Transformative Learning in Our Past and Future: A Retrospective Review toward Greater Heights

Dr. Jeanetta D. Sims earned a Ph.D. in communication in 2008 from the University of Oklahoma and has been licensed by the Universal Accreditation Board as an accredited public relations professional (APR) since 2007. She is currently dean of the Jackson College of Graduate Studies and a tenured professor in the Marketing Department of the College of Business at the University of Central Oklahoma.

           Throughout her tenure in teaching at universities within the United States, she has taught undergraduate and graduate courses as well as given guest lectures focused on business and professional communication, interpersonal communication, public relations, issues management, persuasion, marketing communications, social marketing, digital media and content marketing, media writing, content analysis, marketing management, accounting and communication, and leading in a globally competitive environment. She has received university and national awards for her teaching (2014, 2012, and 2009) and for her scholarship through winning top paper awards at national and international conferences in 2013, 2012, 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2006. In addition, she has been recognized for her excellence in teaching or research from all higher education institutions where she has studied or taught including Oklahoma Christian University, Abilene Christian University, University of Oklahoma, and University of Central Oklahoma

    Dr. Sims has cultivated a robust undergraduate research program, where she has mentored more than 18 funded student grants in the last 6 years. In addition, she has made more than 60 conference and professional presentations, which have all included undergraduate students as co-authors. Her scholarship is in the areas of workforce diversity, strategic communication, and social influence and persuasion, and her research appears in multiple book chapters as well as in the Journal of Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, Human Communication Research, Atlantic Marketing Journal, Corporate Reputation Review, Communication Research, Communication Monographs, Western Journal of Communication, and Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly. Her collaborative philosophy and approach to teaching is featured in a TeTalk, which was sponsored by the Center for Excellence in Transformative Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Oklahoma and can be viewed at: http://www.uco.edu/academic-affairs/cettl/tetalks.asp.