After a year teaching in China, Mara Adelman came to the Department of Communication in 1994.  Throughout her 12 years of world travel and teaching, she would drop into the USA to obtain a degree in communication (B.A, UCLA; M.A., San Diego State; and Ph.D., U. of Washington)--a multidisciplinary field which continues to fascinate her.  She has a life-long interest in cross-cultural communication, which ultimately led to co-authoring the first book combining the teaching of English as a Second Language with this field (Beyond Language, 1982; 1993).  Upon entering her doctoral program, Mara's interest in cross-cultural adaptation complemented her study of social support networks.   

During this time she co-authored a major review article and book that introduced the study of social support to the communication discipline (Communicating Social Support, 1987).  While a professor at Northwestern University, Mara spent 5 years volunteering and studying a residential facility for persons with AIDS, which culminated in a documentary film (The Pilgrim Must Embark, 1991) and an award-winning book, "The Fragile Community: Living Together with AIDS (1997).  She also studied "dating services," and the ways these innovative forms of mateseeking expand people's social networks, impact personal well-being, and discriminate against women of color.  She has just co-authored the entry on "Commercialized Dating Services" for the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Human Relationships (Sage Publications). Since arriving to Seattle University, she has created several university-wide programs, including Professional Development Night and Academic Salons.   

She teaches a wide-range of social interaction courses; including interpersonal, cross-cultural, organizational, and introduction to communication theory. After years of writing about intimate, personal relationships combined with her alarm over the state of everyday distractions, techno-saturation, and pseudo-intimacy; Mara has focused her intellectual life on the study of restorative solitude.  She offers her website, "solitudecourse.com" and faculty workshops in the hopes of addressing this neglected refuge in our everyday life.  Mara is an artist and musician in her spare time, and donates her art to raise funds for international non-profits.