Samantha Powers | Howard Profiles

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Faculty

Samantha Rae Powers, JD, PhD (she/her)

Associate Professor

Department/Office

Communication Studies

School/College

School of Communications

Biography

Dr. Samantha Rae Powers is a generalist in the Department of Communication Studies (COMM) (fka Strategic, Legal and Management Communication (SLMC)), with teaching and practical experience across the department’s three major areas of study. Samantha earned her B.S. in public relations at University of Florida, while gaining work experience in media relations, event planning and coordinating, and hospitality management. She also earned her M.A. and J.D. at University of Florida, including coursework in strategic public relations, media law, employment law, negotiation, and mediation. Prior to earning her Ph.D. specializing in organizational communication at University of California, Santa Barbara, Samantha worked as a Florida litigator in private practice and volunteered as a Florida Supreme Court-certified County Mediator for the Orange County Bar Association. Her research focuses on communicative behaviors related to occupational stress and employee well-being, vocational and organizational socialization, workplace discrimination, and negotiation. In addition, Samantha serves as the Internship Coordinator for COMM and as the Cathy Hughes School of Communications Interdisciplinary Studies Program Coordinator. When not engaged in teaching, research, or service for HU or academia-at-large, she practices family and employment law in Virginia.

Research

Specialty

Communication and Occupational Stress; Workplace Emotional Communication; Vocational and Organizational Socialization; Employee Discrimination; Gender and Negotiation

Publications and Presentations

Powers, S. R., Gazica, M. W., & Myers, K. K. (2022). Emotional communication and human sustainability in professional service firms (PSFs). Sustainability, 14(7), 4054, 1-15.

Gazica, M. W., Powers, S. R., & Kessler, S. R. (2021). Imperfectly perfect: Examining psychosocial safety climate’s influence on the physical and psychological impact of perfectionism in the practice of law? Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 39(6), 741-757.

Powers, S. R., & Myers, K. K. (2020). Work-related emotional communication model of burnout: An analysis of emotions for hire. Management Communication Quarterly 34(2), 155-187. (MCQ 2020 Paper of the Year)

Gazica, M. W., Powers, S. R., & Irgens, M. S. (2018, September). Well-being among Arizona lawyers: Attorneys stressed but satisfied. Arizona Attorney, 55(1), 26-32.

Powers, S. R., & Myers, K. K. (2017). Vocational Anticipatory Socialization: College students’ reports of encouraging/discouraging sources and messages. Journal of Career Development, 44(5), 409-424.

Myers, K. K., & Powers, S. R. (2017). Mixed methods. In C. Scott & L. Lewis (Eds.), The international encyclopedia of organizational communication (Vol. III) (pp. 1625-1635). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Powers, S. R., & Myers, K. K. (2016). Millennials in the workplace: Research findings and managerial implications. In M. Sharabi (Ed.), Generational differences in work values and ethics: An international perspective (pp. 163-182). Hauppauge, NY: Nova Science Publishers.

Putnam, L. L., & Powers, S. R. (2016). Contradictions and dialectics as keys to conflict transformation. In P. M. Kellett & T. G. Matyok (Eds.), Transforming conflict through communication in personal, family, and working relationships (pp. 3-22). Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.

Putnam, L. L., & Powers, S. R. (2015). Developing negotiation competencies. In A. F. Hannawa & B. H. Spitzberg (Eds.), Communication competence (Vol. 22) (pp. 367-395). Berlin/Boston: Mouton de Gruyter.