Personal photo uploaded by Laura Manning.

Laura Manning

Faculty
Communication Studies

Phone: (206) 592-4037

Office: 18-202

Mailstop: 18-1

Email: lmanning@highline.edu

Link:

Please call me Laura. 😊

I’m from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, though I’ve lived in Seattle for the past 30 years. (And, oof, I am retiring at the end of this Spring quarter and moving back to Oklahoma. I'm a fairly freaked out about it all! 😳) I love both places. I also love teaching, and I freaking love Highline students.

I discovered Communication Studies when I was looking for graduate programs to go into to escape a life of moving from one meaningless job to another. I earned my Master of Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Washington back in the day, and then spent a lot of time chasing and escaping from a PhD, and I've been blessed to be teaching at Highline since 2000. What's Communication Studies about? We're about better understanding our identities and our relationships, developing our voices, and shaping messages for specific audiences, so that we can -- hopefully ethically -- achieve our goals, whatever they may be.

I've been lucky to be involved in so many cool things at this College. I helped lead our Whites on White accountability group for several years, which helped me wrap my head around the fact that I'm white (already an obvious thing to everyone else but me), and helped me commit to the fight for social justice. I'm super proud to be an unofficial Auntie to our remarkable Umoja Black Scholars program. I was blessed to help lead our Learning and Teaching Center, working with the inestimable Dr. Darryl Bryce and other teachers to make our teaching better. I helped develop student orientations, coordinated and emceed numerous conferences on and off campus, and occasionally -- thrillingly! -- announced our students' names at graduation. I was awarded Highline's Teacher of the Year one year. Dang, this place grew me up and wrapped itself around my heart.

My favorite all-time wisdom from Highline sages:
1) from 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 walking past you or standing near you on the sidewalk.
2) from 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 about their lives. Don't worry; your curriculum will still be there the next day."

A little more about me: I have a husband named Bryan. (Brother of Lisa, who teaches English here. Not as coincidental as you might think!) Bryan and I love playing board games and old-people games on my iPad at the end of the day, listening to podcasts and music. (Yes, he's coming with me to Oklahoma. πŸ˜‰) We had a beloved kitty named SheRa who was always everywhere we were, and who we lost last July; we're still in mourning -- and we don't want to adopt a new furry family member until after we move. 😒 Anyway...

I love cooking and baking – and eating – and watching cooking shows and collecting and reading cookbooks. (Just scored a discount copy of Momofuku!) I lived in Shanghai for a bit, teaching there twice for Highline, and I really love Shanghai and a whole bunch of Chinese folks -- and dumplings (making and eating them). These days I'm exploring occasional plant-based eating, and I'm psyched to have finally found a decent plant-based dumpling recipe [https://theplantbasedwok.com/vegan-sheng-jian-bao-pan-fried-dumplings/] that is a reasonable cousin to my beloved pork and shrimp one. And owls – omg, I love owls. I'll tell you the tragic story of the owl family I watched on a live feed for years, if you ask. I also love reading, endlessly watching "Suits" on Netflix (I know 🫀!), and taking pictures of pretty things -- especially pretty food. πŸ˜‰

It's difficult to conceive of a world out there beyond Highline. And yet, I am heading out into it at the end of this Spring quarter-- and taking a giant chunk of Highline family, past and present, with me in my heart. Forget the signs: Community is our middle name. ❀️ Take care of yourselves, and wish me luck there please!

So looking forward to the miracle of connecting and learning with you in my remaining time here at Highline.

β€œSometimes all you hear about is the hate. But there is more love in the world than you can possibly imagine.” Charlie Mackesy

L. πŸ’•

11:00 am

CMST& 220 B1-P (34873)

Public Speaking

Meets Monday ‐ Thursday from 11:00 am ‐ 12:05 pm
Bldg 14 Room 103-Classroom

2:30 pm

Classroom Office Hours

Meets Tuesday ‐ Thursday from 2:35 ‐ 3:45 pm
14-103

3:30 pm

Bookable Zoom Office Hours (schedule 4+hrs in advance)

Meets Monday from 3:30 ‐ 5:00 pm
use the "Schedule a meeting with me!" tab above this weekly calendar