2026 CMS Honors Day

The Amazing CMS Race

The Communication Studies (CMS) department held its annual Honors Day on April 29 with a theme of The Amazing CMS Race—playing off the popular TV reality show. The Moody College Auditorium was decorated in Amazing Race colors and bandanas along with general racing décor. We visually raced around various parts of the department as those rooms became pit stops for various sets of awards. In addition to all our annual awards, the event featured 5 teams from various parts of the department engaged in race-styled Detours such as swag stacking, knowing the associate professors’ names, leftover pizza, party setup, and reciting Rod’s rhetoric. That fun competition was won by two MA students representing the Organizational Communication and Technology area of the program: Leo Lin and Katie Sullivan.

Department Chair Craig Scott kicked things off with a recap of what at times felt like the “rat race” that was the past year. Highlights included the following:

  • Welcoming a new cohort of 15 graduate students and our two newest full-time faculty: Jasmine Wu and Ryan Tinlin (all off to an amazing start!).
  • Our nationwide search for a faculty member in OCT, which initially hit some roadblocks before eventually all working out well when we hired Brittany Wheeler (who rolls in here in August).
  • We posted a pretty good qualifying time in our external program review, Vidula Bal made a U-turn and came back to campus as our outstanding grad program alum, and we raced off to NCA in Denver for all that we do each year at that conference.
  • The checkered flag waved on several who kind of finished their CMS races this past year. We had events to celebrate Rod Hart, Randy Cox, and Lisa Moseley. John Daly started idling down with the yellow caution flag of phased retirement and lecturer Jerry Nemeroff shut down his teaching motor as well. Shiv Ganesh returned for a final victory lap as he finished up 3 doctoral students in April.
  • Several faculty who had been racing for years finally reached some important milestones as they completed major legs of their academic journeys: Dawna Ballard will be promoted to Full Professor and both Robert Carroll and Joe Cutbirth will be promoted to Associate Professors of Instruction (and their pit crew of mentors and letter writers deserve a bit of credit for this success as well).
  • We also expanded our racing squad by hiring Jonathan Alba and Tim Pavlovich as lectures for our sales minor as well as adding Jenny Rosario to the office staff (no doubt it is folks like these who keep everything on track).
  • Our race always makes a big run through CMS Week, which featured a gelato-infused and Larry Schooler-filled community day, our first ever undergraduate class project showcase, a fast-paced trivia night, and our inaugural Barry Brummett Endowed Lecture (of course it was another week to remember!).

The recap concluded with a photo montage put together by Graduate Coordinator Jenn Porras, set to Miley Cyrus’s “The Climb.”

The awards kicked off with Rene Dailey presenting our Friend of the Department Award to Christie Hodge. Christie’s work in the college has touched the department in many ways. She is an enormous resource for our graduate program. She does a great deal to oversee the Option III programs in which several department faculty teach (and which generates a bit of extra revenue for the department). Most significantly this year, Christie organized the external review we underwent (writing parts of our self-study and interfacing with the reviewers and the Graduate School). For being so instrumental in so many things we do, Christie was honored with this year’s Friend of the Department award.

Next we heard from several individuals connected to various undergraduate organizations and programs. Natalie Andreas talked about our undergraduates in general and the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) that she takes over next year. Roselia Mendez Murrillo and Keri Stephens updated us on Lambda Pi Eta (LPH) and the Texas Undergrad Sales Organization (TUSO). Roselia and Robert Carroll were honored for their longtime service as faculty sponsors of LPH and IABC, respectively. 

Mike Butterworth, Director of the Center for Sports Communication and Media presented the winners of the March Madness Bracket Challenge that the department and his center co-sponsor. For the men’s bracket, the winner was Brendon Bankey. For the women’s bracket, the winner was Ralph Anderson.

Brendon Bankey, Director of Texas Debate, shared highlights of the team’s many successes this year. Ryan Tinlin, Director of Texas Speech, then recapped another successful year for that team—including a fifth consecutive win at the American Forensic Association’s national tournament and the team’s first-ever national title at the National Forensic Association tournament. Team member Ryan Mustafa mesmerized the crowd when he presented his national champion informative speech.

Rene Dailey and Jenn Porras then presented the graduate program awards, beginning with gifts for each student graduating this year. They also recognized all those who moved into comprehensive exams and advanced to candidacy this year, as well as a large list of other awards/honors won by graduate students over the course of the year. Then it was time for the big awards based on faculty nominations and selection by an awards committee. Here are the graduate student winners: 

 

  • Outstanding First-Year Master’s Student: Ralph Anderson

  • Outstanding First-Year Doctoral Student: Samia Ehsan

     

  • Outstanding Master’s Student: Monica Williams
  • Outstanding Doctoral Student: Mir Rabby
  • Outstanding Graduate Citizen: Leonard Memon
  • Outstanding Teaching Assistant: Jianhao Wei and Kat Williams
  • Outstanding Assistant Instructor: Olivia Gellar
  • Outstanding Graduate Research Award: Ellen Alley

CommSGC then announced their new leadership (Leonard Memon, Chair; Katie Sullivan and Ralph Anderson, Vice Chairs; Paden Moore, Treasurer; Ruoxiao Su, Secretary) and made an appeal for their 40 for Forty campaign. They then presented two awards that the graduate students selected:

  • Graduate Faculty of the Year: Scott Stroud
  • Instructional Mentorship Award: Natalie Andreas

Awards Committee Chair Erin Donovan then announced the Outstanding Graduate Program Alum Award winner, as selected by vote of the graduate faculty. This year’s winner is Dr. Steve Rains at University of Arizona. Steve sent in a video thank you and will come to campus in the fall to accept the award and share thoughts on his time in the program.

Associate Chair Stacey Sowards presented the Faculty/Staff Service Award to Rene Dailey for all the work she has done as our Graduate Advisor and as a key part of department leadership. Faculty/staff nominate and select the recipient for this award. 

A reception to honor winners was held immediately afterward at the 1972 Women’s Sports Pub. Congratulations to all our awardees and to everyone who was part of our Amazing Race in CMS this past year!