Four UP Diliman (UPD) College of Mass Communication (CMC) professors have been elected officers of the Philippines Communication Society (PCS) on Jun. 5
The four elected during the 2021 PCS General Assembly were Prof. Elena E. Pernia, PhD as President; Prof. Emeritus Grace Javier Alfonso, PhD (Vice President); Prof. Jonalou SJ Labor, PhD (Treasurer); and Prof. Randy Jay C. Solis (Assistant Treasurer). They will serve a two-year term.
PCS is an affiliate of the Philippine Social Science Council (PSSC). Incorporated in June 1987, PCS is a professional association of communication practitioners, academics, scholars and researchers whose goal is to promote communication as a professional discipline in the social sciences. It has actively partnered with various agencies and organizations for conferences, workshops and seminars.
Pernia, Labor and Solis are from the Department of Communication Research (CommRes) and Alfonso is from the UP Film Institute (UPFI).
Pernia is UP Vice President for Public Affairs since January 2019. She is Professor 12 at CommRes and has been with CMC since 1988. She served as CMC dean for two terms (June 2006 – May 2009 and September 2015 – August 2018) and CommRes Chair from June 2010 to May 2011.
Pernia has over 20 years of experience in communication and media education, research, planning, and evaluation. She authored several books, including Communication Research in the Philippines: Issues and Methods, which has become a standard communication research textbook in several universities. Her research interests include effectiveness of educational television programs, science communication and news diversity.
Alfonso has been appointed Professor Emerita by the UP Board of Regents at its 1309th meeting on Jul. 22, 2015. She was Chancellor of the UP Open University for three terms (2007-2010; 2010-2013; 2013-2016) and the first Chair of the CMC Film and Audiovisual Communication Department and the first UPFI Director. She handles courses on mass communication, film, multimedia arts, and arts in the ASEAN.
An an advocate of women empowerment and studies, Alfonso was the President of the Asian Association of Women’s Studies from 2014 to 2016.
Alfonso’s contributions as mass communication and multimedia practitioner, teacher, researcher and administrator has been recognized by different academic and professional organizations.
Labor is Associate Professor at CommRes, and is currently the Special Assistant to the UP Vice President for Public Affairs (since January 2021), Director of the CMC Office of Research and Publications (since March 2020) and Research Fellow at the UP Resilience Institute (since August 2020).
Labor served as Deputy Director (March 2019 to April 2020) and Director (April 2020 to December 2020) of the UPD National Service Training Program.
An assistant professor at CommRes, Solis is the current CommRes Chairperson since May 2021. He served as CMC College Secretary from 2012 to 2014 during the term of former CMC Dean Roland B. Tolentino. He is a Research Associate at the Institute of Philippine Culture.
Solis’s research interests include new media, development and health communication, and children and gender studies.