For Glenn Cummins, the recent honor merely punctuates a long road of growth and success
in the College of Media & Communication.
CREATORS
Glenn Cummins has a 10-minute commute to Texas Tech University. It’s a straight drive down Indiana Avenue to his office, allowing him time to listen
to highlights of the marketplace morning report on NPR. If it’s a short report, he’ll
switch over to local radio – a remnant of his early career.
Cummins earned his bachelor’s degree in radio, television and film from the University
of Southern Mississippi in 1997.
“I didn’t even know you could study media like radio or TV,” he recalls. “I was planning
to become an accountant.”
His pocket transistor radio and the debut of “Star Wars: Episode IV” had captivated
his attention as a child, but he assumed they’d become bygone hobbies. He never thought
of his own media consumption as something that could be studied.
Twenty years later, Cummins’ tenure at Texas Tech University was recently accentuated
with a competitive selection to the Scripps Howard Leadership Academy. The professor
and associate dean in the College of Media & Communication has built a successful career by teaching and researching journalism and creative media industries.
“Everything I’ve gotten to experience in my career because of Texas Tech would have
been a mere pipedream to me as a kid,” Cummins says.
The Bigger Picture
Cummins has evolved and grown along with Texas Tech. As he’s celebrated the university’s
growth, it’s been impossible to separate his own. But his career didn’t start here.
After two degrees, Cummins took a job as a producer at a broadcast news ABC affiliate.
This had been the goal since starting college. A barrage of writers, editors, anchors
and producers filled the station’s newsroom.
“Everyone was zeroed in on making the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. news,” Cummins remembers.
“And I was too for a while.”
Two years in, Cummins was invited to a workshop in Houston.
“That was a transformation moment,” he says. “We were discussing audience research
and when I went back to work, I couldn’t stop asking these big-picture questions that
no one else wanted to talk about – not unless it somehow fit into the 10 o’clock news.”
Cummins had always been fascinated by the psychological process that informs what
media someone chooses to listen to or watch. And in 2002, the dot-com boom and advent
of social media was changing everything he thought he knew. Media was ceasing to be
a one-way street. He decided to leave his broadcast news job and take a chance on
a job in academia. He didn’t want to merely produce and consume media; he wanted to
understand it.
After finishing his doctoral degree and cutting his teeth as an assistant professor
for two years at another institution, Cummins began looking for a university with
more ambitious research goals.
“I immediately recognized a kindred spirit between Texas Tech and myself,” he says.
Cummins had never been to Lubbock, but one of his friends had taken a faculty job
at Texas Tech.
“Glenn is quick-witted and always looking to laugh, but he doesn’t shy away from serious
conversations,” says Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Coy Callison. “He is a standout educator because he is equally fantastic as both a teacher and
a researcher.”
Knowing he was looking for more research opportunities, Callison encouraged Cummins,
who he had met when they both were graduate students at the University of Alabama,
to apply for an open position at Texas Tech. He had no doubt his friend would be the
perfect fit.
“He’s always struck me as the smartest person in the room. That’s been a bit aggravating
both then and now,” Callison says, laughing. “Even back in graduate school, he would
say something in response to a question, and I would think, ‘I wish I had thought
of that.’”
Possibilities & Potential
“I like that Texas Tech remains ambitious,” Cummins says.
In his time here, he has grown from an assistant professor into a tenured full professor,
and in 2010, he took on his first administrative role as an assistant department chair.
From there, he’s served in various capacities, most recently being appointed the associate
dean for faculty and academic affairs within the college.
“I’ve been rounded out as a scholar, I don’t feel like a one-trick pony,” he says.
From teaching Introduction to Creative Media Industries – his favorite class – to
advising graduate research projects and publishing hundreds of articles, papers and
chapters, Cummins has never been bored.
He got busier when the college’s former dean recognized Cummins’ capacity for leadership
and management.
This flattered Cummins but also alerted him to a potential gap in his professional
development.
He began looking back at his training as an academic and noted there was a lack of
formal training when it came to leading people.
“When you earn a doctorate degree, you’re trained very specifically in a niche area
of study,” he explains. “Those individuals are experts in their field, but that doesn’t
automatically mean they’re experts in leadership.”
He’s had access to opportunities at Texas Tech that aim to fill this need for faculty,
such as the President’s Leadership Institute or the resources offered through the Office of Research & Innovation.
His shift into leadership positions has forced Cummins to recalibrate.
“When I began my career, it was all about the classes I led, the papers I published,
the students I taught,” he says. “But now, my success is measured by the success of
others.”
Last year, Dean Bey-Ling Sha suggested Cummins apply for the Scripps Howard Leadership
Academy. The highly competitive program offers immersive training for leaders in journalism
and mass communications higher education.
“I felt Dr. Cummins merited selection not only for his prior leadership experience
at Texas Tech, but also for his leadership potential in continuing to serve faculty,
staff and students,” she says.
Dean Sha worked closely with Cummins as he served as interim chair of journalism and
creative media industries, and now, in his new position as associate dean.
“He is a wise and generous source of institutional knowledge,” Sha adds. “He is always
seeking to develop as a leader, and he possesses genuine humility, which is what makes
learning possible for any individual, when you’re OK with acknowledging that you still
have stuff to learn.”
These were all sentiments Sha made known in the recommendation letter she sent to
the Scripps Howard selection committee, which notified Cummins in April that he’d
been accepted.
In June, Cummins and 13 others gathered at Syracuse University for a week. Each day
easily went for 12 hours, sometimes longer, with participants trying to squeeze all
they could out of the limited days together.
Cummins says the first day started with a panel of guest deans from across the country,
including Sha, who shared their own leadership journeys and personal reflections about
leadership.
“We also covered incredibly practical items like departmental budgeting and how best
to engage with external stakeholders,” he recalls.
The days were carefully curated to explore topics that academic leaders need to have
in their toolkit.
“It gave me the skeleton of a puzzle that I can now add the pieces to,” he says. “I
learned a lot of the real day-to-day lived experiences of what it’s like to be a senior
academic leader.”
During his time at the academy, as with many experiences he’s had through Texas Tech,
Cummins tries to pause for a moment and reflect.
Glenn Cummins
“For a little kid from rural Mississippi, the Scripps Howard Leadership Academy may
as well have been Mars,” he says in disbelief.
He says the university’s slogan of “From Here, It’s Possible™” feels personal for
him.
“It’s what motivates me when I’m working with students,” he says. “I want them to
realize they can pursue whatever they want to pursue, because that’s been my story.”