Graduate Student Organizations

COMMGrads is the graduate student organization for the Department of Communication, offering leadership and representation to department graduate students.

The Association of Communication Graduate Students at Maryland (COMMGrads) was established for the expressed purpose of developing social and academic support for communication graduate students as they pursue their scholarly and professional interests. The primary goal of this organization is to assist its members in the development of professional and academic success by advocating communication graduate student needs and concerns.

• President: Victoria Ledford
• Vice President: Matthew Salzano
• Secretary: Jeannette Viens
• Treasurer/Fundraising Chair: Meg Itoh
• Departmental Assembly Rep: Darrian Carroll
• Graduate Studies Rep: Elizabeth Brooke Phipps
• Undergraduate Studies Rep: Drew Ashby-King
• IRB Rep: Sarah Aghazadeh
• Social Events Committee Chair: Taylor Hourigan
• Graduate Advisory Committee to the Chair: Meg Itoh, Elizabeth Brooke Phipps, Jeannette Viens
• Colloquium Committee Graduate Student Rep: Aya H Farhat
• Faculty Appreciation Committee Chair: Neha Kamran
• Dean's Grad Student Advisory Board for ARHU: Darrian Carroll

Responsibilities of the Graduate Student Advisory Council and Procedure for Electing the Council

Cheló̱na RSA is he University of Maryland’s graduate student chapter of the Rhetoric Society of America. Cheló̱na (the Greek, χελώνα) means “turtle.” Terp pride! RSA is dedicated to bringing scholars of rhetoric together across traditional university and field boundaries and it is our mission to do the same at Maryland. 

Along with our parent organization, we strive to make scholarly and pedagogical collaboration between communication and English rhetoricians not only possible, but regular. Through various programs, workshops, colloquia and other initiatives, we hope to foster an academic climate in rhetoric that supports the interests, needs and desires of our graduate students at Maryland. Read more about Cheló̱na RSA. 

The 2020-21 Executive Board: 

• Chair: Matthew Salzano
• Vice Chair/Treasurer: Brooke Phipps
• Secretary/RSA Liaison: Meg Itoh 
• Webmaster/Publicity Chair: Taylor Hourigan
• Representative to the English Department: Elizabeth Catchmark 
• Representative to the Communication Department: Fielding Montgomery