Sorin Nastasia is an Associate Professor of Public Relations in the Department of Applied Communication Studies and the Director of the International Studies Program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). He is originally from Romania, in Eastern Europe, where he earned a B.A. in Languages and Literatures and M.A.s in American Cultural Studies, International Relations, and Public Relations, and he worked as an international relations counselor for the Ministry of Culture and then a public relations counselor for the Ministry of Education. He came to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication and Public Discourse at the University of North Dakota. At SIUE, Dr. Nastasia teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations (including an International Public Relations study abroad experience that has taken students to France, Romania, Germany, and Hungary), persuasion, and intercultural communication. Dr. Nastasia’s research topics include: comparing public relations practices in Western and Eastern European countries with U.S. models; responses of various communities and populations to internationally mediatized disasters and crises; and examinations of media portrayals of underprivileged populations. On these topics, he has presented over 150 papers at regional, national, and international conferences and has published numerous journal articles and book chapters. Dr. Nastasia has recently co-edited two special issues on crisis communication aspects during the war in Ukraine for ESSACHESS: Journal of Communication Studies. Dr. Nastasia served as the President of the Faculty Senate and is currently serving as the President of the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Congress at SIUE. He served as Secretary of the Intercultural Communication Division of the International Communication Association and is currently serving as the newsletter editor of the Media Ethics Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.