Seventeen students in the College of Communication and Information were named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll during the 2020-21 academic year.

Among the academic honorees was track and field standout sprinter Maia McCoy, who completed her master’s degree in Communication and Information. This year, she was an All-American and a Southeastern Conference bronze medalist in the  100-meter dash. She also competed at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Trials.

SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll

Football 

Trevon Flowers  – Communication Studies

Cade Mays – Communication Studies

Alontae Taylor – Communication Studies

Cedric Tillman – Communication Studies

Soccer 

After spending most of career in the marketing and communication fields, Jules Morris is pivoting to education and research while pursuing her PhD in Communication and Information with an emphasis in Journalism and Electronic Media.

Morris had spend the last six years as the Director of Marketing and Communications for the UT College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. She is now a lecturer in the Haslam College of Business Department of Marketing.

What made you choose to get your PhD in Journalism and Electronic Media? 

Dennis McCarty is beginning his fourth year as a student in CCI’s doctoral program and is a graduate teaching assistant in the School of Communication Studies’ Public Speaking Center.

McCarty earned his bachelor’s degree in print journalism and his master’s degree in education from Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.

What made you choose to get your PhD communication studies? What are your previous degrees in?

Mark Willoughby is no stranger to Rocky Top. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Haslam College of Business and has been working full time for the college since 2007.

He is currently the Director of Student Engagement for the Haslam College of Business. After contemplating a PhD for several years, he enrolled in CCI’s program because the communication studies emphasis is a strong combination of his previous experiences in marketing and HR.

What made you choose to get your PhD in Communication Studies?

Lily Crosby was drawn to strategic communications after working for the Appalachia Service Project (ASP), a housing non-profit that works with people in Central Appalachia. She returned to school to improve those skills, graduating in May 2021 with her master’s degree in Communication and Information with the concentration in public relations.

Crosby wants to use her enhanced public relations and strategic communication skills to serve the community through nonprofit organizations.

What has it been like juggling an internship while attending graduate school? Do you have any time management tips?

After four years of full-time copywriting work, Philip Servello was drawn back to college to pursue a degree that would help him pivot to a sports production career.

He recently completed his master’s degree with a concentration on journalism and electronic media. He took full advantage of the student media programs that CCI offers, serving as sports and news director for WUTK 90.3 the Rock and a news producers and sports director for UT Today. He was also a freelance sportswriter for the Oak Ridger covering high school sports.

Jessica Barfield is pursuing her PhD in the College of Communication and Information with a concentration in information sciences and recently completed her first year of studies.

She is an active member of the CCI Graduate Student Association and served as vice president during the spring semester. She is a graduate research assistant working with Professor Dania Bilal and also works in the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center.

What made you pursue your PhD in Information Sciences? What are your previous degrees in?

Sarah Ali (JEM ’20) participated in the Going on Assignment in Prague program during the summer of 2019 with Professor Mark Harmon. A senior at the time, she has since graduated from UT, but we caught up with her to talk about her first time out of the country.  

Raven Bailey (CS ’19) participated in the Communicating Across Cultures in Dublin program led by Associate Professor Laura Miller and Director John Haas during the summer of 2019. She is currently a master’s student in CCI.