Executive Committee

Judith Ainsworth, President
McGill University

Dr. Judith Ainsworth holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Montréal, Quebec, Canada. She currently teaches professional and management communication at McGill University in Montréal and holds Visiting Faculty positions at Ashesi University, Accra, Ghana where she teaches Written and Oral Communication and at the Beijing Foreign Studies University, China, where she teaches a course on the Basics of Leadership and Management.

Before joining McGill University, Judith taught Professional Writing, Professional Communication and Professional Communication for Accountants for specialised master programs, as well as Professional Writing for the Professional MBA program at the Warrington College of Business, University of Florida, and business communication at Temple University’s Fox School of Business. Previously, she held pedagogical appointments with Canada’s McGill University, University of Montréal and University of Québec in Montréal (UQAM). Corporate clients include Bombardier Aerospace and Michelin Tire Manufacturing.

Her research focusses on student learning and engagement during teamwork, international and cross-cultural management communication, Critical Discourse Analysis, and the discourse of branding authenticity in the Chilean wine trade. Recent publications include a book chapter entitled Un/ethical Leadership: a Critical Discourse Analysis of a CEO’s email to team members in Fernández-Vázquez, J. S., Álvarez-Delgado, R. C. & Sancho-Rodríguez, A. (eds.), Ethics in Business Communication: New Perspectives and Challenges, Bern: Peter Lang, and articles in Accounting Education: an international journal and Business and Professional Communication Quarterly (forthcoming). She has also published in the Journal of Management Education, Global Advances in Business Communication and the Journal of Language for International Business.

In 2019-20, Judith was awarded a research grant from the Association for Business Communication C. R. Anderson Research Fund for a study entitled Towards a Balanced Multinational Treatment of Cross-Cultural Learning for Management Students: A Situated Cultural Learning Approach. In 2018-19, she received a Temple University Internationalisation Grant for her project: Temple in Australia: Faculty Research, Student Cultural Enrichment, Overseas Cooperation with the University of Queensland. In 2016, she received a grant from the Team-Based Learning Collaborative for a study entitled Team-Based Learning in Communication Courses for Accounting Graduates: Investigating Student Engagement, Accountability and Satisfaction.

From 2018-2020, Judith served as the Association for Business Communication Eastern U.S. Region Vice President. In addition, she continues to serve on the Business Practices and International Issues Committees, and participated in the decision-making process of the ABC ad hoc Strategic Plan Committee that led to the 2020-2025 Strategic Plan.

Patricia Harms, Vice President
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Patricia Harms, PhD is Clinical Professor of Management and Corporate Communication at the UNC Chapel Hill Kenan-Flagler Business School where she’s taught written and oral business communication since 2003. She has developed and/or taught courses for the undergraduate, master of accounting, MBA, and executive MBA programs at Kenan-Flagler. Patricia developed the core Professional Communication for Accountants course for the UNC online Master of Accounting program and served as the coordinating professor for the Business Communication course in the MBA@UNC program for nine years.

Patricia's current interests and research focus on visual rhetoric and slide design, strategic organization in presentations, active learning in business communication, and revision in business writing. She’s also actively researching the role of deliberate practice in improving written and oral communication skills.

Patricia has presented regularly at the Association for Business Communication Annual Conference since 1999 and is a member of the MBA SIG. She serves on the editorial review board for Business and Professional Communication Quarterly. In 2011, she received the BPCQ Outstanding Article of the Year with co-author, Dr. Deborah Roebuck.  She is also a member of the Management Communication Association.

Patricia received her PhD in rhetoric and professional communication from Iowa State University, her MA in business and technical writing from Iowa State University, and her BSN from the University of Pennsylvania. She is co-author (with Dr. Heidi Schultz) of the forthcoming textbook “Connect Master: Business Communication” (McGraw-Hill, 2024).


Barbara Shwom, Past President
Communication Partners

Communication Partners is a Chicago-area communication consulting and training firm helping clients around globe increase their communication capabilities.

Kathryn Rybka, Executive Director
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

color head and shoulders photo of Caucasian woman Kathryn Rybka

Dr. Kathryn Rybka was the recipient of the 2016 Bernadine P. Branchaw Spirit of ABC Award. Her engagement with the ABC community includes serving as chair of the 2018 ABC Midwest/Southeast Regional Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio; chair for the 2016 ABC Midwest/Southeast Regional Conference in St. Louis, Missouri; co-chair for the 2013 ABC Midwest/Southeast Regional Conference in Louisville, Kentucky; peer proposal reviewer for ABC conferences; and she has been Book Review Editor for the International Journal of Business Communication since 2010. Kathryn has been an active presenter at many ABC Conferences including the 2018 Miami, 2017 Dublin, 2016 Albuquerque, 2015 Seattle, 2014 Philadelphia, 2013 New Orleans, 2011 Montreal, 2012 ABC Europe and 2010 ABC Europe+GABC.

Kathryn was a faculty member in the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) from 2005-2017 where she taught management communication in the College’s professional master’s programs and also taught an undergraduate class in human resource management. She then transitioned to a new role and affiliation with the College, but continues to provide leadership for communication-focused experiential learning activities for MBA and other specialized business master’s programs. Additionally, she works with the UIUC Center for Professional Responsibility in Business and Society, including an ongoing initiative supported by BP, and is co-creator of a newly designed Study Abroad course, “Professional Responsibility in Business.”

She has 20 years of extensive professional management communication experience in both corporate and higher education settings. Kathryn holds a B.A. in Advertising from Michigan State University, a Master’s in Mass Communication from the University of South Carolina, and received her Ph.D. in Educational Organization and Leadership in Higher Education Administration from UIUC. She has also taught at the University of South Carolina, South Dakota State University, University of North Dakota, and in the College of Communications (now Media) at UIUC. Her research interests include the role communication and storytelling play in strategic business planning, organizational change and leadership development.