Thursday, January 28, 2010

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Cliff Scott

by Daniel Bonilla

It was 2000, and Cliff Scott was in Miami checking the voicemail on his company-provided phone just before he boarded an airplane bound for Chicago. The phone wasn’t the only perk. He was flying business class and enjoying another recent pay raise. He drove to the airport in his company-provided car paying for the gas with his company-provided expense account. Life was good for him as a manager at a national tile and flooring company.

Then the plane landed in Chicago. “When I got off the plane, I had 45 new messages about work,” said Dr. Scott. ”I realized that all of these messages were about something I didn’t care about.” He soon tendered his resignation and focused on what he really found interesting, his graduate studies at Northern Illinois University. He had transferred from DePaul University to study communication and earn his master’s degree. Tile and flooring were just not as interesting, no matter the perks.

After receiving his master’s degree, Dr. Scott was accepted to the doctoral program in human communication at Arizona State University. There he worked relentlessly—studying for classes, conducting research, teaching three classes, and directing the department’s internship program. After completing his studies in 2005, he came to UNC Charlotte as a faculty member in the Communication Studies department. In the fall of 2006, Dr. Scott worked with and taught the very first cohort of Organizational Science doctoral students. “The Organizational Science program is the most rewarding part of my job” he said.

According to Dr. Scott, he was a “full blown speech dork” and attended Bradley University as an undergraduate on a speech scholarship. He started studying political science but eventually moved to communication. “Communication just seemed a lot more relevant to what I was learning about.” It wasn’t until his dissertation work at Arizona State that Dr. Scott became interested in risk communication and hazard sensemaking, his current research interests.

Facts about Cliff Scott:

  • He used to have a fully stocked snack drawer with Little Debbie’s, Zebra Cakes, and Nutty Bars. “I was deprived of individually wrapped snacks as a child.” he said.
  • His wife, Jill Dineen, is the lead singer of a local blues band.
  • He and Jill have two dogs, Ben and Molly, and a cat named Grace.
  • His great aunt and uncle were missionaries in Africa when he was growing up. He spent four and half months in Nigeria with them when he was in the 8th grade.
  • His father was a professor.
  • He does minor car repair and used to flip cars for money on Ebay.
  • He has always loved politics. “I watched the news at 6 a.m. when I was in grade school.”
  • He loves to drink dirty martinis.

Posted by Organizational Scientist at 10:00 AM
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