William E. Berry

Berry’s research and teaching focus is on strategic managerial communication, digital communication technologies and information access in less advanced countries, and advertising and mediated communication practices in the Dominican Republic and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. Prior to joining the Illinois faculty, Berry worked for 10 years in the telecommunications industry with the AT&T/Illinois Bell organization and the successor Ameritech/Illinois corporation, where he held senior management positions in corporate communications, advertising, strategic planning and customer relations. Specific assignments and responsibilities included: director-external affairs; district manager-corporate issues and corporate public policy; senior manager-advertising; and director-corporate information. Previously he worked for six years in journalism as an Associated Press reporter in New York City, and as senior staff editor and managing editor with Johnson Publishing Co. (Ebony, Jet, WJPC-AM, etc.) in Chicago. In addition, while on the faculty at Illinois, Berry has served as editorial consultant and writing coach for Morningstar FundInvestor magazine, a publication within the Morningstar mutual funds organization. He has published in both consumer and scholarly media, and he has presented his research at national and international conferences. He was a Charles E. Merrill Scholar at Durham University and received a diploma from the Chicago Counseling and Psychotherapy Center after completing both the academic and clinical practicum in Client-Centered therapy. Berry is a two-time recipient of the highly competitive Fulbright Fellowship. During academic year 1999-2000, he received the Fulbright Senior Scholar award and lectured and conducted research in the Dominican Republic at Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, and was Visiting Scholar in Residence at the International Education Resource Center at Universidad APEC in Santo Domingo. He received a second Fulbright award to return to the Dominican Republic for four weeks during January 2007 and May/June 2007 to conduct curriculum review and assessment of the journalism and marketing undergraduate and graduate programs, and to organize faculty professional development seminars at PUCMM. At Illinois, he has received a campuswide award for undergraduate teaching. He teaches courses in global consumerism, advertising practices in emerging economic nation-states, strategic public relations, and racialized representations in the media. Recent presentations and publications include, “Putting Crisis Communication Theory Into Action: Untangling Public Information Politics, Policies and Practices to Reach Underprivileged Communities During Katrina-esque Diasters” (2008); “Images and Representation of Middle Class Latinos In Advertisements” (2006); “Mi CAFTA es su CAFTA: Advertising and Communicating the Caribbean American Free Trade Agreement in the Dominican Republic Via the Internet” (2006); “La Presensa Dominicana y la Construcion y Representacion de Identidad African: Photographic Framings of Haitians, Africans, and African Americans in Daily Newspapers in the Dominican Republic” (2005); “Con cellular hay mas orpotunidad: New Communication Technologies and the Democratization of Access to Information and Economic Opportunity in the Dominican Republic and Beyond” (2005); “Communication Policy History In International Perspective” (2004); “Miranda Rights and Cyberspace Realities: Risks to the Right to Remain Silent” (2003). In addition to his Illinois responsibilities, Berry is a member of the Board of Directors of the Provena Health Corporation, a health system that includes six hospitals, 16 long-term care and senior residential facilities, 28 clinics, five home health agencies and other health-related activities operating in Illinois and Indiana.