At a glance
"I started as an adjunct faculty member at the beginning of COVID and have continued to find ways to engage remote learners while many students were in isolation due to infection. To be honored as an in-person judge for AMA’s world event and to receive accolades for online instruction excellence in the same year is quite humbling.”
Russ Nunley
Chief Marketing Officer and Adjunct Faculty
Encouraging student success takes many forms and in the first half of 2023, Russ Nunley of Alfred State College (ASC) received multiple accolades for making a difference in the lives of learners both online and in person. Nunley, ASC’s chief marketing officer, not only is an advocate for career-readiness, but he also invests his own time and energy to prepare graduates for new careers and fulfill the college’s motto to “Hit the ground running…”
The American Marketing Association recognized his decades of experience in marketing, communication, and crisis management by inviting him to be a judge at the 2023 AMA International Collegiate Competition. A high-energy crowd of 1,300 students from around the world competed face-to-face in New Orleans and Nunley served as a judge in both the preliminary and final round competitions.
“Witnessing some of the very best marketing students in the world thinking on their feet, while utilizing marketing techniques on a deadline and under pressure, is a tremendous in-person lab where these upcoming business leaders could really shine,” said Alfred State Chief Marketing Officer Russ Nunley. Regarding the online teaching honor, "I started as an adjunct faculty member at the beginning of COVID and have continued to find ways to engage remote learners while many students were in isolation due to infection. To be honored as an in-person judge for AMA’s world event and to receive accolades for online instruction excellence in the same year is quite humbling.”
The State University of New York (SUNY) awarded Nunley its Online Teaching Certificate with special recognition that all courses were completed with distinction. Fewer than 50 of SUNY's 29,000 faculty members earn the designation annually. Nunley entered higher education in recent years after working as vice president at Regal Cinemas and prior to that as a television news anchor. He says each career step has relied on his skills in communication, crisis management, and understanding target audiences.
Beyond his executive duties to oversee marketing and communication for the college, Nunley has also served as adjunct faculty at Alfred State while teaching communications, criminal justice, and marketing. He also serves as a trainer for the college’s police academy cadets sharing techniques for tactical communication and how to follow the Department of Homeland Security guidelines for emergency management and the FEMA Incident Command System for command, control, and communication during crises.
The SUNY Online Teaching Certificate includes many technical skills such as administration of the Open SUNY Course Quality Review (OSCQR) rubric. The certificate program for college and university educators emphasizes the need to successfully implement remote learning with inclusive pedagogy and assessment strategies, making courses accessible to diverse learners including non-traditional students, and enabling effective interaction between students and faculty.
Developing a sense of community and support is made more difficult without face-to-face interaction, making the need for engaging content and activities even more important online. Through his studies with SUNY’s Center for Professional Development, Nunley successfully drafted how one of his 15-week courses in business communication could be divided into five micro-credentialed segments to further encourage online learners to build skills. Keeping non-traditional and remote learners incentivized to continue is a growing area of study.