Kenyan Catholic Nun Elected on International Communication Association Board

Kenyan Catholic Nun Elected on International Communication Association Board

CANAA || By Father Don Bosco Onyalla, Nairobi || 24 October 2016

A Nairobi-based Kenyan Catholic Nun has been elected to serve on the Executive Board of the International Communication Association (ICA), making history as the first African ever to hold such rank in this 66-year old organization.

An Associate Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Daystar University, Sr. Lando had last June been nominated to the position of ICA member-at-large following her active role in internationalizing ICA.

The news about her election to ICA Board were broken to her last Monday, October 17, just a couple of days before the historic ICAfrica2016 conference that she has been organizing for the last two years.

The ICAfrica 2016 regional conference, the first to be held in Africa, took place at Daystar University (19^th -21^st October 2016), bringing together over 300 communication scholars, professionals, practitioners and students from across the globe under the theme: Looking to the Past with gratitude, the present with passion and the future with hope.

The brief communication from the ICA Executive Director, Laura Sawyer, stated, “Sister, I can hardly contain my delight. I am so pleased to inform you that you have been elected as the next ICA Board of Directors Member-at-Large! ICA is so lucky to have your energy and expertise as part of our leadership.”

Sr. Lando will not only be the first African to sit on ICA Board, but also the first to serve and represent the African region on ICA, an academic association for scholars interested in the study, teaching, and application of all aspects of human and mediated communication.

Her election to ICA Board comes with some engaging responsibilities, among them the championing of communication scholarship matters (scholars, students and practitioners) in Africa and linking the same to the global body as well as being the voice of Africa to ICA and vice versa.

“Thus far the good Lord has brought me. It is a call of service, a call of sacrifice, a call of professionalism and responsibility,” Sr. Lando reacted to the news of her election to ICA Board and added, “It is huge, but, with the support of colleagues from the Continent and the ICA leadership and Board members; and with the help of God, we will make it happen.”

ICA began more than 50 years ago as a small association of U.S. researchers and is now a truly international association with more than 4,500 members in 80 countries. Since 2003, ICA has been officially associated with the United Nations as a non-governmental association (NGO).

Sr. Lando who obtained her PhD in Social Communication from the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, in 2008 was promoted to the position of Associate Professor by Daystar University in 2015 where she serves as the Assistant Head of Communication Department.