Over nearly 15 years in university communications and marketing, I've seen how pressures from within and without try to bend a university into an ideological monolith where one orthodoxy or another dominates. The way we respond and communicate as institutions and as individual scholars can make or break public trust and confidence in the university. It can kill or cure free, robust teaching and scholarship.
I'm a 2025-26 Fellow of the University of California National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement. My research explores how university communications and public relations have helped universities grapple with political pressure for more than a century and how we are rising to the pressures faced today.
I give workshops and presentations about:
* How to make viewpoint diversity and open inquiry part of your university brand, and why you should.
* How universities have met challenges with political interference in the past, and what we need to do to navigate the current crisis.
* Why professional training is central to a university's mission ― but also the very reason we should teach the liberal arts.
* How university communications can help (or harm) viewpoint diversity on campus.
* How to communicate research in ways that foster trust across the political spectrum.
* How to build trust with audiences through storytelling.
* Communicating complex ideas, even with people who disagree.
* How journalism lost America's trust and could gain it again.
... plus numerous other topics on higher ed communications, public relations, social trust, and the meaning of life.
I'm a co-chair of the HxA Campus Community at the University of South Carolina. I also worked in journalism for several years and have contributed articles to Discourse Magazine, the Jefferson Education Society and more.