Arts & Culture

‘Mindful communication and emotional intelligence’ to be topic of Oct. 7 talk

Monday, October 5, 2009, By Erica Blust

Dan Huston, a professor at NHTI, Concord’s Community College, will deliver the talk “Mindful Communication and Emotional Intelligence: Opening Our Minds and Our Hearts to Improve Communication, Effectiveness and Well-Being” on Wednesday, Oct. 7, at 4 p.m. in Room 304A of the Hildegarde and J. Myer Schine Student Center. The talk is sponsored by the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies in ϲ’s College of Visual and Performing Arts and Hendricks Chapel, with support from the Alex G. Nason Health and Wellness Lecture Fund.

Huston has incorporated mindfulness meditation and emotional intelligence into his communications curriculum for more than a decade and was awarded the 2008 NHTI Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He received training at the renowned Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Huston’s essay “How Mindfulness Can Help Us Become Better Communicators” was published in the 2006 Rowman & Littlefield anthology “Teaching with Joy: Educational Practices for the Twenty-First Century,” and he will contribute a chapter to the upcoming Jossey-Bass book “New Directions in Community Colleges.” His textbook “Communicating Mindfully: Mindfulness-Based Communication and Emotional Intelligence” details the innovative teaching methodologies he has developed, which have helped hundreds of people achieve personal and professional success through their improved communication skills. He regularly presents at national and regional conferences and provides training in mindful communication.

For more information, contact Diane Grimes, associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies, at dsgrimes@syr.edu.