PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Jacqueline Lambiase, Ph.D., serves as professor emerita in TCU’s Department of Strategic Communication in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, and also directs the Certified Public Communicator Program® at TCU. She is a founder of CPC and also chairs the program’s advisory board.
PROGRAM FACULTY
Joshua Bentley, Ph.D.
Josh Bentley is an associate professor who teaches law, writing and a graduate foundations and theories course, among others, in the Department of Strategic Communication. His research focus includes public relations, law, crisis communication (especially related to organizational apologies), fundraising strategies and nonprofit media. His work has been published in the Management Communication Quarterly, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Public Relations Review and several other journals. Before joining TCU, Bentley was an assistant professor at the University of New Mexico, and his professional experience includes serving as a morning show host and production director at radio stations in Alabama, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Tim Carroll, APR

Tim Carroll, APR, currently teaches strategic writing and public relations campaigns for the TCU’s Department of Strategic Communication. He served as the chief information officer and director of public information for the Allen Independent School District in Allen, Texas, for 25 years and previously served for 14 years in a similar position with the Penn-Harris-Madison Schools near South Bend, Ind., for a total of 39 years in school communications. He has taught public relations as an adjunct faculty member at Texas A&M University-Commerce and Indiana University South Bend campus. He received the National School Public Relations Association’s prestigious Barry Gaskins Mentor Award in 2011 for service to the profession. He is also past president of the 500+ member Texas School Public Relations Association and received that association’s Professional Achievement Award in 2006. He was also recently named to the Rowan University Public Relations Hall of Fame in 2021. He earned his undergraduate degree in journalism and education from Murray State University in 1978 and a master’s degree in public relations from Rowan University in 1979.
Emily Conklin, APR, CPC
Emily Conklin, APR, CPC, has been the Executive Director of Communications and Community Partnerships in Sheldon ISD since July 2020. With more than 20 years of experience in public school communications, Conklin is passionate about creating advocates for public education. She has led numerous award-winning school district communication departments for the last 12 years. She joined the CPC faculty in 2020 and as a CPC graduate (Cohort 5), she enjoys being able to give back through mentorship and coaching professionals going through the program. She has presented at her state and national school public relations associations on topics including crisis communication, advocacy, multimedia, and branding. Additionally, she serves as an adjunct professor teaching public speaking at San Jacinto College.
Ashley English, Ph.D.
Ashley E. English has committed her life to service, and community engagement is the common thread through her academic, professional and personal experiences. English is a three-time alumna of the University of North Texas with a bachelor’s in journalism, a master’s of public administration and a doctorate in public administration and management. Her current research examines organizational listening in public and nonprofit organizations and the community engagement efforts of megachurches. She has published research in outlets including, but not limited to, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Journal of Public Relations Research, and the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. As a strategic communication and nonprofit volunteer professional, she gained expertise in event planning and implementation, nonprofit and volunteer management, grant writing, youth development, nonprofit management, leadership development, and community/relationship building. She is a founder and organizer of the TCU Nonprofit Communicators Conference, now in its 14th year. She is the proud wife of Dr. Brian L. English and the mother of three world-changers: Joseph, Joshua and Faith.
Molly Fox, CPC

Molly Fox is the director of communications for the City of Bedford, Texas, and serves as the President of the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers (TAMIO). During her 10+ years in municipal communications, she and her team have won more than 200 state and national awards for their work. Prior to a career in municipal communications, she spent five years in school district communications, and two years in print journalism. She has been named to the “Top 100 Influencers in Local Government” by Engaging Local Government Leaders. She has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University, a Master of Journalism from UNT and is a 2016 graduate of TCU’s Certified Public Communicator Program®.
Johny Garner, Ph.D.
Johny Garner is a professor of communication studies and specializes in organizational communication. His primary research interests involve how employees and supervisors communicate with each other and how that communication can be improved. He also examines dissent, suggestions, and feedback in nonprofit organizations and churches. Garner is a member of the National Communication Association and the International Communication Association. His research has been published in Journal of Applied Communication Research, Management Communication Quarterly, the Western Journal of Communication and other academic journals.
Amiso George, Ph.D., APR
Amiso M. George is a professor of strategic communication and former director of the strategic communication graduate program. She developed and taught the first course in crisis communication and was director of the public relations program at the Reynolds School of Journalism, University of Nevada in Reno. She also taught at the University of Texas San Antonio. George’s teaching, research and consulting interests include public relations, corporate communication and issues management, risk and crisis communication. George is Accredited in Public Relation (APR) and a PRSA Fellow. George spent part of summer 2012 as a Plank Public Relations Fellow in the Corporate Communications Department at USAA, a Fortune 500 financial services company, based in San Antonio, Texas, where she also conducted a workshop on crisis communication. In fall 2012, she was a visiting associate professor of strategic communication at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, where she led tutorials on issues, risk and crisis communication. George has presented papers on public relations and crisis communication at national and international conferences and has published journal articles and book chapters in the same area. She is the co-editor of Case Studies in Crisis Communication: International Perspective on Hits and Misses (Routledge/Taylor Francis, 2012).
Jennifer Hines
Jennifer Hines is the Chief Communications Officer for Tyler ISD, specializing in crisis communications. Before moving into school public relations in 2019, Hines spent almost 20 years as a television journalist working in five markets around Texas, covering everything from the first “Amber Alert” baby kidnapping to high-profile criminal court cases and severe weather events. Hines has dealt with everything from the name change of the district’s two flagship high schools in a record 17-day time period while also juggling the media during the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 internal and external communications to an $89 million bond election. She has been featured in SchoolCEO magazine and has been a guest on their podcast. Hines is currently the Texas School Public Relations Association (TSPRA) Vice President of East Texas. She has been recognized as one of the esteemed honorees in Ragan’s Top Women in Communications Awards, Class of 2024. The American Advertising Federation—East Texas Chapter named Hines the 2023 Innovator of the Year, and her team was named the Innovation Team of the Year.
Tracey Knight, MPA, M. Jur.

Tracey Knight joined the CPC faculty in 2016. She brings her experience and leadership as a communications expert and manager specializing in legal issues, crisis communication, law enforcement and government affairs. Over more than 27 years, Tracey served the City of Fort Worth. In 2011, Tracey was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Police as a senior public information officer. She was soon appointed as the acting Executive Manager for the department where she oversaw the department’s external communications and community outreach. During her time as a spokesperson, she was at the center of many high-profile incidents that gained national and international attention including officer involved shootings, line-of-duty deaths/injuries, active shooters and more. As a public speaker and teacher, Knight has presented crisis communication strategies to several public information officer associations, schools and conferences. She now serves as Executive Director and Chief of Staff to Tarrant County Commissioner Manny Ramirez. Tracey earned a master’s of jurisprudence from Texas A&M University School of Law, and a master’s of public administration and bachelor’s in criminal justice from University of Texas at Arlington.
Jacqueline Lambiase, Ph.D.
Jacque Lambiase is professor emerita of the Department of Strategic Communication in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, where for 14 years she taught campaigns, senior seminar, diversity, writing, research, ethics, case studies and advocacy. For more than 20 years, she has consulted with or spoken to diverse groups about earning their share of discussion in social media and public relations opportunities, including TAMIO, 3CMA, NACIO, TSPRA, CAPIO, the Florida League of Cities, the Texas Municipal League, the Texas City Management Association, the Dallas Regional Chamber, communicators with the City of Austin, managers for the cities of Abilene and San Angelo, Children’s Medical Center of Dallas, the American Heart Association, Texas Instruments, and the U.S. Department of Labor. She is a co-founder and organizer of the DFW/TCU Nonprofit Communicators Conference, now in its 14th year. Her research focuses on public-sector communication, public relations ethics, social media and representations of gender and sexuality in media and marketing. She has co-authored and co-edited two scholarly collections, as well as published more than 50 book chapters and refereed journal articles. Before her life as an academic, she served as spokeswoman for an East Coast electric utility and worked as a wire editor, business reporter and news editor for daily newspapers in Texas.
Sarah Maben, Ph.D.
Sarah Maben recently joined TCU’s Department of Strategic Communication as a full-time faculty member after serving as an associate professor in the Communication Studies Department at Tarleton State University. She teaches graduate courses, writing for strategic communication and public relations. Her research agenda includes experiential learning in communication programs, artificial intelligence and social media, public relations and media ethics. Her scholarship appears in numerous peer-reviewed journals and has garnered top paper awards. She founded The Journal of Social Media in Society, a peer-reviewed academic journal, and is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Greater Fort Worth chapter of PRSA. She has been part of the Certified Public Communicator Program® since Cohort 1. Before her academic career, she was director of communication for various associations.
Wendy Macias, Ph.D.
Wendy Macias serves as an associate professor of advertising in TCU’s Department of Strategic Communication, as well as associate dean in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication. She joined the strategic communication faculty in fall 2010 to teach social change, research methods, campaigns and channel planning. She also provides leadership for the college’s new interdisciplinary minor in health communication. From August 2000 through July 2010, she was an associate professor of advertising at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on health communications including direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising as well as how consumers use and interact with online communications. Macias’ refereed articles have been published in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Health Communications, Health Communication, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising and Health Marketing Quarterly. She has presented her work at dozens of national conferences and served as a reviewer for several national journals of advertising, journalism and health communication. Before her life as an academic, Macias worked in sales promotion, market research and marketing. She continues to strive to bring industry experience into the classroom by collaborating with her advertising agency contacts.
Matt Mitchell

Matt Mitchell serves as the Public Information Officer for Media at Austin Energy, the seventh-largest public power utility in America. He serves as the utility’s spokesperson, advises on media and communication strategy and trains Austin Energy and City of Austin staff in communications leadership and media relations. Before joining Austin Energy, Matt worked in public school communication in Austin, focusing on crisis communication and district messaging. A trained journalist, Mitchell had a lengthy TV news career before entering public service and has been on the Austin airwaves in some capacity for 20 years.
Chris Naler, Col. USMC (Ret), M.O.S., Ed.D.
Chris Naler, Ed.D., vice president of education and growth for General Genomics Inc., has over 30 years of domestic, national and international security expertise from his military service and business consultancy. He has over 10 years of experience in government contractor executive leadership, focusing on business development, strategic growth and creative teaming. Naler served 28 years in the Marine Corps, with command and operational roles in various regions, including combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. He has delivered strategic communication instruction at both Texas Christian University and served as a senior mentor at NATO School Oberammergau. He holds a doctorate of education from University of Southern California, a master’s from Marine Corps University and a bachelor’s of business administration from University of North Texas, along with professional certificates from M.I.T., Oklahoma State University and Olin Business School Washington University. Naler has appeared on Al Jazeera and CNN as a national security expert, and his command was featured in National Geographic’s Explorer series.
Julie O’Neil, Ph.D.
Julie O’Neil, professor in the Department of Strategic Communication and an associate dean of the Schieffer College, teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in public relations, research and evaluation, and corporate social responsibility. In recent years, O’Neil and her students have assisted Roma Boots, Tarrant County Public Health, the American Heart Association, Justin Boots and the American Cancer Society as her students apply what they are learning in class to contemporary scenarios. Her areas of expertise include measuring and evaluating communication programs and public relationships. She has published in many peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Journal of Promotion Management, Public Relations Journal, and the Journal of Nonprofit and Public Sector Marketing, among others. O’Neil currently serves on the Measurement Commission of the Institute for Public Relations that exists to establish standards and methods for public relations research and measurement and to issue best-practices white papers. O’Neil is a member of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Greater Fort Worth chapter of PRSA.
Tracey Rockett, Ph.D.

Tracey Rockett is an associate professor of professional practice in the Neeley School of Business at Texas Christian University. She currently teaches organizational management at the undergraduate and graduate levels and a strategic human resource management class for undergrads. Rockett was awarded the Core Undergraduate Teaching Award in 2013. She also has served as the Neeley Honors Faculty Associate Director. In this role, she is responsible for Neeley Fellows mentoring, implementing the FROG critical thinking model into Neeley Fellows courses, and chairing the Neeley Fellows Academic Leadership Committee. Previously, Rockett was on the faculty of the School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. In that position she served as the founding Director of the OBHR (Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management) Program, the Director of the Management Honors Program and a SIFE Sam Walton Fellow. Her areas of specialization include organizational politics, online education, conflict, social networking, personal branding, women in the workplace, building relationships and team development.
James Seeley, M.L.A.
Jim Seeley serves as the emerging technologies manager for the Department of Journalism in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication, where he also teaches visual journalism. He provides media production and technical support to the students, faculty and staff. He is also responsible for maintaining the studio space and media equipment of the school. Before joining TCU, he helped create and launch a national cable network, Sportsman Channel, and served as its director of programming operations for the first eight and a half years of its existence. He also spent many years traveling across the country and around the world producing and editing outdoor television content.
Daxton R. “Chip” Stewart, Ph.D.
Chip Stewart is an attorney and journalist who joined the Schieffer College faculty in 2008. He serves as professor in the Department of Journalism, as well as Assistant Provost for Research Compliance. Stewart primarily teaches courses in law and ethics of mass communication, but he has also taught media writing and editing, public affairs reporting, and other courses. He has nearly 20 years of professional experience as a journalist, including stints as a city editor and columnist at the Columbia Missourian and editor-in-chief of Dispute Resolution Magazine. He has been licensed to practice law in both Texas and Missouri, working in both local government and general practice in central Texas from 1998 to 2000. Stewart’s research has focused on media law, most recently examining the challenges journalists and strategic communicators face when using social media. He edited Social Media and the Law: A Guidebook for Communication Students and Professionals (Routledge, 2012) and has published several articles on media law topics such as digital copyright, libel on social media, judicial contempt power in reporter confidentiality cases, and freedom of information laws. Stewart is a frequent speaker on media law topics to local and national organizations.
Jay Warren

Jay Warren is an award-winning journalist and communicator. He spent 20 years in broadcast news including 15 years as the primary anchor and senior political reporter at the NBC affiliate in Roanoke, Va. His work covering politics, moderating statewide debates and reporting live from the 9-11 attacks and the shooting massacre at Virginia Tech earned him Walter Cronkite Award for Individual Achievement, a national Peabody Award and AP Reporter of the Year. Warren returned home in 2013, where he now serves as the Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs for the City of Arlington and is an adjunct professor at TCU, his alma mater. Warren’s City of Arlington team has won more than 100 state and national awards for their work in branding, video production, social media, website design and marketing. Warren is the past president of the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers and of the Arlington Museum of Art. He still serves on both boards as well as a member of the Texas Municipal Retirement System Advisory Board and the 3CMA Board. He is a past board member and current faculty member for CPC.