Ascending CCOM Faculty
The journey to associate professor and professor for higher education faculty can be an arduous one. In most cases it starts with earning a bachelor’s degree, then a master’s degree, and followed by the demanding commitment to a PhD. Then the national search for an assistant professor position to get a foot in the door and begin life as a tenure-track college or university educator. The work is just beginning—and we appreciate the sacrifice and dedication so many of our colleagues have made to pursue these dreams.
The work brings the satisfaction of contributing to something bigger than oneself, especially when helping guide students to find their passion or light bulb moment(s) as they work to understand who they are and what they want to contribute with their future.
The future for tenure-track faculty members typically boils down to two potential promotions. After six years as an assistant professor, if you have met expectations in teaching, scholarly production and service, you apply for promotion to associate professor. This stage also is accompanied by tenure. The remaining promotion typically available is that to professor, or as it is sometimes referred to, “full professor.” There is no timeline for this application, and some people choose not to even apply for it. But when an individual achieves this rank, it is an enormous moment in their career, and this spring, CCOM has four faculty members celebrating promotions.
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Dr. Xiaowen Xu of the newly renamed Department of Communication and Leadership was awarded tenure and promotion to Associate Professor, effective with the next academic year.
An excellent instructor in our Strategic Communication major, Dr. Xu calls her approach to teaching “user-friendly” and thrives on providing students both real world examples and opportunities for hands-on learning. She is also a prolific researcher, winning a Scholarship Star this year for her impactful work in strategic communication.
PROFESSOR (“FULL PROFESSOR”)
Dr. Lee Farquhar, the Director of the Pulliam School of Journalism and Creative Media, and expert in the burgeoning field of esports and digital culture, is a tremendous classroom instructor and mentor for our students. He also has served important roles and initiated several cutting edge efforts in the college, including a current team of faculty working on the impact of AI on teaching.
Dr. Abbey Levenshus, a one-time chair in Strategic Communication and faculty member who exhibits tremendous care for her students, also earned promotion to professor. Her work on social media management and risk management communication represent important contributions to where communication is today, and her service includes dedication to managing curriculum issues across the university while chairing the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee.
Dr. Tonya Bergeson, the current chair of the Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences Department, and Fairbanks Chair, earned promotion to professor. In addition to being known as a phenomenal mentor to students, she also is passionate about research initiatives with her students, including travel to conferences to present their work. Her research focuses on early auditory and linguistic development of infants with and without hearing loss, music perception and production, and audiovisual speech perception and language skills.
These four faculty members illustrate what is so amazing about our instructors at Butler and in CCOM: they are exemplary teachers, producing high-quality scholarship, while also contributing to the culture of the college and university.
We are lucky to have them, and cannot wait to see what they do next. Join me in congratulating Dr. Xu, Dr. Farquhar, Dr. Levenshus, and Dr. Bergeson on achieving these career milestones!
