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School of Communication

Dr. Jessica Rick

Assistant Professor
School of Communication
Office
FEL Fell Hall 434
Office Hours
Wednesdays 10:30 - 11:30 and by appointment (all summer office hours are on Zoom)
Office Phone
(309) 438-3671office
phone
Email
jmrick@ilstu.eduemail
  • About
  • Education
  • Awards & Honors
  • Research

Current Courses

COM 375.001 Communication And Leadership

COM 375.002 Communication And Leadership

COM 331.001 Family Communication through the Lifespan

COM 375.002 Communication And Leadership

COM 400.013 Independent Study

COM 473.001 Seminar In Qualitative Communication Research Methods

Teaching Interests & Areas

Leadership & Communication, Health Communication, Work(ing)/Life Balance, Family Communication, Interpersonal & Relational Communication, Qualitative Research Methods

Research Interests & Areas

Dr. Rick's research focuses on organizational policies, how people talk about policies, and the stigma associated with using policies. She also examines how gender, social class, and parenting influence people’s work and personal lives. Currently, she’s researching the challenges mothers face when they exclusively pump breast milk, including how workplaces, families, friends, and medical professionals respond to these choices.

Dr. Rick’s work has been published in several respected communication journals and books, including the Journal of Applied Communication Research, the Journal of Family Communication, Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, and the Journal of Nonprofit Leadership and Management. She has also led trainings for local and national organizations on topics such as microaggressions, diversity and inclusion, effective communication, staying true to one's mission, balancing work and life, and public speaking. She’s a trained mentor through the Lean In Circles program, which supports women in leadership and professional growth.

PhD Organizational Communication

University of Missouri
Columbia, MO

MBA Human Resource Management

University of Southern Indiana
Evansville, IN

MA Communication

North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND

BA Communication Studies, International Studies, & Spanish

University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Lincoln, NE

Outstanding Faculty Teaching Award by New Faculty

University of Southern Indiana
2022

Mary Harriman Award

Junior League of Evansville
2021

Book, Chapter

Rick, J. M., & Halliwell, D. (2023). Blogging through fatherhood: Stay-at-home dads’ online communication and community. In V. Waldron and T. Socha (Eds.), Communicating fatherhood: New directions in theory, research, and education (pp. 357-365). Peter Lang.
Rick, J. M., & Meisenbach, R. J. (2017). Social stigma, childfree identities, and work/life balance. In E. F. Hatfield (Ed.), Communication and the work-life balancing act: Intersections across identities, genders, and cultures (pp. 205-221). Rowman and Littlefield and Lexington Books.

Journal Article

Meisenbach, R. J., & Rick, J. M. (2025). Managing feminist stigma among US pageant participants. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/17459435.2025.2500302
Kerber, A., & Rick, J. M. (2023). Engaging movement(s) in and as pedagogy [Introduction to Special Issue]. Feminist Pedagogy, 3(3). https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/feministpedagogy/vol3/iss3/1/

Colaner, C., Elkhalid, A., Butauski, M., Bish, A., Nelson, L., & Rick, J. M. (2021). Communicatively constructing godparenthood: Relational maintenance and relational closeness. Journal of Family Communication, 21(2), 107-117. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2021.1903901

Meisenbach, R. J., Rick, J. M., & Brandhorst, J. K. (2019) Managing occupational identity threats and job turnover: How former and current fundraisers manage moments of stigmatized identities. Journal of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, 29(3), 383-399. doi: 10.1002/nml.21332

Littlefield, R. S., Rick, J. M., & Currie-Mueller, J. L. (2016). Connecting intercultural communication service learning with general education: Issues, outcomes, and assessment. Journal of General Education, 65(1), 66-84. doi: 10.5325/jgeneeduc.65.1.0066

Written Case with Instructional Material

Luttrull, B. & Rick, J. M. (2019). One of us?: Examining organizational leadership and decision making through (non)ethical organizational policies. In R. S. Bisel & M. W. Kramer (Eds.) Case studies in organizational communication: A lifespan approach (pp. 100 – 105). Oxford Press.
Rick, J. M. & Valiavska, A. (2019). “Wow, you’re a female engineer!”: Gender and the chilly climate of STEM fields. In E. Kirby & C. McBride (Eds.) Gender actualized: Cases in communicatively constructing realities (2nd Ed.; pp. 234-239). Kendall Hunt Publishing.

Meisenbach. R. J., & Rick, J. M. (2015). Working hard for less money?: Fund-raisers, loyalty, and employee retention. In J. Mize Smith & M. W. Kramer (Eds.), Case studies in volunteering and NGOs (pp. 153-162). Peter Lang.