Maria Blevins, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Utah Valley University

Orem UT

Blevins is an expert in conflict and organizational and environmental communication

Media

Biography

Maria Blevins Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of communication at Utah Valley University. Her research focuses on conflict and organizational and environmental communication. In 2026 her book Troubled Waters: Navigating Harassment and Sexism in the Whitewater Rafting Industry will come out, looking at issues of harassment in the outdoor industry. Before becoming an academic, she was a whitewater rafting guide on the New, Gauley, and Snake Rivers she also served as the River Manager on the Madison River in Montana. She has a passion for helping people enjoy rivers and the outdoors. Her current research focuses on sexual harassment in the whitewater rafting industry. She is one of the founding members of A-DASH, an anti-discrimination organization for river professionals through the River Management Society. She received her BS in Outdoor Recreation Management from the University of Maine and Machias, MA in Communication and a certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution for Natural Resourcesfrom the University of Montana and her Ph.D. from the University of Utah.

Areas of Expertise

Alternative Dispute Resolution

Sexual Harassment and Sexism

Organizational and Environmental Communication

Accomplishments

Utah Valley University Outstanding Educator 2020

Alumni Office - May, 2020

Outstanding Educator

Utah Valley University Alumni Association - May, 2020

Capitol Reef Field Station Scholar in Residence

Capitol Reef Field Station - August, 2021

Education

University of Utah

Ph.D.

Organizational and Environmental Communication

2014

University of Montana

M.A.

Environmental Conflict

2007

Media Appearances

Critical environmental issues emphasized during Sustainability Day

UVU Review online

2017-10-26

“If a word is ambiguous it has the trouble of perhaps meaning nothing, but it also has a huge advantage, it’s flexible and it can mean anything,” Blevins said. “Sustainability is nothing, and sustainability is everything. So what that means to you is that we have a choice today, do we make this nothing or do we make this something?”

Courses

Theories of Communication

COMM 3050

Communication and Conflict

COMM 3420

Small Group Communication and Decision

COMM 2120

Articles

Not Just Rapids: Navigating Gendered Performance in the Whitewater Rafting Industry

Tourism Cases

2024-03-25

Ideal archetypes of outdoor guides often conjure images of strong men with beards and flannel. While guiding industries are, in fact, man-dominated, many women have been successful in gaining and maintaining employment in outdoor professions.

The Development and Test of the Public Speaking Competency Rubric +

Journal of College Science Teaching

2024-09-27

In this work, the authors document an expansion of the Public Speaking Competency Rubric (PSCR). First developed in 2012 by Schreiber, et al., the original rubric has only one item related to non-verbal communication.

Sexism In Rafting Isn’t Dead, Yet

Paddling Magazine

2023-01-13

Raft guide and researcher Maria Blevins has spent half a decade investigating sexual misconduct with the aim of making the river industry and community a safer place for everyone. Here’s what she learned about sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault in the rafting community—and what we can do about it.