Phil Auter is the Graduate Program Coordinator for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette Department of Communication and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in human and mass communication. He is also the university’s current Faculty Senate President. Phil's leadership and administrative / management skills extend beyond his university experience. He is a board member of the Arab-U.S. Association of Communication Educators and an international consultant on issues relating to academic curriculum development, program accreditation, and online education.He has been director or co-director of grants totaling in excess of $1.2 million from university, state, and national agencies – including a $642,000 USAID Middle East Partnership Initiative grant. Phil has authored or co-authored over 60 scholarly journal articles and book chapters and presented conference papers and participated on panels about international communication, accreditation, and distance learning, and academic leadership at regional, national, and international conferences. Phil is the co-editor of a new book on communication in the Middle East entitled “Mass Communication in the Modern Arab World: Ongoing Agents of Change following the Arab Spring”, published by Rowman & Littlefield Press.Phil has held the Hubert Bourgeois Endowed Professorship in Communication since 2008. In addition to being one of the five faculty honored with an Eminent Faculty Award by the UL Lafayette Foundation in 2022, he also received a UL Lafayette Research Excellence Award. Phil was also the 2022 University of Louisiana System’s selection in 2022 as the outstanding faculty member across the nine-university UL System.If you’re interested in more information about his administrative, consulting, research, teaching, or service activities – or becoming a colleague and professional connection – please connect with him here on LinkedIn or via his profile page https://linqapp.com/philip_auter