The four final candidates for dean of the College of Communication and Information have been selected, and they will visit the university next week.

The candidate chosen from the pool will replace James Gaudino, former dean of the college, who was started as president of Central Washington University in January.

The following are the candidates and dates of on-campus visits:

April 27, Stan Wearden, director of Kent State’s School of Communication Studies.

Wearden’s recent research is focused in “audience perceptions of digital media, Web credibility, television news accuracy, media images of women and ethics in prime-time television,” according to the university’s Web site. Wearden, the only internal candidate, is a professor in journalism and mass communication.

April 28, Bud Goodall, professor and director of the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

According to ASU’s Web site, Goodall’s memoir, “A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family,” won the Best Book 2007 award from the Ethnography Division of the National Communication Association. His research interests include narrative ethnography, creative nonfiction, organizational studies and rhetoric.

April 29, Angela Powers, director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kansas State University.

Powers has experience in media management and digital news convergence, according to Kansas State’s Web site. As a Fulbright Scholar, she spent two semesters at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. Powers was a news reporter for NBC and CBS affiliates before she began working in higher education.

April 30, Judy Pearson, associate dean of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, director of the doctoral program in communication, and professor of communication at North Dakota State University.

According to NDSU’s Web site, Pearson has co-authored papers in diverse subjects including “rituals used by dating couples, family communication schemata, civic engagement and the effect of several factors on students’ public-speaking grades.”

She was president of the Central States Communication Association, the World Communication Association and the National Communication Association.

Contact academics reporter Regina Garcia Cano at [email protected].