Apply Today!
Completing your application takes less than 30 minutes! We’ve created an application guide to help you quickly and easily complete the steps to apply and enroll.
The Merritt College's Communication Department offers a variety of courses designed to increase student success in interpersonal and group interactions and public speaking engagements and to give students the tools to analyze what they witness in mass media.
With hands-on practice of effective listening, public speaking, and discussion of the cultural implications of verbal, nonverbal, and mass communication in a diverse world, students will become better citizens of a global population. Additionally, this communication training will improve students’ potential to acquire, maintain, and advance in their careers and relationships, transfer to four-year colleges, and navigate through an increasingly intercultural landscape of interpersonal and group associations.
Career options include advertising, broadcasting, community relations, consulting, counseling, education, film, foreign service, fund raising, human resources, journalism, international relations, law, management, marketing, mediation, ministry, politics, public relations, sales, speechwriting, social work, and other related fields.
Two Merritt Alumni, an Emmy award-winning KTVU reporter, and so much more!!! Hear how these successful people have navigated through multiple careers to land their dream jobs and the importance of communication skills in the process.
The Communication Studies 2.0 program prepares students to transfer to a four-year college or university to obtain a degree in Communication or a related Social Science field.
Department Chair
Building A-201
haltman@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2510
Hilary Altman, Ph.D., has been teaching at Merritt College since 2002. Dr. Altman’s passion for student success and social justice keeps her busy on- and off-campus. She developed the Communication AA-T degree to enable students with an interest in Communication as a major to easily transfer to a four-year college and complete their Bachelor’s degrees. As a Disability Advocate, Dr. Altman has worked with East Bay Innovations (San Leandro, CA), the California Autism Foundation (Richmond, CA), and the Center for Independent Futures (Evanston, IL) towards facilitating independent living for people with physical, developmental, and mental differences.
In pursuit of her interest in Health Communication, Dr. Altman has worked with the U.S. Dept of Health & Human Services (Washington, DC) and conducted research at the Center for Health Professionals (Saginaw, MI). She is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in the state of California. Dr. Altman co-wrote “Asset-Based Strategies for Faith Communities” as part of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute. Early in her career, she served as the Executive Director (as well as Music Director and Morning Drive disc jockey) for a small alternative radio station in upstate New York.
Building A-202
bplump@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Building A-202
cmclean@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Building A-202
jjohnson@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Building A-202
jthompson@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Building A-202
rmoran@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Building A-202
srodolfo@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2511
Department Chair
Sheila Metcalf-Tobin
smetcalftobin@peralta.edu
Department Chair
Hilary Altman, Ph.D.
Building A-201
haltman@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2510
Dean of Division
I-Liberal Arts and Social Sciences
Dr. Chriss Warren Foster
Building L-123
cfoster@peralta.edu
(510) 434-3897
Assistant to the Dean
Denise Woodward
Building D-216
dwoodward@peralta.edu
(510) 436-2425
Completing your application takes less than 30 minutes! We’ve created an application guide to help you quickly and easily complete the steps to apply and enroll.