"Lana Rakow, professor, is a native of North Dakota and has been a member of the School of Communication since 1994. She has a B.A. degree with majors in journalism and humanities and an M.A. degree in American literature and English language, both from the University of North Dakota. Her Ph.D. is from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where she studied with James W. Carey.

Dr. Rakow is the author or editor of four books and dozens of journal articles and book chapters. Her primary research interests are on gender, the history and philosophy of technology, communication theory and research methodology, community communication, and curriculum change. Dr. Rakow has experience with complex and collaborative research projects, such as a needs assessment of communities in North Dakota and the future of communication professionals in North Dakota. She is interested in participatory research and community based research methods and uses textual methods, interviews, focus groups, participant observation and ethnography, and survey methods. She serves on the editorial board of a number of national and international research journals, including New Media & Society, Feminist Media Studies, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, and Communication Methods and Measures.

Dr. Rakow is active in local, national, and international communication associations, having served as president of North Dakota Professional Communicators, chair of the Teaching Standards Committee of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, a member through two terms on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and a recent nominee as president-elect-select of the International Communication Association.

Dr. Rakow also serves as the director of UND’s Center for Community Engagement, a program that serves all academic areas of the University, linking faculty and students with communities through experiential learning and public scholarship."