HCI Team Members

Cassie Bingham has a bachelor’s degree in Sociocultural Anthropology and minor in International Development, studies that led her to months of qualitative and ethnographic research while living in Ghana. After graduating from Brigham Young University, Cassie worked on the development team of Guadalupe School, a nonprofit serving Hispanic immigrants in Salt Lake City, as both the head of volunteer relations and the communications specialist. Over the years, she also led several social impact efforts abroad. Cassie taught principles of ethical community development while creating local collaborations for an international nonprofit team in Uganda. She led a multi-pronged disaster relief initiative at Moria Refugee Camp in Greece.  In addition, as a contract employee of Mabira Collective, a fair-trade jewelry company, Cassie returned to East Africa in order to co-create a local tourism initiative with Ugandan artisans and develop a sourcing and production strategy for a new line of product. She also co-founded an ethical tourism company called Kinfara Travel, which directs Western tourists to Ugandan-owned and led tourism services and experiences. Cassie now works as an advisor and instructor at the Center for Social Impact at Utah Valley University, where she is developing social impact programming and teaching principles of systems and design thinking.Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Marissa Getts graduated from BYU with an honors degree in sociology and minors in international development and Middle East studies. After running BYU's International Development internship in Malawi, she spent much of her time at BYU as a teaching assistant in the business school for the popular social innovation class. She interned for several global leaders in the social innovation space, including Ashoka and Greening Youth Foundation while also trying to be involved locally as a team lead for a UTA project to increase student ridership. She was also the founding editor-in-chief of Ballard Brief, a publication that helps would-be change makers have access to accurate information about social problems and solutions. After graduation she worked on design and communication strategy for Mabira Collective, an ethical jewelry production company based in Uganda before landing at UVU's Center for Social Impact. She currently teaches several classes, co-advises the Center's student leadership, and runs Oxford Map the System  Challenge, Alternative Breaks and Social Impact Scholar distinction, all through the lens of systems thinking and design thinking. She does this with a deep commitment to rigorous and equitable social impact driven by innovation methodology. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

Dr. Maureen Andrade is a professor in the organizational leadership department at Utah Valley University. She is an experienced leader in higher education, having served as a director, department chair, associate dean, and associate vice president. In these positions, Dr. Andrade led a number of successful change efforts to improve systems and processes to positively impact student learning. She has worked and consulted in a number of international locations and collaborated on global multi-organization initiatives. She has expertise in distance education training and development, transformational change, leadership, organizational development, and cultural and linguistic issues. Dr. Andrade holds an EdD in higher education leadership from the University of Southern California and the distinction of Principal Fellow from the Higher Education Academy in the UK for strategic leadership. She is a regular conference presenter both in the U.S. and internationally and has been published extensively in academic journals as well as books. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Maria Blevins is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Utah Valley University.  Her research focuses on conflict, organizational, and environmental communication. Specifically, much of her research focuses on socializing new members into organizations. Her current research focuses on how individuals in the whitewater rafting industry negotiate gender within the outfitter community. She is a founding member of A-DASH (Anti-Discrimination and Sexual Harassment) for the River Management Society. Additionally, she is a faculty mentor in the UVU SIMLab (Social Impact Metrics Lab). Dr. Blevins received her Ph.D. from the University of Utah. She has published and presented in communication and outdoor recreation journals and conferences.  Her passion for connecting people through dialogue and qualitative research methodologies allows her to collect narratives from people to gain a deeper understanding of the world. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Leandra H. Hernandez (Ph.D., Texas A&M University), is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Utah Valley University, and enjoys teaching health communication, gender studies, and media studies courses. She utilizes Chicana feminist and qualitative approaches to explore Latina/o cultural health experiences, Latina/o journalism and media representations, and Latina/o cultural identities in reproductive justice and gendered violence contexts. She is the co-author of Challenging Reproductive Control and Gendered Violence in the Americas: Intersectionality, Power, and Struggles for Rights, recipient of the 2018 NCA FWSD Studies Division Bonnie Ritter Award, as well as several other books. Additionally, she is the co-editor of the Lexington Press book series Lexington Studies in Health Communication and the Peter Lang Cultural Media Studies book series. Furthermore, as the Immediate Past Chair of the NCA La Raza Caucus and Latina/o Communication Studies Division, she works to foster the study and practical application of Latina/o Communication Studies for students, scholars, and organizational practitioners alike.

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Summer Barrick Valente graduated from BYU with a bachelor of arts in humanities, with an emphasis in philosophy. During her undergraduate studies she spent some significant time in Brazil, which sparked her passion for community development, civic engagement, and the nonprofit sector. Summer then earned a masters degree in public administration from the Romney Institute of Public Management at BYU. During her graduate studies she spent time abroad in Ghana and Mozambique, focusing on international development and research.  After graduation, Summer started her nonprofit career at United Way of Utah County, finishing her time with the organization as their Chief Operating Officer working closely with the CEO as she led department team leaders in the development of new strategies, initiatives, and organizational capacity.  Summer currently serves as the director of the Center for Social Impact at UVU. She loves working with others to create a space for critical thinking, reflection, and action on social justice issues. She has particular expertise in social impact instruction, nonprofit management, hiring and onboarding, brand management, strategic alignment, and data visualization. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Jessica Pauly is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Utah Valley University. She is an organizational communication scholar with particular interest in identity, tension, power, culture, and gender. Taken together, these interests develop into a broader awareness of social change organizing. Concerned with how communication constitutes social change in ways that shape and are shaped by organizing and the organization, Jessica focuses her research to explore and inform social change organizing and its transformative potential. As a feminist interpretivist researcher with applied leanings, Jessica has published academic articles and book chapters exploring the intersections of gender, identity, workplace tensions, and social change. Jessica’s research experiences have taken her to Ghana, in West Africa, where she aided and assisted local peacebuilding efforts, and to Denmark and Slovenia where she researched corporate volunteering efforts. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Douglas G. Miller is a Professor of Management at Utah Valley University, where he leads the Hospitality Management program, with other visiting faculty positions in Guatemala and Hawaii. He has significant higher education leadership experience. Additionally, Dr. Miller has published and presented scholarly research and has consulted for numerous companies such as Coca-Cola Olympics, GuestSpan, Convention and Visitor Bureaus, Salt Lake Olympic Organizing Committee, and various restaurants and hotels. Dr. Miller spent over 15 years in leadership positions in the hospitality industry prior to his academic positions, including General Manager and Director roles.  He has expertise and academic interest in short-term vacation rentals (ie. Airbnb), service industry employee staffing and issues, community tourism development, and hospitality management pedagogy and program development.  Doug received his PhD. from the University of Utah, specializing in hospitality management and tourism.  He has an MBA from Chaminade University Honolulu and a BS from Brigham Young University-Hawaii. His full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Nikki Eberhardt's life goal is to empower people with audacious solutions in order to tackle the globe’s most intractable challenges. She seeks to disrupt at the intersection of technology and scalable social impact. She is Assistant Professor of Business at Minerva—teaching startup finance, marketing and global business. She has an M.A. in International Development from Brigham Young University, an M.B.A. from Said Business School at Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Global Sociology from the University of Utah.  Eberhardt currently serves on Delta’s Global Talent Team to craft leadership development and mentor culture strategies. She is EVP Impact eThree + Director Partnerships at ZSchool, a digital platform promoting generational change. She is EVP Impact and Relationships for UCO, a company that provides financial technology solutions to billions of mobile phone users in emerging economies. She also works with Global Citizen—a movement harnessing voices of global citizens, influencers, world leaders, and corporations to fundraise and advocate for the end of extreme poverty. Her full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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As a management consultant for most of his career, Greg Smith has over 30 years’ expertise working with small, medium and large organizations around the world. In addition to living in six countries, on four continents, he has worked on projects in Europe, Asia, Africa and North America in areas including: international expansion, managerial development & coaching, organizational growth & strategic development, market planning, multinational distribution and project management. He holds a Masters Degree in International Business (IMBA) from the University of South Carolina, and an undergraduate degree in History and International Relations from BYU. In addition to serving as Managing Partner of GDI Consulting Group, with offices in London, Johannesburg, Sydney and Denver, Greg has also been responsible for business development and key account management in the Intermountain region. As an educator, he has taught in undergraduate and graduate business programs in the areas of marketing and management including: consultancy skills, services marketing, strategy, marketing, organizational behavior, human resources and entrepreneurship. He continually manages a wide range of consulting projects for the UVU MBA Strategy Capstone class. His full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Ronald Mellado Miller is currently a statistics professor in the Strategic Management and Operations Department of the Woodbury School of Business at UVU, with a specialty in social impact assessment. Additionally, he is a Social Impact Fellow in the UVU Center for Social Impact and a faculty mentor in the UVU SIMLab (Social Impact Metrics Lab). Dr. Miller received his Ph.D. from Purdue University and is currently a visiting academic at Oxford University in England. He has published and presented in a wide variety of scientific research areas, including business, neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and game theory, among others. Coupled with his quantitative background is a great appreciation for qualitative research in order to understand the meaning behind the numbers. Dr. Miller has run impact assessment studies in Asia, Africa, the Pacific Islands, Europe and the United States. His full profile can be viewed on LinkedIn.

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Dr. Eric J. Russell is an Associate Professor in the  Emergency Services department at UVU. His writings and research involve the influence of homeland security education on responders, as well as the impact of servant leadership on organizations and individuals. He is the author of more than 60 peer reviewed and trade publications as well as two books: The Desire to Serve: Servant Leadership for the Fire and Emergency Services (Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership) and In Command of Guardians: Executive Servant Leadership for the Community of Responders (Springer). In addition, Eric speaks nationally on the subjects of servant leadership and homeland security education. Dr. Russell retired early as a Captain from the Department of Defense/USAF Fire and Emergency Services with combined active duty military and DoD service. He is a Department of Defense Rescue Technician, Hazardous Materials Technician/IC, and a Dive Master. Dr. Russell is also a Certified Homeland Protection Professional (CHPP) from the National Sheriff's Association and the Global Society of Homeland and National Security Professionals (GSHNSP) and was awarded a Graduate Certificate in Homeland Security Studies from Michigan State University.​

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