Cindy Royal

Lead, Innovate and Disrupt: Connecting Curriculum Strategies to Success in the Digital Workplace

Careers in communication and the arts are undergoing profound change, driven by the scale and disruption created by Web and mobile technologies. Graduates won’t just work, but will be expected to lead strategy, think creatively and drive innovation. Curriculum must change along with the digital workplace to foster an entrepreneurial mindset.

This panel, led by professor Cindy Royal, will include students and recent graduates, discussing what they learned… and wish they learned… when they were in school.

Cindy Royal is an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University teaching digital media skills and concepts. She completed Ph. D. studies in Journalism and Mass Communication at The University of Texas at Austin in May 2005. At UT, she focused on the effects of the Internet on communication and culture. Prior to doctoral studies, Royal had a technology career at Compaq Computer (now part of Hewlett Packard) and NCR Corporation. She has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Richmond and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Royal hosts a music blog and a technology blog. In 2013, she received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at Texas State University and the AEJMC/Scripps Howard Journalism and Mass Communication Teacher of the Year award. During the 2013-2014 academic year, she was in residence at Stanford University in the Knight Journalism Fellowship program, working on CodeActually.com, a platform to teach journalists how to code.