Dr. Roya Akhavan is Professor Emeritus of Mass Communication, St. Cloud State University, and Principal and CEO at FemLead Consulting. She is an award-winning professor whose honors include recognitions as “Teacher of the Year,” “Outstanding Graduate Professor,” “Outstanding Achievement as V.P. for International Marketing,” and "Outstanding Collage Leadership.” Dr. Akhavan’s research has been published in a wide range of refereed national and international journals, including Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Mass Communication and Society, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Telecommunications Policy, Newspaper Research Journal, Current Politics and Economics of Japan, and Gazette. Dr. Akhavan's published work includes two books, Peace for Our Planet: A New Approach (2017) and The Trumpet Blast: Removing the Veil from the Advent of the Promised One (2022).Professor Akhavan has lived and worked in four different cultures -- Persian, American, Japanese, and Chinese. She is a frequent speaker at academic and community forums and radio and television broadcasts on global issues, including peace, social justice, racial and gender equality, leadership, and spirituality in the 21st century.