Associate Professor Dawn Schrader (1958–2026) was a moral psychologist who studied the development of personal and professional moral reasoning, metacognitive reflection, and ethical action in the face of technological advancements in artificial intelligence and agentic systems. Her research focused on privacy awareness and personal information sharing that affects interpersonal relationships and personal and professional development, bridging theory and practice, influencing educators, technologists, and policymakers worldwide. Her scholarly contributions spanned books, journal articles, and international presentations on moral development, and ethics in technology and privacy. From 2025 to 2026, she served as Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Communication. She held field memberships in Communication, Cognitive Science, and Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies. Dawn received a Master of Arts degree in Education from The Ohio State University and a Doctor of Education degree from Harvard University.
In 1988, Dawn joined Cornell as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education where she earned tenure and served as Director of Graduate Studies. When the Department of Education closed in 2011, she joined the Department of Communication where she taught popular classes in ethics, leadership, and technology. Her philosophy of teaching was grounded in the theoretical perspectives that permeated her research program: moral, intellectual, epistemological, social, and self-development in context.
Dawn was a two-time winner of the SUNY Chancellors Award for Excellence: teaching (2005) and service (2023). She was Faculty-in-Residence in Court-Kay-Bauer Hall on Cornell’s North Campus from 2019 to 2024. From 2022 to 2025, she served as the President of the Association for Moral Education.
Professor and Chair Lee Humphreys described Dawn “as an exceptional educator, mentor, and scholar,” noting “her dedication to her students was remarkable, and her thoughtful guidance touched countless lives throughout her years at Cornell. Her warmth, generosity of spirit, and unwavering support of both colleagues and students exemplified the very best of our COMMunity.” Professor Connie Yuan praised Dawn’s “gift of listening to and hearing others’ differences” and said, “I have always admired Dawn for her spirit of service. She will be missed as a colleague and friend who was genuinely open and inclusive.”
Dawn is survived by her daughters, Katherine Schrader ’17 and Lauren Schrader ’16. The family invites contributions to a GoFundMe campaign, which will support the dedication of a memorial bench at the Cornell Botanic Gardens.
Awards
Financial Reporting Specialist Dustin Page received the CALS Core Value Staff Award for Communication. Core Value Staff Awards recognize individuals who demonstrate outstanding contributions to the college through the exemplary incorporation of one of the Skills for Success outlined by the university, including communication.
Events
Join us for COMMColloquium Monday, February 9, 3:00 pm, in 102 Mann Library Building. Professor Jon Schuldt will present “Climate Change, Social Inequality, & Public (Mis)Perceptions.” The colloquium is followed by a reception located in The Hub of the Department of Communication.
Honors
Associate Professor Brooke Erin Duffy was invited to be a Fellow in the Rockefeller Foundation’s highly competitive Bellagio Center Residency Program. Based in Lake Como, Italy, the four-week residency offers participants the opportunity to unleash their creativity and advance groundbreaking work.
Media Coverage
Professor Neil Lewis, Jr., was quoted in The Atlantic article titled “The Sciencewashing of Everyday Life.” This piece explores how fashion, beauty, and food companies increasingly rely on scientific-sounding jargon and imagery to market products, often using vague or misleading language to create a false sense of credibility and innovation without providing meaningful scientific substance.
Publications
Adjunct Professor Tarleton Gillespie, R. Shaw, M.L. Gray & J. Suh, January 2026, “AI Red-Teaming Is a Sociotechnical Problem,” Communications of the ACM.
Red-teaming is a crucial part of the development of AI models, but it’s virtually invisible to users. Red-teaming tests the model to see how, with the right prompting, you entice it to break its own rules and deliver harmful, offensive, or dangerous responses. But this is not just a technical accomplishment. Much like the moderation of social media platforms, this is a consequential moment when values are being determined by the company for its users; it is a human infrastructure of labor that is being put into place in the AI industry’ and it comes with the threat of real mental health challenges for the people who do this work.
Assistant Professor Wunpini Mohammed, December 2025, “Dismantling the Colonial Politics of Knowledge Production in the Global South,” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication.
The article argues that scholars need to intimately understand the social, political, cultural, and historical context of marginalized communities if they are to co-create knowledge that truly represents these communities while safeguarding the dignity of interlocutors. It highlights the importance of engaging interlocutors with an ethic of care, navigating language politics and grounding knowledge production in the values of community-engaged scholarship.
Assistant Professor Wunpini Mohammed, L. Mahami Adams & H. Shahadu, December 2025, “Indigenous Language News,” Elgar Encyclopedia of Political Communication.
This chapter examines the undertheorized area of indigenous language news, focusing specifically on the African context. Scholarship on indigeneity and indigenous language media has often left out Africa, although the majority of African communities consume media in their own languages. The chapter demonstrates the potential that indigenous language news has to support the growth of the Ghanaian public sphere through civic engagement, education, among others.
