Angela La Valley

Dr. La Valley earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University and specializes in relational and family communication and social scientific research methods. She joined the faculty in 2007 and primarily teaches courses in the Interpersonal Communication track in the major, including Family Communication and Conflict Management & Mediation. Dr. La Valley also frequently teaches Communication Research Methods, Interpersonal Communication, and Public Speaking.  

Dr. La Valley’s primary research interests focus on conflict, relational maintenance, and emotion in close relationships. Her current research focuses on parent-child relationships in adulthood. She is also interested in the intersections between relational communication and health, i.e. how our communication in close relationships influences our health and how we communicate about health with significant others. Dr. La Valley’s research has appeared in the following scholarly journals: Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Communication Quarterly, Communication Education, Health Communication, Behavioral Medicine, and she has a forthcoming publication in Communication Research. Dr. La Valley is also a coauthor of a chapter in The Sage Handbook of Conflict Communication.  

Dr. La Valley is also active in service to the discipline, the university, and the Communication Studies Department. She serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships and frequently serves as a paper reader for disciplinary conferences. Dr. La Valley has served on the curriculum committee for the College of Liberal Arts and is actively interested in curricular issues. Within the Communication Studies department, she serves on the curriculum and planning and assessment committees. Dr. La Valley also serves as the department’s internship liaison and serves on the faculty advisory board for the Sophomore Experiential Learning program. Currently, Dr. La Valley is the advisor for the National Communication Association Student Club (NCASC) and she serves on the faculty advisory board for NCASC for the National Communication Association.