) the communicative construction of membership in contexts from prisons and nonprofits to antepartum units and PICU floors. She investigates these varied experiences with an eye toward narrative, agency, ownership, tension, identity, and community. Dr. Peterson is the co-editor (with Dr. Lynn Harter) of the book,  Brave Space-Making: The Poetics and Politics of Storytelling . In addition, her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Monographs, Health Communication, Western Journal of Communication, Communication Quarterly, and Non-Profit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly as well as in edited books. 

Annie Valeant is a proud Ohio University alumna (MBA/MSA ’08) and passionate member of the Athens, OH community. She currently serves as the Director of Operations, Strategy and Partnerships for Scripps College of Communication.  In addition, Annie serves as the Executive Director of the community-owned, student-operated Southern Ohio Copperheads summer collegiate baseball team where she has the privilege of interacting with hundreds of community members in SE OH and serves as a mentor to dozens of students looking to work in sport and entertainment.  Annie resides in Athens with her husband Ryan and their beagle Beans.  In her free time, Annie enjoys spending time with family and friends, attending sporting events, and listening to live music. Annie joined the Barbara Geralds Institute for Storytelling and Social Impact Advisory Council in 2023.

Sharon Casapulla, MEd, Ed.D., MPH has 30 years of experience in a variety of educational settings. Currently, Dr. Casapulla is the director of the Rural and Urban Scholars Pathways (RUSP) program in the Office of Rural and Underserved Programs at the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine at Ohio University. She is a small group coach and  is the instructor of record for the Open Book Project elective at HCOM, a narrative medicine program for pre-clinical medical students focusing on issues of social justice and inclusion. Her scholarly interests include supporting student researchers as well as studying medical education, specifically rural and urban underserved pathways. Her scholarly interests include how integration of art and narrative into medical school curricula can help students develop competencies for underserved practice. Dr. Casapulla serves as the faculty advisor for the Student National Medical Association on the Athens campus of the Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine. She is the past president and founding member of the Ohio Rural Health Association.  Dr. Casapulla has lived in Athens Ohio for 20 years.  

Rebekah Perkins Crawford is an Assistant Professor of Community Health in the Department of Social and Public Health in the College of Health Sciences and Professions at Ohio University. In this role she focuses on the value of storytelling in public health contexts, using her health communication background to train students, develop research, and complete applied projects that foster an understanding of how culture, emotion, and trust empower organizing for holistic health in community contexts. Dr. Crawford uses storytelling techniques to explore the effects of trauma, foster community outreach and connection through social media campaigns, and support effective risk and crisis communication efforts. Though experiencing acute embodied vulnerability can inspire conflict and mistrust, Dr. Crawford explores the ways story can emphasize our shared humanity, build collaboration, and heal divides in ways that enable mental wellness, inclusion, and social justice. 

Matt Rosen is a cultural anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic research on media practices and city life in contexts of late capitalism. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Boulder in 1996 to attend the University of Colorado, where he completed a BA in Anthropology with a certificate in ethnographic filmmaking. In 2004, he moved to New York City to pursue a PhD in Anthropology at the New School for Social Research. In 2014, he joined Ohio University’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology. He has done fieldwork with readers, writers, translators, editors, publishers, and educators in the Indian states of Maharashtra and Kerala as well as the Albanian capital, Tirana. Matt Rosen now lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife (also a cultural anthropologist) and daughter (now in eighth grade). 

Nicole Reynolds is an Associate Professor of English and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of Building Romanticism: Literature and Architecture in Nineteenth-Century Britain (2010) and of several articles on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British women writers. She teaches a wide range of courses, including British Romanticism, book history, and feminist theory.  

Paula is a native of Florida but considers Athens her home. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Communication from Florida State University, a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Troy University, and a PhD in Higher Education for Ohio University. Paula has been supporting OHIO students for more than 10 years, working in various roles across the university. Currently, Paula serves as the Assistant Dean of Student Services in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. Her experience in recruitment, orientation, advising, academic support programs, and student development have been foundational to her holistic approach in serving students. 

Sara L. Hartman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Teacher Education in The Patton College of Education at Ohio University. Her work focuses on school-community-university partnerships, particularly in examining how partnerships impact access and opportunity in rural educational settings. She is a co-author on the last two editions of Why Rural Matters, reports that highlight the challenges and successes of rural schools across the United States, and a co-developer of the National Rural Education Association Research Agenda–2022-2027. Most recently, she is the co-editor of The Middle of Somewhere: Rural Education Partnerships and Innovation. She is the co-founder of the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery and is a Faculty Coordinator for a Professional Development School partnership. Before working with teacher candidates, she was a classroom teacher.  

Pittaya Paladroi-Shane (Fon) is an Associate Professor of Instruction in Thai and world languages, and the World Languages Coordinator for the Center for International Studies. She began teaching Thai at Ohio University in 2006. Born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand Fon is determined to work with OU students to broaden their horizons. She has been a strong advocate for world language education, especially the languages that are less commonly taught, and education for change. Her life-long commitment to interdisciplinary teaching, meaningful dialogs, diversity, equity, and inclusion reflected throughout her teaching career. It is manifested in her curriculum, teaching, service, and scholarship. Nationally, Fon has dedicated her time to professionalize the field of Southeast Asian Language instruction through a series of collaborative projects and professional development. She currently serves as the Vice-President of the Council on the Advancement of Thai Language Instruction (CATI) (2020-present).