01/14/2025

Nichola Gutguld

FLARE Member-at-large,

Nichola D. Gutgold, Ph.D., FLARE Board Member is professor of communication at Penn State Lehigh Valley where she teaches a course on the Rhetoric of First Ladies.

Her interest in first ladies began in the late 1990s when she completed her dissertation on the rhetoric of Elizabeth Dole, who campaigned with rhetorical finesse for her then GOP-nominee husband Bob Dole. She also co-authored a chapter on Betty Ford for Molly Wertheimer’s Inventing a Voice. She has co-authored a chapter on Melania Trump for Jennifer Sacco’s book The Women of Campaign 2016, and she has written for The Conversation on First Lady Dr. Jill Biden. 

Other publications include scholarly articled, and more than ten books, including Electing Madam Vice President, Paving the Way for Madam President, Gender and the American Presidency (co-edited with Diana Carlin and Theodore Scheckels), and The Rhetoric of Supreme Court Women, which was featured at the United States Supreme Court Bookstore, as well as several children’s books based on her scholarly books to teach children about trailblazing women in history. Her co-authored children’s book on the Supreme Court won a Purple Dragonfly Award.

Dr. Gutgold has been awarded numerous teaching, research and community awards, including Penn State’s University-wide Alumni Fellows Teaching Award.  Her research has been appeared on CNN, NPR, C-Span, and in the New York Times, US News and World Reports, Wall Street Journal and on the TED stage and more. 

She and her husband Geoff are parents of two adult children and enjoy traveling.