NCA Death & Dying Division
Mission Statement
The Death and Dying Division of the National Communication Association (NCA) supports the communication-oriented study of death, dying, and bereavement.
We believe death is truly an interdisciplinary research focus and welcome scholars from all adjacent disciplines. Our mission is to promote research, teaching, and community engagement related to the intersection of communication, death, dying, end-of-life, bereavement, and life/death, inclusive of all methodologies and epistemologies.
Annual
Business
Meetings
The NCA Death & Dying Division meets online, monthly, and holds the annual business meeting at the National Communication Association's Annual Convention.
"Let's talk about death!"
2025-2026
Division Executive Board Members:
-
Immediate Past Chair | Laura Bruns, PhD
-
Chair | Colleen Campbell Pendleton
-
Vice Chair | Cheyenne Zaremba, PhD(c)
-
Vice Chair-Elect | Nicole Costantini, PhD
-
Secretary | Reilly Card
-
Pedagogy and Andragogy Chair | Mike Alvarez, PhD
-
Graduate Student Representatives | Andy Allen Acosta, Jr. and Anna Simank
Advisory Board Director:
-
Nicole Costantini, PhD
NCA Division Advisory Board Members:
-
Nicole Defenbaugh, PhD
-
Linda Levitt, PhD
-
Lora Anderson, PhD
-
Sara V. Kaufman, PhD
-
Alyse Johnson, PhD
Join the NCA
Death & Dying
Division:
Communication studies (and communication-adjacent) scholars are welcome to join the division at NCA. Use NCA's membership portal (linked below) to join the division.
The NCA Death & Dying Division enthusiastically encourages undergraduate and graduate students to be involved.
All questions and inquiries may be sent to eoldeathscholars@gmail.com
NCA Membership Portal Link:
https://portal.natcom.org/become-a-member
Join our Mailing List:
https://forms.gle/tWzDVQjSncMHHBgN9
About NCA Interest Groups:
https://www.natcom.org/about-nca/membership-and-interest-groups
History of the
Division:
Read the original proposal for the National Communication Association here:
Death and Dying Division at NCA
Read the founding Chair's statements here:
A Home for Death; Welcome from Inaugural Chair Laura Bruns
The National Communication Association (NCA)
Death and Dying Division
During the National Communication Association Annual Convention, 2023 (Maryland, USA) the Death & Dying Division was officially accepted as a recognized division and interest group after two years of intensive community service, campaigning, and petitioning.
Members of the Death Scholars, Inc. nonprofit originally established this organizing effort. The division operates as a separate entity, belonging to and funded by the National Communication Association and its members. Death Scholars, Inc. continues to support the online archive of the Death & Dying Division, while NCA supports the place-making and space-making for the division.
All NCA-specific membership portal links are found below.
Please note that membership to the End-of-Life and Death Scholars (Death Scholars, Inc.) nonprofit is separate from NCA membership.
NCA Division Founding Members
-
Laura Bruns
-
Colleen Campbell Pendleton
-
Cheyenne Zaremba
-
Howard Rodriguez-Mori
-
Emily Scheinfeld
-
Jillian Rosa
-
J.J. Jones
-
Stephenson Brooks Whitestone
-
Mike Alvarez
-
Christian Seiter
-
Geoffrey Luurs
-
Heather Smith
-
Reilly Card
-
Jeannine Foster
-
Jessica Cherry
-
R. Amanda Cooper
-
Drew A. Bailey
-
Elizabeth A. Craig
-
Christine Salkin Davis
-
Jocelyn M. DeGroot
-
Carolyn Ellis
-
Sharmila Pixy Ferris
-
Lindsey Harvell-Bowman
-
Chandler Marr
-
Becky Belter Roberts
-
Karen Schlag
NCA Mission Statement
"The National Communication Association advances Communication as the discipline that studies all forms, modes, media, and consequences of communication through humanistic, social scientific, and aesthetic inquiry.
NCA serves the scholars, teachers, and practitioners who are its members by enabling and supporting their professional interests in research and teaching. Dedicated to fostering and promoting free and ethical communication, NCA promotes the widespread appreciation of the importance of communication in public and private life, the application of competent communication to improve the quality of human life and relationships, and the use of knowledge about communication to solve human problems. NCA supports inclusiveness and diversity among our faculties, within our membership, in the workplace, and in the classroom; NCA supports and promotes policies that fairly encourage this diversity and inclusion."
Official Website: https://www.natcom.org/
Past
Leadership
2023-2024
Division Executive Board Members:
-
Laura Bruns (Chair)
-
Colleen Campbell Pendleton (Vice Chair)
-
Cheyenne Zaremba (Vice Chair Elect)
-
Emily Scheinfeld (Secretary)
-
Jillian Rosa (Finance Chair)
-
J.J. Jones (DEI)
-
Stephenson Brooks Whitestone (Lead Archivist)
-
Mike Alvarez (Pedagogy/Andragogy Chair)
-
Geoffrey Luurs (Lead Investigator)
Disclosure
The Death Scholars, Inc. nonprofit does not own or preside over the NCA Death & Dying Division's bylaws, membership, or organizational matters. While historically connected in leadership overlaps, these are separate institutions with different strategic agendas and events.
The Death Scholars, Inc. nonprofit supports the need for transparency, history, and record-keeping on behalf of the NCA Death & Dying Division in providing this landing page to access information. We maintain a sharing-of-resources between members of both groups and strive to support communication and communication-adjacent scholars of end-of-life, death, and grief/bereavement at all levels of career advancement. By sharing resources, both groups aim to develop the next generation of death scholars in the Communication Studies academic discipline.
Both groups also emphasize the need for transparent archival practices, including listing founding members and updating leadership contacts as both organizations progress over annual elections.
Further information can be requested by contacting eoldeathscholars@gmail.com -- all correspondence can be forwarded to the current elected Chair of the Death & Dying Division.