Executive Board
Nico Carpentier, President
Nico Carpentier is Extraordinary Professor at Charles University in Prague; he also holds part-time positions at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB - Free University of Brussels), as Associate Professor, and at Uppsala University, as Senior Researcher. Moreover, he is a Research Fellow at Loughborough University. Earlier, he was IAMCR Audience Section Chair (2010-2012), ECREA Treasurer (2005-2012) and Vice-President (2008-2012), IAMCR Treasurer (2012-2016) and IAMCR Participatory Communication Section Chair (2016-2020).
His latest books are The Discursive-Material Knot: Cyprus in Conflict and Community Media Participation (2017, Peter Lang, New York); Cyprus and its Conflicts. Representations, Materialities, and Cultures (2018, co-edited), Critical Perspectives on Media, Power and Change (2018, co-edited), Respublika! Experiments in the Performance of Participation and Democracy (2019, edited), Communication and Discourse Theory (2019, co-edited) and Communication as the Intersection of the Old and the New (2019, co-edited).
As president of IAMCR, Nico Carpentier is responsible for the overall coordination. He prepares and chairs the organisation’s formal meetings. He is also responsible for the organisational reform project, and coordinates the Ambassador’s network.
Andrea Medrado, Vice President
Andrea Medrado is a Tenured Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication and at the Postgraduate Programme in Media and Everyday life of Federal Fluminense University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She worked as the Co-Investigator for the eVoices Network, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC UK), analysing different uses of digital technologies and art-ivism (art + activism) to fight marginalisation in countries of the Global South. Prior to her election as Vice President of IAMCR, she acted as the Co-Chair of the Community Communication and Alternative Media Section (CAM) for four years (2016-2020). Her research interests include mediactivism; community and alternative media; South-to-South communication flows; media and favelas; ethnographic approaches; and social media, visibility, and human rights. In addition to her academic career, Andrea also has extensive experience working as a creative writer for political campaigns.
As vice-president, Andrea Medrado is responsible for the coordination with Sections and Working Groups. This role entails acting as the EB representative who works closely with the S&WG Coordinators, as well as with SWG chairs and vice-chairs. Specifically, Andrea will activate SWG chairs and vice-chairs to carry out the IAMCR Webinar series, proposing themes, and inviting speakers. The series will be promoted through all IAMCR channels. This is consistent with the EB’s strategy to foster member engagement and participation outside of and in addition to the annual conference. Additionally, she is the EB person responsible for supporting the election of section and working group heads, ensuring that these abide by the agreed rules and practices as closely as possible, reporting issues to the Secretariat and other EB members when necessary. Andrea also serves as the EB liaison for the Membership Committee, the Task Force on the Improvement of Academic Life, and the Task Force on Conference Modelling. She contributes to building IAMCR’s profile in the Latin American region, in cooperation with regional and national associations, particularly ALAIC and COMPOS. She also works on strengthening ties with civil society and grassroots organisations.
Usha Raman, Vice President
Usha Raman is Professor, Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad. Her academic interests include science and health communication, children's media, feminist media studies, journalism pedagogy and digital culture. Before joining academia, she worked for nearly three decades as a health communicator and freelance writer. Apart from several book chapters and journal articles, she has written on topics related to education, technology, and health in the popular media, and hosts a weekly podcast on books and reading. She is a columnist for one of India's leading newspapers, The Hindu, and edits a monthly magazine for school teachers, called Teacher Plus.
She received her doctorate in mass communication from the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA, in 1996. Usha has been a visiting fellow at the University of Sydney (2013), and the University of Bremen (2019) and was a Fulbright Fellow at Comparative Media Studies, MIT (2016). She is the author of Writing for Media (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Usha Raman is, as vice-president, responsible for IAMCR publishing, and in this role will support existing IAMCR publications, work on establishing new publication outlets at the S&WG level and at IAMCR level, and develop a long-term publication strategy, with a strong emphasis on quality, diversity, accessibility and independence. These objectives will be pursued in close collaboration with the Publications Committee of the IAMCR International Council. Usha will also serve as the EB liaison on the Scholarly Review Committee, the Task Force on IAMCR History and the Global Alliance on Media and Gender. At a broader level, she will contribute to building IAMCR's profile in the regions in cooperation with regional associations and the Global Ambassadors. Along with the rest of the EB, she will work on stimulating membership and building closer ties with other professional and academic associations in the field.
Gerard Goggin, Secretary General
Gerard Goggin is Professor at Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is author/editor of 20 books and over 175 research papers.
His work has focussed on social, cultural, and political dynamics of digital media, especially as these unfold in international settings.
Gerard also has a longstanding interest in disability, human rights, and media.
As Secretary-General, Gerard Goggin is responsible for general conference organization, in conjunction with President, Local Organizing Committees, and Executive-Director, and convenes the Conference Organizing Committee of the annual conference. Gerard takes minutes of EB and IC meetings. Gerard also serves as EB liaison for the Environmental Impact Committee. He will contribute to building IAMCR’s profile in the Asia-Pacific region, working with regional and national associations, key EB and IC colleagues, to extend membership and encourage and support IAMCR ambassadors. Gerard convenes a working group developing guidelines and resources for disability and associated accessibility to IAMCR conferences and the association generally.
Elske van de Fliert, Treasurer
Elske van de Fliert is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Communication and Social Change, The University of Queensland, Australia. She coordinates and teaches in the Master of Communication for Social Change and is currently involved in several research for development projects in Indonesia, Timor Leste and Mongolia. She has a PhD in Communication and Innovation Studies from Wageningen University, the Netherlands. She served as co-vice chair of the IAMCR Participatory Communication Research Section from 2013-2016.
Elske’s research interests include participatory development communication and engagement processes for sustainable rural development and social change. She is co-editor, with Pradip Thomas, of the book series Palgrave Studies in Communication for Social Change, in which they co-authored the book Interrogating the Theory and Practice of Communication for Social Change (2015).
Elske van de Fliert is the treasurer and in charge of the management of IAMCR’s finances. This involves regular accounting, administering bank accounts, managing external audits, annual financial reporting, and financial strategy development and implementation. She also takes care of the fund raising for and management of grants and awards. She is a member of the Conference Organising Committees and supports the LOCs with budgeting. She is also the Chair of the Finance Committee and the Evaluation Committee for the Section/Working Group and Committee/Task Force funds, and the vice-chair of the Task Force on the Global Alliance for Social and Behaviour Change.
Bruce Girard, Executive Director
Girard has been executive director since 2015, after running the technical secretariat in Uruguay for 10 years. Previously he was an independent consultant specialised in community and alternative radio, participatory communication, ICTs for development. He is co-author or editor of six books, from A Passion for Radio (1992) to Enabling Openness (2013). As Executive Director, Girard serves as an advisor to the executive board.