Tiffany Petricini

Dr. Tiffany Petricini is an Associate Teaching Professor in Communication Studies at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Her teaching centers on the relationship between people and media, with favorite courses including Interpersonal Communication, AI and the Human Experience, and Culture and Technology. Her classroom is a space where students wrestle with big questions about what it means to be human in a digitally saturated world.

Dr. Petricini's scholarship bridges philosophy and communication. Her sole-authored book, Friendship and Technology: A Philosophical Approach to Computer Mediated Communication (Routledge, 2022), examines how digital environments reshape our deepest social bonds. She also co-edited Beyond the Podium: AI, Speech and Civic Voice (Pressbooks, 2025), an open-access textbook freely available to students and instructors worldwide.

Beyond the classroom and journal page, Dr. Petricini is a trusted public voice on technology and society. She has appeared as a social media expert on NBC affiliate WFMJ 21, been featured as a guest on CBC Radio One's Spark, and addressed scholars and practitioners at the SUNY Plattsburgh Ethics Institute.

Dr. Petricini is deeply committed to thoughtful institutional leadership around artificial intelligence. She serves as Co-Chair of Penn State's Joint Standing Committee on Responsible Use of AI in Higher Education, shaping university-wide AI policy, and represents her campus as a Faculty Senate senator.