Faculty

Trina Ballard

Hi! I'm Professor Ballard (Prof. B.), and I'm delighted to be on the Communication Studies faculty at Highline College.(Students, please email me via Canvas so I can get to your messages more quickly.)

I'm a third-generation UW Husky and a fourth-generation Washingtonian. I attended the UW and OSU. My research involves how we communicate about environmental issues and how we communicate to explore and strengthen our personal relationships.

Favorite books are by bell hooks, Paulo Freire, Louise Fortmann, Steven Johnson, and Michael Braungart.
You'll find me walking my rescue dogs when I'm not working. 

Ellen Bremen

I believe communication is a life-changing skill, and my goal is for students to leave my class—whether in person or online—with tools they can use immediately. After 24 years of teaching, including 20 at Highline, I still love watching students grow and find their voice.

Steve Cave

Steve comes from a rich educational background, with 15 years of being a junior high and high school teacher before he got his second master's degree, and became a professor. He's been working at colleges around Seattle, namely City University, Lake Washington Technical College, and Highline, for about 10 years now. He focuses in teaching communications and creative writing, and thoroughly enjoys his job. In 2025, Steve was honored with the esteemed Instructional Excellence Award for his work at Lake Washington Technical Institute.

Beyond his teaching, Steve is a creative writer with several publications from poetry to short stories to essays, and has kickstarted a board game and written and published a sci-fi adventure choose-your-own-adventure game app. Lately, Steve has taken programming courses and is branching into indy game development. Steve also has two corgis, named Benji and Basil, and his loving partner Max.

Heleya DeBarros

Heleya is an actor and educator whose work focuses on how to use theatre skills across disciplines. She teaches around the sound at Cascadia College, North Seattle College, and Path With Art. Heleya has served as faculty at The New School for Drama and has taught with such organizations as Lincoln Center Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, The Geffen Playhouse, The Los Angeles Music Center, Crossroads School for Arts and Sciences, Will & Company, and 24th Street Theatre. She was previously the Director of Arts Education at Arts Corps which seeks to revolutionize arts education by igniting the creative power of young people through culturally engaging learning experiences. As an actor Heleya earned her Actor’s Equity card touring Theatre for Young Audiences shows to schools and communities. Currently Heleya acts as a performer and researcher with the Verbatim Performance Lab using theatre to examine and uncover unconscious bias.

Matt Edwards

Matt Edwards is a part-time faculty member in the Communication Studies Department at ighline College.

Currently, he is teaching CMST 101 (Introductions to Communications) and CMST 220 (Public Speaking).

Mr. Edwards is an award-winning instructor with an extensive background in business, marketing, public relations, journalism and communication.

Katie Gustainis

Katie is the kind of person who loves people. In addition to teaching at Highline, she supports non-profit advocacy groups across Washington State as a communications consultant. She believes in the power of community organizing and encourages her communication students to take a stand for the issues they believe in. Students can expect to talk to one another in Katie’s classes. She strives to help students apply communication principles to everyday conversations and hopefully better understand themselves and other people as a result.

Katie holds a Master of Arts in Communication Management from Emerson College in Boston, MA and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies from West Texas A&M University, in Canyon, TX. Katie lives in Burien with her wife and two young kids and loves to be outside every chance she gets.

Arthur Land

Education is my second career. (I am a "recovering" journalist.) I have experience as a freelance field producer for networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News, Vice News, Al Jazeera America. I began my communications career in TV news in Georgia and South Carolina where I made news stories, documentaries, sports programs, and many commercials. I last worked full-time in news at CNN Headquarters, Atlanta on the National Assignment Desk.

I graduated from the University of Georgia (Bachelors and Masters in Education) and did PhD coursework at Indiana University. Since 1994, I've been teaching journalism and communication at colleges including PLU in Tacoma, West Georgia State University, Lake Washington Technical Institute, and three years at Highline College. My interests include watching movies and playing computer games. I am a news and politics junkie, and I always enjoy a good conversation about anything. My wife and I like to travel widely along with hosting journalists from other countries, high school students from Iraq, and providing a comfortable home for two house rabbits.

Laura Manning

I fell in love with Communication Studies as I looked for grad programs to escape a series of depressing jobs after college. I earned my Master’s from the UW, spent a lot of time escaping from a PhD program there, and then was blessed to begin teaching at Highline.

Favorite all-time wisdom from Highline sages:

Gum-Lai Ross: "Never miss an opportunity to love on a student. Our students deserve 100% of our focus when we are near them. No conversation with a colleague, no errand, no meeting is more important than the student standing near you on the sidewalk."

Dr. Darryl Brice: "What we have to say is never as important as what our students are thinking about. When a student's hand goes up, I stop talking." and "Take your classes to Student Services programming. The students paid for it. It's all about their lives. Your curriculum will still be there the next day."

Forget what the signs on campus say: Community is still our middle name.

Rod Mattson

September 2025 was the start of the 27th year as a teacher, I returned to school to become a teacher 30 years ago which is my third career.

Over that time, I developed three principles that guide my decisions in life that are required in my all my classes by myself and each student: Empathy, Cooperation, and Humility.

I found in the business arena that helping others achieve goals was much more rewarding to me than reaching my own goals. So teaching or training was the logical next step for me.
People who take my classes will find I am helping to better equip them for the organizational world. It is important to get along and learn the ability to influence others.

The fastest way to rise through an organization is exposure. There is no better or faster way to earn exposure than public speaking and superior communication skills.

I graduated from Kennedy High School in Burien, Highline College, and Eastern Washington University and grew up in the White Center/Burien area.

Leona Oliveros

Leona Oliveros is an educator and storyteller with experience spanning alternative education, public broadcasting, and voice over.

Leona currently teaches at Highline college and is a freelance voice actor and social media content developer for organizations like Bang on a Can and independent artists.

A 2023–2024 Seattle Arts Fellow with Seattle Opera and Classical KING FM, Leona also participated in the 2024 Bang on a Can Summer Festival Media Workshop. Her background includes radio hosting, audio narration, script writing, and voice work, as well as experience in radio production, event planning, and arts journalism.

Leona holds a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Education and Social Justice and an M.A. in Teaching from Western Washington University.

Donte Quinine

I am a Communication Studies instructor with over a decade of experience teaching at the college level, grounded in an early professional background in student development. My work centers on helping students build confidence, clarity, and connection through effective communication—whether in public speaking, interpersonal relationships, or group settings. I am deeply committed to creating learning environments that foster belonging, reflection, and personal growth.

Alongside my academic work, I am a certified yoga teacher and breathwork facilitator. I integrate mindfulness, embodied awareness, and nervous-system regulation into my teaching and workshops, helping individuals cultivate presence, resilience, and intentional communication—both with themselves and others.

Outside the classroom and studio, I am a passionate fly fisherman. Whether I am teaching, facilitating, or fishing, I am guided by a belief in growth through awareness, practice, and meaningful connection.

Amy Rider

Derek Scheips

Experienced lecturer/instructor in a variety of communication, English, college success, and business management subjects. Past roles at UW Tacoma, Tacoma Community College, Washington State University, University of Pennsylvania, and Northeastern University. Previously, I was a strategist, writer, and editor for advertising agencies and in publishing organizations in New York City. Education: Columbia University, Creative Writing, MFA and Swarthmore College, English Literature, BA.

At whatever stage of their educational or career journeys, I get great satisfaction from working with college students. I always aim to apply my own experiences and observations to help them in whatever way I can with their futures.

Kara Stuart

The way digital media and entertainment can captivate an audience has always been of interest to me. As I was growing up, I watched my dad work as essentially the entire sport communication department as the Sport Information Director at University of Nevada, Reno. After getting my Associates of Applied Arts in Video Production, I worked as an assistant casting director here in the Seattle area. I ended my tenure in that field when I moved to Pullman to attend Washington State University's Sport Management program. While at WSU, I worked with the Sport Communication department. After I graduated with a BA in Sport Management, I continued on to earn an MA in Communication from the Edward R. Murrow College of Communication at WSU. My area of focus was looking at practical applications within the media industry of how parasocial interactions with fictional characters are formed.

• MA (2014)- Communication, Washington State University
• BA (2012)- Sport Management, Washington State University
• AA (2006)- Video Production, The Art Institute of Seattle

Rachel Stuart

Lisa Voso

Lisa is passionate about communication, learning, and teaching!

She earned my undergraduate degree from St. Mary's College, an honors college in southern Maryland. While there, she competed on the National Speech Team and graduated cum laude with a double major in Mathematics and Political Science. Lisa then went on to earn her law degree from the University of Maryland. While in law school, she was one of two students selected to compete on the National Trial team. In addition, Lisa was selected to participate in a comparative law summer abroad program in Scotland and later was awarded a grant to work for the Legal Aid Society in Hawaii. In her third year of law school, she was the only student selected to work abroad in South Africa, during the country's transitions away from Apartheid to a democracy. After working as a trial attorney for 16 years, Lisa decided to obtain a double Masters degree in Communication Studies and Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University where she graduated magna cum laude.

While working as a trial attorney, Lisa was also teaching public speaking classes and conducting corporate trainings. Ultimately, family lead her to teaching full-time. Currently, Lisa teaches a wide range of communication studies classes, including public speaking, business communication, interpersonal communication, organizational leadership, introduction to communication, and advanced presentation skills. Lisa also teaches speaker development skills and business communication to professionals and business organizations across the state.

Outside of academia, Lisa enjoys travelling the globe. At present, she has traveled to all 50 states, 34 countries, and 5 continents!! Recently, Lisa travelled with Highline's 2025 delegation to Vietnam and made a 2-week trip to Japan.

Her travels have helped her understand deeply that we are all different people; our life experiences, values, and believes are never exactly the same as anyone else.  Yet, there are ways to build communities in which diverse people can live, learn and grow with one another.  It is Lisa's philosophy that these communities can be created in the classroom - communities built on mutual respect and trust. 

Timothy Wood