Director and Professor of Advertising & Public Relations in the Moody College of Communication at UT Austin

The next Director and Professor of the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin will serve as the leader for advancing the School's mission and vision while providing intellectual leadership for its highly ranked and regarded advertising and public relations programs. Engaging faculty, students, and alumni, the Director will ensure that the School remains distinctive in its eclectic mix of programs, distinguished for the excellence of its curriculum, and strengthened by its ongoing commitment to both theory and practice.

Given the School's large and talented undergraduate student population, the new Director will be expected to facilitate ongoing curricular advancements in light of the discipline's rapidly evolving fields. The Director also will guide continued success and progress in the School's excellent Master's and Doctoral programs. In addition, the Director will help define directions of growth for the faculty and identify and build relationships with departments and programs within Moody, as well as beyond the College - in business, medicine, law, and the arts, for instance. The Director will be expected to bridge these areas in support of multidisciplinary collaboration and must therefore have an appreciation for them, as well as an understanding of the benefits of such multidisciplinary collaborations.

The School has a strong tradition of close relations with both professional and academic communities and seeks a Director who will maintain and expand these relationships in ways that will inform curricula and pedagogy, while also benefitting its graduates as they enter the professional and academic worlds. The Director will work closely with the Dean of Moody College on alumni relations and fundraising in support of student, faculty, and facilities needs and will sustain donor relations to the benefit of the School and of Moody College.

In addition to a Ph.D., or equivalent, in advertising, public relations, marketing, strategic communication, mass communication, or a related field of communication, the Director must have an outstanding reputation and academic achievements commensurate with appointment as a full professor with tenure at UT Austin. The Director will be a collaborative leader who can develop and articulate a compelling vision for the School in the context of the evolution of advertising and PR as academic fields and as professions. The Director will strengthen the School by further developing its distinctive combination of academic and professional resources. Attentive to the careers that students will pursue after they complete their education at Moody, the Director will work with faculty and alumni to extend the relationships students can begin to form while at Moody and can continue to build as they pursue their careers.

Additional qualifications include:

• Demonstrated leadership abilities, administrative skills, and experience in fostering collaboration and building consensus amongst colleagues, preferably within an academic environment.
• An appreciation for the merits of a School comprised of both professionals who have chosen to enter academia and research-focused career academics.
• An entrepreneurial spirit that is open to experimentation with curriculum and ways of learning that can make the School unique.
• Experience working in or with advertising and/or public relations agencies is preferred but not required.

The Moody College of Communication has engaged Opus Partners to support the recruitment of the Director and will begin considering candidates on October 28, 2024. Applications will be reviewed until the position is filled. Senior Partner Craig Smith and Senior Associate Abigail Maynard will be supporting the search. Applicants are invited to email PDF documents including a cover letter describing their interest/qualifications and curriculum vitae/resume to abigail.maynard@opuspartners.net. Nominations, recommendations, expressions of interest and inquiries should be sent to the same address. UT policy requires that a background check be conducted on the selected candidate.

THE STAN RICHARDS SCHOOL OF ADVERTISING & PUBLIC RELATIONS

Unique as an academic institution, the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations serves as a training ground for both the Advertising and Public Relations fields. Disciplines include creative, communication research, media and account planning, media relations, internal and public communications, crisis management, community outreach, digital/interactive and social media programs.

The School is housed in the G.B. Dealey Center for New Media, dedicated in November 2012 and located at the northwest edge of UT Austin's campus. The five-story, 120,000-square-foot building is shared with the School of Journalism and serves a national center for work on media convergence. Also housed in the Dealey Center is the Dean's Office for The Moody College, as well as KUT/KUTX, Austin's NPR station.

In 2021, the School was ranked #1 in the nation for Advertising & Public Relations by College Factual. It was also ranked #1 in 2016 by Campus Explorer, which cited UT Austin's dedicated advertising school, unlike other universities that place advertising under the umbrella of marketing and communication. Campus Explorer also recognized the size and resources of the program, adding that the Stan Richards School offers one of the few Ph.D. advertising programs available worldwide.

Currently led by Director Natalie Tindall, Ph.D., the School offers a B.S. in Advertising and B.S. in Public Relations, as well as an M.A. and Ph.D. in Advertising. It is the only program in the nation that grants a Ph.D. specifically in advertising. Dual master's programs are also offered in Advertising/Business Administration and Advertising/Public Affairs. The School has almost 1,500 students, 1,400 of which are undergraduates in the two majors in the school.

THE MOODY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION

Established in 1965, with departmental roots reaching back to 1899, the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the largest and most comprehensive communication colleges in the country. The College was officially named the Moody College of Communication in November 2013, following a historic and transformational $50 million gift from the Moody Foundation. Combined with the College's previous endowments, the Moody Foundation gift created the largest endowment for the study of communication at any public university in the nation.

Moody College is comprised of five departments/schools: The Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations; Communication Studies; Journalism and Media; Radio-Television-Film; and Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. The College also boasts a number of centers and institutes that serve as hubs for interdisciplinary research, innovation and education. Moody faculty include nationally recognized teachers and scholars who conduct leading-edge research and creative work in their respective fields and are widely renowned for their accomplishments. Each of the College's programs ranks highly, often within the top 10 programs in its respective field, setting standards for the entire communications industry.

Moody College maintains deep connections to the various industries it represents through its faculty, strong alumni base and industry partnerships. Its new building, the G.B. Dealey Center for New Media, builds on these strengths and promotes new models for communication research and education for the 21st century.

Moody College's seventh dean, Rachel Davis Mersey, has been selected to serve as interim provost of The University of Texas at Austin. Anita Vangelisti, the senior associate dean for faculty affairs and graduate education at Moody College, has stepped in as interim dean. Dean Vangelisti, who has been with Moody College since 1991, holds the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Chair in Communication and is a professor in the Department of Communication Studies. She and Provost Mersey began their new roles effective September 1.

In her time with the college, Dean Vangelisti has successfully negotiated significant increases in the number and size of graduate fellowships and stipends, increasing the financial support available to students. She led the launch of Moody College's first Option III program, which includes graduate certificates and a master's program, working closely with a team of college leaders to expand academic offerings. Additionally, Dean Vangelisti has expertly managed the promotion and tenure process within Moody, ensuring a fair and rigorous evaluation of faculty performance. As the Jesse H. Jones Centennial Chair in Communication, Dean Vangelisti has received the Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award from The University of Texas System and the College of Communication Teaching Excellence Award. Her highly acclaimed work has been recognized with numerous awards, including several from the National Communication Association (NCA) and the International Association for Relationship Research (IARR). She served as president of IARR and is a distinguished scholar of NCA and a fellow of the International Communication Association and IARR.

Moody College of Communication has approximately 5,000 students enrolled in both undergraduate and graduate programs. The College attracts top students to all of its programs and provides opportunities to conduct relevant research in a challenging yet collaborative hands-on environment. Degrees offered span undergraduate, Masters and Ph.D. levels.

The University of Texas at Austin, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.