Exploring Group Communication

Phil Venditti has taught communication since 2003 at Clover Park Technical College in Lakewood, Washington. He serves as president of the Washington Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges and is a two-time grantee and course developer within the Open Course Library sponsored by the Washington State Legislature and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A lover of the arts, he hosted a classical music program each week on Northwest Public Radio, which was broadcast to an audience in Greater Seattle and throughout a three-state area. Prior to becoming a faculty member, he performed administrative roles in two- and four-year colleges around the United States and founded an international education institute. He earned a doctorate from the Community College Leadership Program at the University of Texas at Austin and has other degrees from the School for International Training, the University of Colorado, and the University of Tennessee. He and his Korean-born wife, whom he met as a Peace Corps volunteer in her country in 1977, live in University Place, Washington, and have two wonderful grown daughters.

Scott McLean is a Contributing Faculty Member in the Communication Department at Walden University. He also served as an Associate Professor of Business Communication for the W. A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University—Yuma, on a combined campus partnership with the University of Arizona and Arizona Western College. Scott McLean was the 2007–2011 Shadle-EdgeCombe Endowed Faculty Chair at Arizona Western College. Scott is the author of The Basics of Speech Communication, The Basics of Interpersonal Communication, and The Basic of Communication Studies, currently published by Pearson. He is also the author of Business Communication for Success, Business English for Success, Writing for Success, Intercultural Communication, and Group Communication (co-authored with Phil Venditti) with FlatWorld, has published in peer-review journals, classic car magazines, and newspapers. From his experience working with students at the community college and undergraduate level, including English 95 (development), 100 (college prep), 101 (composition and argumentation), 102 (literature and analysis) and 350 (business communication), he has learned the importance of clear, concise learning resources with scaffolding, frequent opportunities for engagement and demonstration of skill mastery, and the importance of the first English course as well as the Business Communication/English course on overall academic success for many students. He also serves as an international consultant to business and industry, and has worked with The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Oregon; served on the Small Business and Innovative Research (SBIR) Evaluation Panel for the National Institutes of Health; evaluated programs for the Ministry of Hacienda, Chile; and many others. He has taught at AWC/San Luis on the US/Mexican Border, for Central Oregon Community College’s Branch Campus on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, and for Universidad San Sebastian in Concepcion, Chile. Scott studied at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, at Washington State University's Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, and at Northern Arizona University–Flagstaff Department of English in the area of Professional Writing. He and his family divide their time between Chile and the United States.