Strategic Communication Faculty & Staff
Department Chair
Dr. Abbey Levenshus serves as Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Strategic Communication. She teaches undergraduate courses in basic and advanced strategic communication, including writing, digital and social media marketing, and case studies in communication.
Dr. Levenshus’ research on government public relations, risk and crisis communication, and social media management has been published in books and top communication journals like Journal of Applied Communication Research and the Journal of Public Relations Research.
Her professional experience includes serving as communication director for a U.S. Congressman, a political technology company, and a government consulting firm in Washington, D.C. She earned her M.A. in Public Communication at American University and her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Maryland. Prior to Butler, she was an assistant professor of communication at the University of Tennessee.
In 2016, Dr. Levenshus was thrilled to return to her home state of Indiana in order to join Butler’s faculty.
Faculty & Staff
Academic/Professional/Personal Focus
Areas of Expertise
Broadly: Health communication, public relations and advertising, strategic communication for nonprofit organizations. Specifically: Media coverage (mass and social media) of health risks and health crises, including international (comparative communication studies in Japan and Hungary). Public health campaigns and effectiveness. Food safety regulation and environmental safety regulation (media coverage).
Contributions: (published works or studies, conference presentations)
Published articles on mass communication and health communication in national and international academic journals including Health Communication, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, International Communication Gazette, plus in book chapters in medical serials; presented over 35 peer-reviewed research papers at regional, national, and international academic conferences.
Butler Assignment (classes or work duties)
Have taught a variety of courses in public relations and advertising, including a service-learning public communication campaigns course and a public health campaigns honors course.
Personal Hobbies
Running, traveling, reading, writing.
Education/Experience
Education/Degrees
B.S. Journalism (Advertising), University of Kansas; M.S. Communication (Mass Communication), Purdue University; Ph.D. Communication (Health Communication/Mass Communication), Purdue University.
Association Memberships (professional/educational)
National Communication Association (and several affiliations and divisions), Public Relations Society of America
Professional Experience
Corporate and nonprofit public relations and advertising
Katherine Coble is a partner at Borshoff, an Indianapolis-based public relations and advertising firm and an adjunct professor in the College of Communication at Butler University.
Coble has built her expertise primarily in employee engagement and communications with an emphasis on internal communications strategy, diversity and inclusion communications, change management, and leadership communications. She is a certified coach, trainer and speaker.
Katherine was a managing supervisor with Fleishman-Hillard,Inc. and has also worked in corporate communications for WellPoint (now Anthem)and Greyhound Lines, Inc. She holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Texas Christian University, a master’s degree in journalism from the University of North Texas and a master of business administration degree from Amberton University. She is an accredited PRSA member and serves on the board of Beyond Monumental, a non-profit organization that hosts the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon and provides funding and programming for children’s health and fitness initiatives in central Indiana. In her personal time, she’s working on running a half marathon in all 50 states.
Rob Norris spent more than 40 years in the field of communication. He began his career in 1976 as public relations assistant for the predecessor of Duke Energy Indiana. During his 30 years with that company, he became director of Corporate Communications,overseeing advertising, media relations, video production, and speech writing. Rob personally represented the company during environmental crises, nuclear issues, strikes, extended power outages, a financial crisis, two mergers, and an attempted hostile takeover.
After retiring from Duke Energy in 2006, Rob became a communications manager for Cummins Inc., where he provided training programs on presentational speaking and media relations for Cummins officers from around the world. Rob works today as an instructor in communication at Butler University, where he developed the University’s course on crisis communication.
Rob holds a B.A. in History and an M.A. in European History from Indiana University. He has been published in the Journal of Communications Management.
Armando Pellerano spent more than 20 years providing creative services to direct clients, agencies, and video production houses. He began his career in 1986 as the art director/production artist for E.S. Graphics in Chicago, IL. During his time there he designed produced scores of backlit advertisements for airports and malls for 3M National Advertising. Armando then moved on to stint as art director for Kutt & Company, a boutique ad agency in the Chicago market, where he designed print and outdoor ads. In 1994 Armando took a post as writer/producer with TCI Cable Advertising, creating local spots and 3D animations, and was promoted to production manager in 1996. Armando went on to provide creative services to a variety of ad agencies, broadcast networks and video production houses in the Evansville, Indiana market until 2001. Armando earned his Master of Science in New Media from Indiana University in 2002. Since then, he has taught 3D animation for the Purdue School of Technology and operated a successful photography business based out of Carmel, Indiana. Armando joined Butler University in 2011 as a lecturer in the department of Strategic Communication.
Sally Perkins is a story and presentation expert who spends part of her time at Butler University, teaching public speaking and overseeing the Speakers Lab on campus, and the rest of her time helping external clients improve their presentations and tell their stories more effectively. She spent the first twelve years of her career working her way to full, tenured professor at California State University, Sacramento, where she taught graduate and undergraduate courses and conducted research in rhetorical studies and instructional communication. Her work now is focused largely on helping clients develop effective presentations and compelling stories for use in fundraising, advocacy, marketing, volunteer recruitment, effective tour guiding, human relations, and compelling leadership.
Dr. Mark Rademacher is a Professor of Strategic Communication in the College of Communication at Butler University. His teaching responsibilities include undergraduate and graduate courses, including foundations of strategic communication, research methods, audience insights, and public communication campaigns. He also serves as the Graduate Director within the College of Communication.
His research investigates the intersection of identity, mass media, and consumer culture across a variety of contexts, including self-representation strategies utilized by marginalized populations on social media, depictions of masculinity in promotional content and reality television, and the consumer socialization of young children. His research has been published in academic journals such as New Media & Society, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Journal of Communication Inquiry, and Journal of Children and Media.
Dr. Rademacher earned his PhD and Master’s degree in Mass Communications from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and a B.S. in Broadcasting from the University of Tennessee – Knoxville.
Bob Schultz, APR, Fellow PRSA is has been an adjunct member of the Butler faculty since 2006 working now in the College of Communications. Professor Schultz is the full time Senior Vice President of Marketing,Communications and Events for Downtown Indy, Inc., a private, nonprofitorganization focused on improving Downtown Indianapolis. There, he is responsible for developing and implementing the organization’s strategic marketing plan to position Downtown as a vibrant, safe environment to live, learn, work and play. Prior to joining Downtown Indy, Inc., Bob was Vice President of Borshoff Advertising & Public Relations where he delivered high-level marketing consultation for such client organizations as Eli Lilly and Co., WGU Indiana, University of Notre Dame, Defender Direct, Buckingham Companies and the 2012 Super Bowl Host Committee. Bob also had a ten year run serving Visit Indy as its primary marketing communications director from 1999-2008. He and his wife Diane (a Butler grad) are both lifelong Indy residents and have three children, ages 14, 20 and 22.
With more than 20 years of marketing communications experience, Amanda earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Franklin College in 1999 and a master’s of business administration degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2003. She’s also a graduate of Leadership Johnson County’s Signature Class of 2019.
Amanda has served organizations and clients in a variety of industries including healthcare, technology, accounting, insurance and retirement services, non-profit, government, legal, food service, travel and tourism. She’s experienced success increasing brand awareness, lead generation, customer retention and associate engagement through multi-channel marketing communication strategies for both B2B and B2B2C using cohesive and engaging content, events, print and digital platforms including SalesForce MarketingCloud, social media/Hearsay Social and web portals.
She makes the time to share this vast knowledge and her real-life scenarios with students. Amanda currently serves as Instructor of Strategic Communications with Butler University and previously with Harrison College as a Business Faculty member.
Amanda and her husband Matt Holmes share their Greenwood, Indiana home with two rescued mutts, Cash and Bentley, named after country music stars, not materialism. They support several local animal rescues, as well as regional and global conservation efforts through the Indianapolis Zoo.
Education:
Ph.D.,University of Connecticut
M.A., Michigan State University
M.A., Columbia University in New York
B.A. Tsinghua University
Xiaowen Xu will teach Principles of Strategic Communication and Global Strategic Communication this fall. She has a Ph.D. at University of Connecticut specializing in new media technology. She is interested in examining users’ motivation and perceptions through the adoption of new media technology and processing of persuasive messages, in consumer, health and pro-environmental behavior contexts. Her works have been published at Internet Research, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, American Behavioral Scientist, etc.She has served as ad-hoc reviewers for journals including Internet Research,Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Telematics and Informatics.
Her teaching experience has shaped and strengthened her ideal for higher education: teach to inform and teach to inspire. She believes that an educator should foster critical thinking, encourage students to reach their full potential and enable them to appreciate the complexity of the world. She has taught Digital Advertising,Research Methods, Communication Theory, Mass Communication courses before. In her spare time, she enjoys watching movies, doing Zumba and Yoga, and performing Peking Opera, which is a traditional Chinese stage art form.
Website: https://xuxiaowencomm.com/