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CI’s Communication Studies Department is dedicated to developing students’ understanding of human communication processes as symbolic and meaningful, with a departmental focus on social justice, experiential learning, and career readiness. Combining theoretical knowledge in the classroom with community engagement opportunities beyond it, the department offers emphases in (1) Health Communication, (2) Environmental Communication, and (3) Organizational Communication. Students who complete their Communication Studies degree will be prepared to positively impact their local and global communities.

Student Opportunities

• Santa Rosa Island: Communication Studies students have the opportunity to visit the Santa Rosa Island Research Station, located in the Channel Islands National Park. The Station is a space to cultivate a diverse and interdisciplinary community of scholars and communities. Student will experience immersive pedagogical activities including cultural, historical, and ecological lessons about this wonderful place. For more information about the Research station, visit SRIRS.
• Dolphin Radio: “By students, for students” - Communication students are responsible for station management, including programming, promotion and social media, podcast creation, and outreach. Ask about current projects or initiatives if you are interested in learning more about audio production or broadcasting.
• Study Abroad: Communication Studies has a rich history of offering short-term study abroad courses to such places as Taiwan, England, Alaska, South Korea, New Zealand, and more!
• Faculty-Student Research: Communication Studies’ faculty have collaborated with undergraduate students to coauthor dozens of academic conference papers and peer-reviewed journal articles, including “Textbook Broke: Textbook Affordability as a Social Justice Issue” - which was also awarded Research Article of the Year by the Open Education Group. 

Career Opportunities

Major career opportunities include environmental advocacy, nonprofit and business management, health services, and social media content creation/management. Additional employment avenues include: mediation, counseling, public affairs, government, entrepreneurship, sales, community relations, employee relations, teaching, consulting, event planning, media entertainment, law, international relations, social and human services, advertising, journalism, marketing, public relations. Students may also pursue graduate studies.

Faculty

Nancy Chen, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Expertise: Health Communication 
Highlight/Achievement: Recipient CSUCI’s “Community Engaged Faculty Award”
Bell Tower West, Room 1178
(805) 437-3956
nien-tsu.chen@csuci.edu

Tracylee Clarke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Communication
Expertise: Environmental Communication
Highlight/Achievement: Serves on CSUCI’s Alumni Board as Faculty Liaison between alumni, faculty students, and our regional community 
Bell Tower West, Room 1164
(805) 437-3305
tracylee.clarke@csuci.edu

J. Jacob Jenkins, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Expertise: Organizational Communication
Highlight/Achievement: The Strategic Communicator - forthcoming book under contract w/ Ethics Press, Cambridge, UK; coauthored by Sasha Arjannikova.
Bell Tower West, Room 1275
(805) 437-3772
jacob.jenkins@csuci.edu

Jose Castro-Sotomayor, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Expertise:  Environmental and intercultural communication, ecocultural identity and systems of meaning, environmental and climate education, environmental justice governance, community engagement in policymaking, ecocultural and decolonial pedagogy, activism.
Highlight/Achievement: Latest Publications: Intersectional Activism in Environmental Communication: Changemakers respond to Ecological Crises (2025), Michigan State University Press; Milstein, T. & Castro-Sotomayor, J. (Eds.) (2020). Routledge Handbook of Ecocultural Identity, (Open access); Awards: Tarla Rai Peterson Book Award. 2020. Environmental Communication Division National Communication Association (USA); Christine L. Oravec Journal Article Award. 2020. Environmental Communication Division, National Communication Association (USA). For Castro-Sotomayor, J. (2019). Emplacing climate change: Civic action at the margins. Frontiers in Communication, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00033

Bell Tower West, Room 1285
(805) 437-2065
jose.castro-sotomayor@csuci.edu

Hyunsook Youn, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Communication
Expertise: Organizational Communication
Highlight/Achievement: Faculty Advisor for Lambda Pi Eta (Communication Honor Society); Lead of the UNIV 392 faculty-led global service-learning program in South Korea, and a Principal Investigator of a CSU-funded AI curriculum innovation grant integrating AI into Communication education.
Bell Tower West, Room 1133
hyunsook.youn@csuci.edu

Programs

• Communication, B.A. Environmental Communication Emphasis - 120 units
• Communication, B.A. Health Communication Emphasis - 120 units
• Communication, B.A. Organizational Communication Emphasis - 120 units

• Communication, B.A. for the AA-T (Transfer Model Curriculum) Degree Only - 120 units

• Communication, Minor - 18 units
• Communication, Minor in Visual Media Communication - 24 units

• Roadmap Freshman - 4 year: Communication: Environmental Communication Emphasis, B.A.
• Roadmap Freshman - 4 year: Communication: Health Communication Emphasis, B.A.
• Roadmap Freshman - 4 year: Communication: Organizational Communication Emphasis, B.A.
• Roadmap Transfer - 2 year: Communication: Environmental Communication Emphasis, B.A.
• Roadmap Transfer - 2 year: Communication: Health Communication Emphasis, B.A.
• Roadmap Transfer - 2 year: Communication: Organizational Communication Emphasis, B.A.

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