Dr. Thomas Carmody is the longest-serving faculty member in the Department of Communication. He was hired as an adjunct professor in the fall of 1986 to coach the forensics team (speech and debate) and became a full time faculty member in the Fall of 1989. He was granted tenure in 1994. He continued teaching and coaching forensics until 1994 when he gave up the forensics team to assume additional teaching and administrative responsibilities within the Department. He has an earned doctorate in communication from Regent University in Virginia. He has been actively involved in National Communication Association since 1984 presenting numerous convention papers and has also served on the Executive Council of the national Religious Communication Association (RCA). Dr. Carmody’s research interests range from 19th century sermonic rhetoric to comic books and graphic novels and his work has been published by InterVarsity Press, Brill and Praeger.