John Gareis, PhD

John W. Gareis was the Director of Undergraduate Advising and a Senior Lecturer in the Communication Department at the University of Pittsburgh for 32 years prior to his retirement in August 2020. He received a B.A. in Speech Communication and Theatre from Clarion State College (now Clarion University of Pennsylvania) in 1976 and a Masters of Divinity from Lancaster Theological Seminary in 1980. After a few years away from academia, he completed his Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Communication at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. His dissertation, Characteristics of Empathic Exchanges in Human Interactions, is a detailed study of the communication behaviors that contribute to the experience of empathy.

An ordained United Church of Christ minister, Jack currently serves the Jerusalem UCC in Rimersburg and the New Bethlehem Presbyterian Church. He has also served as a communication consultant for several professional and university related organizations and published (along with Dr. Ellen Cohn) articles on Communication and cultural diversity in the classroom. He and Ellen Cohn have co-authored a textbook, Communication As Culture: An Introduction to the Communication Process, which is in its 4th edition.

John is a native of western Pennsylvania and still lives in the area with his wife, Lori. He has two daughters, Evanne and Kaitlin, a son-in-law, Adam, and a grandson, Westin.

Courses Taught at Pitt

• Communication and Society
• Public Speaking
• Interpersonal Communication
• Theories of Interpersonal
• Theories of Persuasion
• Small Group Communication
• Organizational Communication
• Rhetoric and Culture
• Special Topics in Mass Communication
• History of Mass Media