I am a senior lecturer in ODU's Department of Communication & Theatre Arts, in the strategic communication concentration. I came to academia a little later in my career, following 15 years as a journalist and eight years doing strategic communications professionally. My doctoral degree is in Sport Management so much of my research has a sports focus, particularly the sociology of social media interactions. In the classroom, my goal is to fuse my professional and academic skills into a hands-on, project-based learning environment.

As I say to all of my students, strategic communications are skills you can use in any professional setting - from multimillion-dollar integrated marketing campaigns to selling yourself in an interview for an entry-level position. My goal in the classroom is to make the knowledge and skills we cover matter to students, by connecting them to real-world problems.