Ulderico Alviola | Head, University Integrated Media Center
Visayas State University

Dr. Ulderico ‘Derek’ Alviola is a development communicator, educator, community journalist and technology adoption influencer with 15 years of combined experience in teaching educational communication technology, public relations, community affairs and legacy and digital media management in an emerging science and technology university in the Philippines. He is part of a project that pushed for adoption of new digital tools to jumpstart the smart campus development plan of Visayas State University (VSU) located in Leyte, Philippines.  Because of his efforts to influence university upper management, VSU became the pioneering state university to adopt a full online enrollment system, develop an inhouse learning management system, and build a local data center while also securing free premium subscription for digital learning resources that benefited around 16,000 students and faculty members. Dr. Alviola is the Founding Head of the VSU Integrated Media Center, the public relations and community affairs arm of the university, with an academic rank of Assistant Professor IV at the VSU Department of Development Communication. He is very active in professional organizations being the National President of the Association of Development Communication Educators and Practitioners or ADCEP Philippines and the Vice President for Visayas of the Philippine Association of Communication Educators (PACE). At the international level, he is the Country Representative of the Philippines to the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC), a non-profit, non-government organization that serves as a regional research hub for media and communication issues. Dr. Alviola is a Straight Doctor of Philosophy degree holder in Development Communication from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) under a joint scholarship grant from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA). He is the first and only graduate of such hybrid degree program in history.