Deborah Petersen-Perlman

Deborah Petersen-Perlman is an Associate Professor specializing in mass communication. She has taught at UMD since 1988, after teaching briefly at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the University of Iowa, and Illinois State University. She holds an MA and Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Iowa, and a BA in Speech Communication from the University of Arizona. Dr. Petersen-Perlman's dissertation topic was "Texaco's Support of the Metropolitan Opera Broadcasts." She has published on this topic as well as "Radio Comes to the Farm", "Sitcom Husbands", using media in the classroom,
and a number of pedagogical studies. Her most recent publication was a co-authored piece called "Choreographing Partnerships" published in the British Journal "Teaching in Higher Education."

Dr. Petersen-Perlman is also UMD's Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity, a position she has held since 1996. She has done some writing in the area of minority retention, and cooperative problem solving relative to affirmative action and equal opportunity. Dr. Petersen-Perlman has received training in Alternative Dispute Resolution and is a registered Civil Mediator specializing in sexual harassment and discrimination issues.