Strategic Communication & Professional Positioning
Great communication begins with understanding.
These three projects demonstrate how research, strategic planning, and continuous learning inform stronger communication decisions — and how those insights translate into practice. Together, they trace the full life of an idea: a strategic plan that applies the IMC planning process to my own professional brand, an original mixed-methods study of gamification in higher-education marketing, and the live curriculum that research became in my own classroom. What I learn, I teach; what I teach, I test.
Personal IMC Strategic Plan and SWOT Analysis (COM 531)
What happens when a strategist turns the planning process on her own brand? This plan applies the complete IMC planning cycle — situation analysis, SWOT, audience segmentation, positioning, and measurable objectives — to a real repositioning challenge, and serves as the strategic blueprint for this very site.
Original Research: Gamification in Higher-Education Marketing (COM 500 & COM 502)
An original research project carried from proposal through completion: a mixed-methods study built on an original Qualtrics survey of 45 participants, grounded in Self-Determination Theory, Flow Theory, and the UTAUT framework, and reported with full analysis and a recorded presentation. The research question grew straight out of my own classroom — and its findings walked right back into it (see the case study below). All results are reported in aggregate.
What it teaches: motivation, not technology, drives engagement — and the best research questions come from real classrooms.
Gamification in Practice: Campus Rebrand Scavenger Hunt Case Study (Professional/Teaching)
One of the greatest joys of teaching is watching research come to life. This case study documents how my graduate research moved beyond the page to shape an immersive, semester-long learning experience in my COM 240 Strategic Communication course at William Peace University — one that helped students discover their university’s brand by experiencing it firsthand. Across four phases, student “agencies” audited the 2025 rebrand through a Campus Brand Quest scavenger hunt, analyzed their field data through the RACE/ROPE and PESO models, presented directly to university marketing leadership, and then turned the same rebranding mechanics inward to build their own professional portfolios and LinkedIn presence. Described without identifying individual students.
What it teaches: research comes to life when learners experience it firsthand — in communication, the doing is the understanding.