Committee and Task Force Roster

Click here for a listing of all committee and task force chairs and members.

Engagement Opportunities

The International Communication Association is a self-organizing association, driven by its members. In addition to enjoying exclusive benefits such as discounted conference rates, members derive gratification from contributing to ICA through service on its committees and task forces. Such work, which both necessitates and comes with the benefit of interaction with scholars from all around the world, can be equally challenging and rewarding.

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• The incumbent ICA President appoints* all committee and task force members; the Board of Directors votes to approve the incumbent ICA President’s slate. Ad-hoc appointments for unexpected vacancies are determined by the ICA President in office at the time the vacancy occurs
  *PSC's composition is elected; the incumbent president (while President Elect) determines the slate for the election of any vacancies in conjunction with the committee appointment process 

• Terms, unless otherwise indicated, are three years in length, generally staggered, beginning with official notification from ICA headquarters of appointment and concluding with the last day of ICA’s annual conference in any given term end year

• Chairs lead all activities of a committee or task force

• Chairs attend the annual Board of Directors meeting as guests (by invitation only) when deemed necessary due to a motion or discussion topic put forth by the committee/task force

• Ex-officio: when one’s position on a particular committee or task force is by virtue of another role/office/appointment held. The ex-officio status has no bearing on whether or not one votes on a committee.  

• Chairs and members  are chosen to reflect the diversity of the ICA membership, varying particularly across divisional/interest group membership but also across other types of diversity, such as methodological approach, nationality, regional identification, gender, and ethnicity

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee (EC) is a subcommittee of the Board of Directors consisting of the President, President-Elect, President-Elect-Select*, Immediate Past President, Past President, Past President from the prior year (now acting as General Secretary), Treasurer, and Executive Director. The Executive Director serves as a nonvoting member of the Executive Committee; all others are voting. 

• The bylaws authorize an Association Executive Committee (EC), which acts as the executive of the BoD and oversees day-to-day governance.

Affiliate Journal Committee (AJC) 

Chair plus four members

• Increases ICA member awareness of affiliate journals and related publishing opportunities;

• Produces calls for proposals for new affiliate journals;

• Makes formal recommendations to the Board of Directors to establish new affiliate journals;

• Develops and maintains evaluation metrics  for current affiliate journals;Using the above metrics, implements an annual performance review of all affiliate journals to be included in the committee's annual report to the Board of Directors;

• If needed, recommends sunsetting affiliations to the Board of Directors for underperforming journals  (an affiliate journal successfully meeting performance criteria need not be "approved" to continue");

• Maintains contact with current editorial teams, in conjunction with the Director of Publishing Operations. 

Climate Action Committee (CAC)
(formerly the Sustainability Committee) 

Chair plus four members   

• Educates ICA members on green practices through contribution to the newsletter with a column in the ICA newsletter
• Assesses & provides resources to ICA members and conference attendees enabling them to self assess and offset carbon their carbon footprint
• Suggests to the Board of Directors actions the committee can take to foster green/sustainable/environmentally friendly practices within ICA and for its members

Conference Planning Committee

This annual committee includes the President-Elect, Division and Interest Group representatives, and other members appointed by the President-Elect. 

• Meets at preceding annual ICA conference to begin planning process 

• Plans the conference scientific program 

• Oversees the paper selection process 

• Prepares the conference program, with Executive Director and ICA staff 

Division and Interest Groups Mentoring Committee (DIGMC)

Chair plus five members.

• Works to improve communication and planning within divisions/IGs

• Serves as a resource for new interest groups and leadership

• Coordinates formal reviews of divisions and interest groups 

• Makes recommendations to the Board of Directors for the establishment of, or resignation of, divisions and interest groups

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA) Committee

Two Co-Chairs plus nine members 

• Develops and maintains an association-wide definition of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access. ICA is a unique organization in that its membership is highly international in scope and IDEA principles apply and are viewed differently across the globe.

• Identifies areas of activity on which ICA can be assessed in terms of IDEA principle and recommends what metrics should be used. 

• Identifies areas of opportunity and recommends mechanisms by which ICA can improve on IDEA principles. 

Membership and Internationalization (M&I) Committee 

Chair plus five members  

• Works with ICA Central Office to plan and implement membership recruitment

• Makes recommendations to President and BoD for increasing member benefits

• Recommends policy regarding the internationalization of ICA, including monitoring the needs of ICA’s international constituencies

• Recommends and monitors policies and practices that meet the needs of non-US members of ICA

• Helps to organize the activities of, and acts as the collective voice of, the division/interest group International Liaison role
  

Nominating Committee

Chair plus four members: This annual committee is comprised of ex-officio members as follows: the committee is Chaired by the outgoing past president (the one that has just rotated off the EC as General Secretary), with members comprised of those holding the following roles: the publications committee chair, the membership & internationalization committee chair, one Board Student and Early Career Representative, one of the two Co-Chairs of the Inclusion Diversity Equity & Access committee. Members should reflect a balance between new and continuing committee members and represent the diversity of membership and interests of ICA within those constraints. This ensures that the committee considers candidates from a variety of perspectives. 

• The Chair is in communication with the Executive Committee (especially the Executive Director) in the vetting of potential candidates; the Chair also holds an ex-officio appointment on the Tellers Committee for their election year  

• The committee actively recruits* and recommends to BoD at least two candidates for each of the following officer positions: 

• • President (who will start his/her term as PES and the President-Elect/planner)
  • Board Student and Early Career Representatives (two total; one each year with staggered terms)

• The committee actively recruits* and recommends to BoD at least one candidate for the following officer positions: Treasurer, 3.5 year term (0.5 as Treasurer-Elect; 3 years as Treasurer)  in years when this role is due for election; because this position has a very specialized set of prerequisites, the candidacy is narrowed to one individual and the decision to elect them is ratified via the election.  

• The committee will take an “IDEA” (inclusion, diversity, equity and access) approach in its work. Employing this approach, the committee will:

  • Consider the current composition of the ICA Executive Committee to assess areas in which diversity could be profitably enhanced, specifically in regard to gender, ethnicity, race, and other such identifiers; regional representation; and representation of research areas across ICA Divisions and Interest Groups.

  •  Establish a set of criteria based on role descriptions (for President,  BESCR, and Treasurer), discuss the types of experience that will satisfy those criteria and create a ranking tool/technique each committee member will employ to rank candidates against criteria.

  • Employ recognized “IDEA” (inclusion, diversity, equity and access) procedures for candidate recruitment and vetting to ensure fair assessment of all candidates’ applications, including: evaluating candidates with attention to the skills they demonstrate in diverse areas of their professional life (university, professional and community service, ICA), and how these skills demonstrate a potential for excellence; ▪ Recognize subconscious and conscious bias committee members may associate with candidates’ university training or employment, area of research, position in networks, etc.

  •  Discuss whether lack of experience/past access to preferred leadership roles represent a significant deficit and consider whether alternative candidate experience constitutes preferred leadership skills in the candidate

• Additionally, the committee will develop a list of excellent potential future candidates for ICA officer positions whose candidacy would be enhanced by additional service opportunities with ICA. The committee will submit the list to ICA (headquarters staff), who reaches out to prospective candidates, encouraging them to complete an Expression of Interest for ICA service roles when the call if open; as well, the committee can reach out directly to these prospective candidates to invite them to complete an Expression of Interest.

*A note on recruiting: Whereas candidates were once sourced organically by the committee “reaching out” to possible interest parties, the process became, in 2018, more egalitarian and transparent. The headquarters office produces a Call for Nominations, open for one month and available to anyone who is an active member of the association. One can self-nominate, or submit the name of another scholar. Including contact information, relevant experience, etc. The committee narrows the list of submissions down to a “short list” and uses its own internal process to narrow the candidates to finalists (2 names per role).

Open Access Open Scholarship Committee

Chair plus four members. 

• Advising BOD on issues related to Open Scholarship: offer a sustained focus on the issues surrounding Open Scholarship, ensuring that the board remains up-to-date and responsive to the latest developments in this field, emerging trends, best practices, and policy changes, and provide the BOD with regular reports and briefings on these topics.
• Raising awareness of Open Scholarship among membership and the public: This could include organizing sessions, workshops, and webinars at conferences to raise awareness of open access/open science, as well as developing educational materials on the benefits and challenges of open scholarship.

Additionally, where appropriate, the committee:

•  Makes formal recommendations to the Board of Directors in cases where it may be beneficial to ICA to collaborate with academic associations, universities, or funding agencies to promote open scholarship within ICA. This could involve developing joint initiatives and sharing best practices to advance the adoption of open scholarship practices.
• Makes formal recommendations to the Board of Directors that address barriers to and inequities in open scholarship, specifically barriers that may be preventing researchers from publishing their work openly with ICA.
• Makes formal recommendations to the Board of Directors on initiatives which will encourage the development or implementation of open scholarship policies.

Professional Standards Committee (PSC)

Two Co-Chairs plus three members. This committee composition is currently in transition from appointed to elected; the President Elect determines the slate of candidates for election in conjunction with the routine committee appointment process. 

NOTE: all correspondence for the Professional Standards Committee should be directed to Julie Arnold, ICA Director of Governance & Member Services; please do not contact the Co-Chairs or committee members directly. 

• Advises ICA leadership on issues pertaining to professional standards for ICA members

• Develops and maintains a set of guidelines for the handling of professional-conduct complaints

• Reviews allegations from ICA members about other members’ conduct relating to violations of the ICA code of ethics

• Oversees the selection of any member/attendee training modules related to sexual-harassment prevention, bystander training, or other areas covered by the code of ethics

• Stimulates white papers, newsletter articles, and other educational materials for the membership on matters relating to ethics/professional standards

Publications Committee (PC)

Chair plus four members

• Oversees ICA journals and editorial policy

• Monitors and updates the Publications Manual and distributes it to ICA journal Editors (Chair assisted by ICA Director of Publications)

• Actively recruits and recommends Editors to BoD for all ICA journals, beginning the search and screen process at least 18 months before the end of the previous Editor’s term (assisted by ICA Director of Publications)

• Reviews editorial policies across ICA journals and the brief of each journal, ensuring that each journal’s domain is clear and distinct

• Makes recommendations about the acquisition or start-up of new journals (assisted by EC and others as appropriate)

• Attends the annual ICA conference

• Serves as a judicial body in cases of plagiarism and self-plagiarism, enforcing rules and advising editors on punishments for infractions

• Chair of the Committee:

• Reports in writing to the BoD on publication policy and activity 

• Chairs a meeting with Editors, Director of Publishing Operations, & entire EC (the publications strategic planning committee meeting) at the conference

• Chairs the “Meet the Editors” panel at conference

• Maintains regular contact with all journal editors about publication issues

• Provides regular reports to the President and through President to EC about problems or issues as they arise

• Gives regular progress reports to President and is assisted by the EC and BoD in the search and screen process

Regional Endeavors, Affiliate Conferences & Hubs Committee (REACH) 

(formerly the Regional Conferences Committee) 

Chair plus five members. 

• Encourages and supports regional conferences, affiliated conferences, and regional hubs in parts of the world that are underrepresented in ICA
• Advises organizers in planning, funding, administering, and hosting such conferences and hubs, and oversees their alignment with ICA’s mission and goals
• Reviews and vets proposals for such conferences and hubs, and makes recommendations to the Executive Committee to approve, fund, and provide support
• Works with organizers to create appropriate mechanisms for sustaining networks and relationships formed with ICA for publications, collaboration, and other locally organized research and professional-development opportunities

Student and Early Career Advisory Committee (SECAC)

The two current Board Student and Early Career Representatives serve as Co-Chairs, and up to five student and early career members usually selected from division and interest group student and early career (SEC) representatives.

• Serves the needs and interests of student and early career members by communicating the collective needs of the division/interest group SEC Representatives to the Board of Directors and sharing information from headquarters and the Board (when appropriate) with the division/interest group SEC representatives

• Makes recommendations to the Board of Directors on initiatives that enhance the SEC experience and engagement for existing (and potential) ICA SEC members

• Assists in crafting and disseminating the student and early-career agenda/conference programming

• Contributes a monthly column to the ICA newsletter geared towards the SEC audience

• Reports in writing to the BoD on student policy and activity 

• Both Board Student and Early Career Representatives attend the BoD meeting at the annual ICA conference 

Tellers Committee

ICA's election results are certified by the Tellers Committee comprised of the Executive Director, the President and the Nominating Committee Chair.  

• The committee reviews the ballot results prepared by ICA’s Senior Manager of Governance and checks it against the actual submission system’s tallies to ensure accuracy.

Research Awards Committee

Chair and seven ex-officio members comprised the chairs of each award committee

• In addition to any directive from headquarters, each awards committee chair is required to send the name of the person selected for the award and brief explanation for the choice to the Chair of the Research Awards Committee

•  Research Awards Committee Chair:

• Combines the aforementioned award statements into one report submitted to the Board of Directors for approval 

• Presents the award winners during the Presidential Address and Awards Ceremony.

Applied Research Program Award Committee

Chair plus four members

B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award Committee*

Chair plus four members. *The B. Aubrey Fisher Mentorship Award is not a “research” award, but still reports up to the
Research Awards chair who collects all results.

Early Career Scholar Award Committee

Chair plus four members

Fellows Book Award Committee

Chair plus four members 

Outstanding Article Award Committee

Chair plus four members

Outstanding Book Award Committee

Chair plus four members

Steven H. Chaffee Career Achievement Award Committee

Chair plus four members

To learn more about the individual awards and criteria, see the  ICA Awards page.