Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly

Dr. Piyawan Charoensap-Kelly or Dr. Pui Kelly is an assistant professor of organizational communication in the Corporate Communication and Public Affairs Division at SMU. Prior to SMU, Dr. Kelly served as a lecturer of communication arts, internship coordinator, and the director of the Business and Professional Communication course at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Her dissertation explored the interplay between supervisors’ conflict negotiation messages and gender, and their effect on employees’ emotions, compliance behavior, and perceptions of managers’ credibility. An award-winning teacher and researcher, Dr. Kelly was named the 2016 National Communication Association’s Training and Development Rising Star and served as a co-chair of the division in 2018.

As a teacher, she aims to guide students to develop themselves professionally and use their voice to make positive changes in society. She brings to the classroom a diverse professional background in administration, sales, translation, management, training and consulting. She strives to create an interactive, fun, productive and inclusive learning environment where students can thrive and get the most out of her courses.

As a researcher, she explores the topics of conflict management, identity management, training and development, and humor in interpersonal, organizational and cross-cultural settings. She seeks to bridge theory and practice and conduct empirical research that can inform individuals and organizations on communicative strategies for developing positive work environments. She is currently examining short-term and long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on organizational lives across four different countries. Her recent work can be found in Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication and Religion, Business and Professional Communication Quarterly and Journal of Education Advancement and Marketing.