Crystal Fonseca
Instructor, Communication Studies
- M.A., URI—Communication Studies—2003
- B.A., URI—Communication Studies—1999
- B.S., URI—Environmental Science—1999
Upon graduating from URI’s Communication Studies Department in 1999, Crystal worked as a Paralegal and as a Park Naturalist for RI’s Department of Environmental Management at Colt State Park in Bristol, RI. Crystal also created environmentally based outreach programs and worked closely with RI elementary schools and the Audubon Society delivering presentations ranging from topics such as oceanography, species identification (plant, tree, bird), organic gardening, etc.
Missing academia, Crystal returned for her Masters and taught Public Speaking and Interpersonal Communication as a Graduate Student Teaching Assistant. Among her achievements at the University, Crystal received the Graduate Student Teaching Award and the Outstanding Graduate Student Award. Crystal discovered her passion for teaching and decided to make a career of it.
Crystal’s research interests include environmental communication, health communication and social cognition. Her masters thesis, Self-Concept, Self-Monitoring, and the Relationship of Human Social Interaction, examined how individuals construct their self-concept through interaction style, and how their pre-existing interaction style affects how people integrate social cues, and encode and decode messages. Crystal has also authored and published two scholarly papers: Arguing Communication and Culture (2001) and Individual Differences and Cross-Situational Consistency of Dyadic Social Behavior, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (2005).
After graduation, Crystal received a Lecturer position and has taught Communication Fundamentals, Public Speaking, Advanced Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, and Small Group Communication via traditional face-to-face, blended, and purely asynchronous settings. She is currently developing courses in Environmental Communication and Health Communication.
When not teaching, researching or editing textbooks, Crystal enjoys gardening, painting, collecting antiques and going to plays. Crystal and her husband, Mike, are expecting their first child in May 2006.