Melba Vélez Ortiz (Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) was born and raised in Puerto Rico and is an Associate Professor of Communication at Grand Valley State University. She is a former Chair of the Communication Ethics Division of the National Communication Association. Her research interests include communication ethics, global ethics, intellectual history, and environmental communication. Her most recent publication Maatian Ethics in a Communication Context (Routledge Press, 2020) details how the classical ethical approach of Ma’at guided public communication practices in ancient Egypt.