Professor of Journalism and Creative Media Industries, Texas Tech University Lyombe Eko is a professor in the College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University. His areas of research and teaching expertise are comparative and international communication studies, with an emphasis on Francophone and Anglophone Africa; comparative information and communication technology law and policy, with a focus on the European Union, the United States, France and the UK. He also studies visual communication (cartoons), human Rights, and freedom of expression. He has published four books, including the award-winning, The Charlie Hebdo Affair and Comparative Journalistic Cultures: Human Rights Versus Religious Rites (Palgrave Macmillan 2019), and New Media Old Regimes: Case Studies in Comparative Communication Law and Policy (2012); and The Regulation of Sex-themed Visual Imagery: From Clay Tablets to Tablet Computers (2016). He has also published numerous, widely cited articles in law review journals and refereed visual and international communication journals. Before he joined Texas Tech in 2015, he was an associate professor at the University of Iowa School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He was also Director of the African Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He has also taught at the University of Maine, Orono, Maine. He earned his PhD in Journalism from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Before his academic career, he was a journalist at Cameroon Radio and Television (CRTV), and an editor/translator and producer at the African Broadcasting Union (URTNA) in Nairobi, Kenya.
Industry Professor & Paul Ramsay Foundation Fellow, University of Technology Sydney Leslie Loble AM currently is Industry Professor at UTS, Paul Ramsay Foundation Fellow and co-chair of the Council on Early Childhood Development. She is a board member of the Australian Education Research Organisation and holds expert advisory and governance roles. She previously served as Deputy Secretary in the NSW Department of Education for 20 years and was long-term chair of the national Schooling Policy Group supporting Australian Education Ministers. Prior to coming to Australia, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton to senior executive roles in the US Department of Labor. She holds degrees from Harvard University and Cornell University.
Associate Professor of Government, Wesleyan University Logan Dancey (Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 2010) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Government at Wesleyan University, where he teaches courses in American Politics. His research and teaching interests include the U.S. Congress, campaigns and elections, and public opinion. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, and Political Behavior. He is also a co-author (with Kjersten Nelson and Eve Ringsmuth) of the book It’s Not Personal: Politics and Policy in Lower Court Confirmation Hearings.
Open Research Manager: Data & Methods, Loughborough University Open Research Manager for Data and Methods at Loughborough University. She is responsible for advocating for Open Research practices and curating research material for the university's repository. Lara is the managing editor of the South African Journal of Business Management, which she successfully moved to an Open Accessing publishing model. She holds a PhD in Information Science, a Masters in Library and Information Science and three other degrees. She has more than two decades of experience in supporting researchers, which started in academic librarianship. Her experience supporting researchers in resource-poor environments has led to her deep interest in research impact and the measurement and reporting thereof. She is a member of Emerald Publishing’s Research Impact Advisory Board. Lara has published on a wide number of topics, taught various courses at Masters and Doctoral students, and examined several dissertations.
Professor and Director, Center for Gambling Studies, Rutgers University Lia Nower, J.D., Ph.D., is a Professor and Director of the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, School of Social Work. A clinician and attorney who specializes in gambling disorder and behavioral addictions, she also serves as director of the Addiction Counselor Training Certificate Program, a member of the leadership team of the Rutgers Addiction Research Center (RARC) and a research affiliate with the Sydney University Gambling Treatment Unit in the Brain and Mind Centre. Dr. Nower's research focuses on online gambling and video gaming, sports wagering, psychometric measurement, the etiology and treatment of gambling and gaming disorder, and gambling-related policy issues. She currently serves as Senior Editor for Addiction and Regional Assistant Editor for International Gambling Studies. Dr. Nower is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) in Washington D.C., where she also chairs the research committee and serves on the responsible gaming committee. She received the 2019 Research Award and the 2022 Lifetime Research Award from the NCPG. Dr. Nower was also the 2022 recipient of the Rutgers Board of Trustees Excellence in Research Award. She has co-authored several policy initiatives, including a model for self-exclusion programs and an industry framework for informed-choice and responsible gambling. She co-edited the book, The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Disordered Gambling (2013).
