I am Sorin Nastasia, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Applied Communication Studies and the Director of the new International Studies degree program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE). I am from Romania, in Eastern Europe, where I earned a B.A. in Languages and Literatures and M.A.s in American Cultural Studies, International Relations, and Public Relations, and I worked as an international relations counselor for the Ministry of Culture and then a public relations counselor for the Ministry of Education. I came to the United States to pursue a Ph.D. in Communication and Public Discourse at the University of North Dakota. At SIUE, I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations (including an international PR study abroad that has taken students to Lyon, France and Bucharest, Romania in 2012 and to Munich, Germany and Budapest, Hungary in 2014), persuasion, and intercultural communication. My 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 media and public portrayals of underprivileged populations. On these topics, I have presented over 100 papers at regional, national, and international conferences, and I have published several journal articles and book chapters. I am currently finalizing a co-authored book on perceptions of children internationally of the 2011 Japan disasters. I serve on the Leadership Council of the College of Arts and Sciences and as Faculty Senator at SIUE, and as secretary of the Intercultural Communication Division of the International Communication Association.