College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ryan T. Hartwig is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific University. Before joining the faculty at APU, Hartwig taught communication and leadership for eight years at Colorado Christian University, and held a series of increasingly responsible student life and development positions for 10 years at Purdue University and Colorado Christian University.

Hartwig teaches small group communication, organizational communication, teamwork and collaboration, research methods, and leadership classes. His teaching seeks to help students understand the full creative and transformative power of communication, believing that communication is far more than just getting information from one point to another, but instead is the primary social process by which we build our social world. Thus, he seeks to help students think well about communication and communicate effectively, so that they are persons of influence in today's changing and complex world.

As an engaged group and organizational communication and leadership teacher, scholar, practitioner, and consultant with interests in group facilitation, the development of collaborative communicative practices and organizational structures, leadership education and training, and qualitative research methods, Hartwig aims to help groups and organizations use effective communication to optimally pursue good ends. Thus, he primarily works with nonprofits and churches to help them thoughtfully leverage effective group and organizational communication practices, processes, and structures to fulfill their missions. His scholarship has been published in Group Facilitation: A Research and Applications Journal, and presented at the annual meetings of the National Communication Association (NCA) and the Rocky Mountain Communication Association (RMCA).