Dr. Tom Kelleher Joins UF Graduate School as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

New UF Graduate School Associate Dean Tom Kelleher, Ph.D.

Dr. Tom Kelleher has joined the University of Florida Graduate School as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, replacing Senior Associate Dean Dr. Paul Duncan, who is retiring July 1, 2022 after 43 years of illustrious teaching, research, mentoring, and administration at UF.

Kelleher brings a wealth of energy and experience to his new role within the Graduate School.

His education includes a Bachelor of Arts from Flagler College (1993), a Master of Arts in Mass Communications from UF (1996), and a Doctor of Philosophy in Mass Communication from UF (1999).

Kelleher served as a faculty member at the University of Hawaii for 12 years, chairing its School of Communications from 2010 to 2013, and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2004 to 2006. He joined UF’s faculty in 2014, chaired its Department of Advertising for five years, and served as graduate associate dean within its College of Journalism and Communications since 2019.

His mentoring experience serving as supervisory committee chair, co-chair, member, or external for 18 doctoral students (11 of whom have graduated to date) and 52 master’s degree students (with 44 already graduated).

His research record includes publication in numerous journals including Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Computers in Human Behavior, and Journal of Mass Media Ethics. In 2018, Oxford University Press published his second book, Public Relations, an introductory textbook that covers fundamentals with organic integration of practical ethics and digital, social, and mobile technologies (second edition published in 2021).

While administering graduate education within the UF College of Journalism and Communications, he was instrumental in exploring and developing ways and means of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion to increase enrollment and graduation rate among underrepresented student populations.

Kelleher’s move to the Graduate School will enable him to ply his passion for graduate education on a campus-wide scale, enhancing the impact and reach of UF’s teaching, learning, and research at the doctoral, specialist, and master’s degree level.