Business professionals with communications experience

Our instructors bring a first-hand knowledge of business communication to the classroom. All of our instructors are either business professionals or have had prior business experience.

Kevin Allardice comes most recently from the San Francisco Bay Area, but he's also lived in Southern California, Northern Colorado, and Charlottesville, Virginia. While in college, he worked as an actor, and since then he's published five novels, with a sixth forthcoming. He's written for a wide range of publications and for UC Berkeley's University Relations. His teaching experience is varied: he's taught at the University of Virginia, James Madison University, and Sweet Briar College; he's also taught high school and volunteered as an English teacher for incarcerated students at San Quentin Prison. 

Barbara Baker received her BS in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Iowa, her Masters in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Phoenix, and her CPCU from The Insurance Institute of America. Barb has spent nearly 20 years as the director of advertising and community relations at Grinnell Mutual after eight years in the training and development department. She serves on a number of local and state non-profit boards and task forces. She is in her ninth year of teaching BCaP and enjoys helping students develop life-long communication skills and prepare for successful professional careers. 

Pamela Bourjaily is an Associate Professor of Instruction and former Director of the Frank Business Communication Center at the Tippie College of Business. As Frank Center director, she designed and oversaw the required core undergraduate course, BUS 3000: Business Communication and Protocol, as well as other undergraduate business communication electives and college business communication programming, including the Ph.D. Writing Program initiative. Prior to directing the Frank Center, Pam built and expanded the college’s Department of Accounting writing program, one of the first business departmental writing initiatives in the country. An early adopter of incorporating generative AI in business communication teaching, she encourages critical thinking approaches to collaborating with gen AI chatbots and is especially interested in helping students to more effectively use gen AI to meet their communication goals.

Samantha Brown has been a lecturer and faculty member at the University of Iowa since 2013.  Her degrees focus on helping students excel in the areas of composition, writing, reading, and all forms of communication.  She has extensive knowledge in the areas of curriculum, assessment, and current teaching methodologies and has presented and published on these topics at institutions both within the United States and Europe.  She also has experience teaching TAs to succeed in the classroom and has led meetings to support ongoing professional development in the areas of curriculum and assessment design that is inclusive and focused on adult learners.  Her current areas of research include course design, creating assessments, and intercultural communication.  Most importantly though, she strives to create atmospheres where all colleagues and students around her feel safe, respected, and included.  

Don Fifer is a highly accomplished sales executive, leader and mentor known for his exceptional track record in cultivating client relationships and driving successful growth in fiercely competitive market niches. With a consultative and strategic approach, Don consistently delivers outstanding results while serving as a trusted advisor to C-level decision makers, middle managers and front-line employees across diverse industries. Don is also an alumna of the University of Iowa receiving his BBA in Marketing and MBA in Management and comes from a family of four generations of Hawkeyes with 11 graduates.

Carl Follmer is an Associate Professor of Instruction and Director of the Frank Business Communications Center.  He also currently serves as the Assistant Department Executive Office for the Department of Accounting.  He specializes in communications curriculum development at the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels.  He teaches Business Communication and Protocol (BUS: 3000), Communicating with AI and Business Technology (MBA: 8430), and Tippie's Summer PhD Communications Seminar.  Carl has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, an M.A. in German, and a B.A. in History, all from the University of Iowa.  His dissertation focused on fascist children's propaganda in Germany and Spain.  He lives in Iowa City with his wife and 4 children.

Meghann Foster

Patrick Highland has spent his entire career connecting education and employment.  He recently retired from a long career with the Iowa City Community School District where he supervised Career and Technical Education.  He currently teaches Business Communication and Protocol and two courses in the MBA program--Effective Managerial Communications and Influence and Constructive Persuasion. He has written several newspaper and journal articles and is the author of textbooks.

Sonja Mayrhofer is an Associate Professor of Instruction who received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa’s English Department, where she wrote a dissertation that focused on medieval medical ideas about bodies and emotions. Emotional complexity and its rhetorical expressions in any age and/or context continue to fascinate her and influence her teaching and writing. She especially enjoys teaching public speaking strategies, where bodies and emotions intersect all the time. Prior to joining Tippie, she taught in the UI's Rhetoric Department, where her teaching explored many of her interests: the rhetoric of self-hood (both in advertising and memoirs), forensic rhetoric (how we use the past to make arguments), and intercultural empathy, especially in her work co-directing the UI Conversation Center and advising UI Fulbright applicants. She grew up in Austria, and has studied in Canada, France, and the US, and her teaching incorporates this international perspective.

Sam Perkins worked in health care administration for 11 years at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics/Mercy Iowa City, holding a variety of management/leadership roles. After teaching in an adjunct role in BCaP for the two years he started as a full time faculty member in Spring 2024. He graduated with his MBA from the University of Iowa with a Certificate in Leadership in May 2021, and also has a Masters of Science in College Student Personnel from Western Illinois University that he completed in May 2011.

Meredith Ringel-Ensley is Assistant Director of the Frank Business Communication Center and Adjunct Instructor. As Assistant Director, she oversees the peer tutoring program in communication and manages Frank Center operations. Before coming to the Frank Center, Meredith taught writing and literature at Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University, and University of North Carolina. She holds a PhD from University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a BA from Brown University.

Alex Taylor has a wide range of professional experience to include executive leadership, business development, marketing, and business communications in a range of industries including telecommunications, computer hardware/software, manufacturing, commercial printing, higher education, and A/I medical device development. He is currently the managing director for the Iowa Startup Accelerator Services, NewBoCo, where he helps lead a venture-funded portfolio of startup businesses towards repeatable and scalable growth. Additionally, Alex, along with his wife, co-owns and operates Woofables Gourmet Dog Biscuit Bakery, a successful manufacturing and distribution company.

Barb Wester brings her passion for helping students succeed to her role as Assistant Director of the Accounting Writing and Communications program and instructor of Business Writing at the Tippie College of Business. With an accomplished career in marketing and communications at companies like AT&T and John Deere, she has a wealth of industry experience to draw upon in the classroom. Before joining Tippie, Barb taught communication courses at Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., and St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. She thrives on fostering “aha” moments in the classroom and in one-on-one interactions. Barb has a master’s degree from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa.

Nick Westergaard is a Lecturer at the Tippie College of Business, where he leads the Story Lab program. His work in communication and marketing helps organizations and individuals tell stronger stories and build better brands. Nick is the author of the books Brand Now and Get Scrappy, a contributor to the Harvard Business Review, host of the popular On Brand podcast, a Moth StorySLAM Champion, a TEDx speaker coach, and a keynote speaker at conferences throughout the world. As a strategist, he's spent his career building standout brands at organizations of all sizes—from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies to President Obama's Jobs Council.