Christy Brazee

Faculty

Christy Brazee
Assistant Professor
- Interpersonal/Organizational -

cbrazee@uwsp.edu
Phone: 715.295.8921
Office: CAC 323


Focus
  • B.A. Degree: Journalism, University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • M.A. Degree: University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point
  • Ph.D. Degree: Purdue University, Organizational Communication
  • Ph.D. Dissertation: The Use of Organizational Stories as a Learning Tool toward the Complexification of Knowledge
Courses Taught
  • Comm 240: Introduction to Organizational Communication
  • Comm 342: Management Communication
  • Comm 342: Training & Development
  • Comm 345: Small Group Communication
  • Comm 383: Interpersonal Communication in the Organization
  • Comm 770: Applied Interpersonal and Organizational Communication
  • Comm 770: Seminar in Organizational Communication
Biography

Dr. Brazee is an assistant professor in the Division of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.  Prior to her current position, she was on faculty and played a leadership role in the applied research program in Purdue University’s Department of Aviation Technology.  Her areas of interest focus on the role of communication in accomplishing productivity and safety process objectives through investigations of workplace interactions.  Over the last nine years, her research and teaching has specialized in work process assessment and improvement, management training, small group/team communication, communication networks, applications of complexity theory, and research design and methods.  She has led and facilitated numerous safety assessments and management initiatives with major airlines, corporate flight departments, third-party maintenance providers (MROs), and regulatory agencies.  These initiatives continue to focus on human factors assessments of organizational safety and production, work process improvement, management communication practices and processes, and organizational communication system development to support work safety, quality, and production.  She has presented the findings of her work in national and international conferences, workshops, and other invited forums.

Awards/Service
  • Division of Communication Special Events & Awards Committee, Chair
  • Faculty Senator, COFAC
  • Greek Life Task Force, member
  • Undergraduate Student Research Fund Committee, member
  • University Technology Committee, member
Recent Publications

Presented two 4-hour workshops, “Accounting for Complexity in Safety Management Systems via Communication and Coordination across the Organization,” to approximately 150 aviation professionals at the Canadian Aviation Safety Seminar 2006 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.  The conference is the premiere annual safety conference put on by Transport Canada, the Canadian equivalent to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the United States.

Research

Organizational Communication Project – I am working with Human Performance & Safety Consultants, Inc. on a project with a large international maintenance repair organization (MRO) to develop an organization-wide product quality program.  We conducted a series of focus groups to identify potential quality “escapes” and misperceptions about roles and responsibilities across career groups.  I also developed a quality/safety briefing program to enhance communication between the organization’s small business units that supports the organization’s new flight safety and quality assurance initiative by enhancing information soliciting, knowledge generation, and organizational learning across the organization.  The project I am now heading involves creating a communication plan to support the sharing of product quality best practices, identification of key constituencies, and the development of roles and responsibilities for those constituencies.

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning – I am working with several groups of students to develop a better understanding of how active learning projects can be effectively designed, implemented, and assessed to improve the understanding and application of key course content and enhance students’ learning competencies.  One group is reviewing a class project that required students to develop a plan for improving use and usefulness of the college’s annual report, while a second group is working on an extracurricular undergraduate research project devising recommendations for a communication plan to support product quality in an organization that utilizes the matrix structure.