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Anthony R. Curtis, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Mass Communications
University of North Carolina at Pembroke
Office: 247 Old Main
Phone: (910) 521-6616
Fax: (910) 522-5795
E-mail: acurtis@uncp.edu
Web: www.uncp.edu/home/acurtis FACULTY WEB PAGE
Web: www.spacetoday.org SPACE TODAY ONLINE
Education:
- Ph.D., Mass Communication, Union Institute & University
- M.A., with distinction, Political Science, Pennsylvania State University
- B.A., Journalism, Pennsylvania State University
- Faculty Senate (2006-2009, CHAIR 2008-2009)
- Faculty Senate Executive Committee (2007-2009, CHAIR 2008-2009)
- Faculty & Institutional Affairs Committee (2005-2008, CHAIR 2007-2008)
- Academic Affairs Committee (2007-2008)
- Curriculum Subcommittee (2002-2008, CHAIR 2007-2008)
- Friends of the Library Board (2004-2008, PRESIDENT 2005-2007)
- Pembroke Undergraduate Research & Creativity Council (2005-present)
- Writing Across the Curriculum Teaching Circle (2003-present, CHAIR 2003-2004)
- North Carolina Consortium on Distance Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (2004-present)
Mass Communications:
- Mass media, print media, broadcast and electronic media, computer-mediated communication, international communications, allied media professions, communications technology
- Journalism, newspaper, magazine, broadcast, books, photojournalism, publishing
- Broadcasting, radio, television, videography
- Public relations, media relations, publicity, advertising
- Internet, Second Life, World Wide Web, social networks, global information networks
- Multimedia production, CD-ROM, DVD, PowerPoint
- New Media, 3D virtual reality worlds, social networks, machinima, blogs, wikis, digital storytelling, podcasts, social bookmarking, content sharing, tag clouds, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Digg
- Political science, social sciences
- Astronomy, space science, history of science, physical sciences
- Academic research methods, quantitative and qualitative research in social sciences, scholarly research via the Internet, World Wide Web, Second Life, podcasts, blogs, CD-ROM databases
- Interpersonal communication, dyadic, small and large group, speech, interviewing, non verbal
- Writing forms, essay, creative, business, Writing Across the Curriculum
- Technology and society, technology in education, instructional technology
Having taught a total of some 7,000 students at Penn State, Ohio University, Salisbury University (Maryland), Hood College, Union Institute & University, two community colleges, and now the University of North Carolina system, Dr. Curtis has a deep commitment to student-centered education and serving the needs of students. He enjoys working with students in and out of the classroom and advising student groups.
Students at Salisbury University, an institution in the University of Maryland System, honored Dr. Curtis with the Outstanding Academic Advisor Award. He also was nominated for the Distinguished Faculty Award. At Hood College in Maryland, students in Mortar Board nominated Dr. Curtis for the college-wide Excellence In Teaching Award. He received an Outstanding Program Award from Ohio University's College of Communication. He has been nominated for outstanding faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The professor is in Who's Who Among America's Teachers by student nomination. His name also is listed in Marquis Who's Who and Marquis International Who's Who.
Dr. Curtis is a professional writer, editor, publisher, producer, director, 3-D builder, and media manager with extensive experience in broadcast, newspapers, magazines, books, newsletters, Web, public relations, advertising, social networks and online virtual environments.
JOURNALISM: He has been a general assignment and special assignment newspaper reporter, regional and wire service correspondent, managing editor, editor and publisher. He also was a special assignment reporter and columnist covering Pennsylvania state government and education. He has written hundreds of articles for magazines and newspapers, including Discover, Popular Mechanics, Popular Electronics, Smithsonian Air & Space, Omni, and even the former USSR Academy of Sciences journal. He has been technology columnist for the American Association of University Administrators newsletter and an article reviewer for the refereed journal Quest, The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. He currently is a magazine feature writer as well as online columnist for the American Radio Relay League.
Dr. Curtis has written 72 books about computers, communications, space science and astronomy, including Space Almanac, chosen Outstanding Academic Book by the American Library Association. That book and his Space Satellite Handbook and Outer Space Frequency Directory are in many libraries. Several titles have been bestsellers. His multimedia CD-ROM electronic book, Space: A Visual History of Manned Spaceflight, incorporates 100 videos with his text.
Dr. Curtis founded and edits Space Today Online at www.spacetoday.org – one of only twelve private Internet publications granted a link from NASA's hotlist page. He is known as a space policy analyst asked regularly by media to analyze events.
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Dr. Curtis was press secretary and speechwriter for the Governor of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, and public relations director for the Pennsylvania portion of a national U.S. Presidential election campaign. He was employed by the public relations office at Pennsylvania State University and volunteered public relations services for Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in Virginia, where he did voice-over narration of video history documentaries.
BROADCASTING: At commercial broadcast stations in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, he held on-air and management positions, working as operations director, program director, producer, director, news reporter, news director, videographer, sound person, narrator, program announcer and talent-personality. He was a television and radio producer for Ohio Universityıs public stations WOUB TV/FM/AM where he produced and directed television and radio documentaries while simultaneously instructing College of Communication students in TV and radio documentary and dramatic program and public affairs program production. Dr. Curtis helped Salisbury State University students start there SSU-TV station.
COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION: Dr. Curtis has a national reputation as an innovator in academic information engineering, online education, and global computer-mediated mass communication. He has been delivering courses online since 1997. He is skilled in creating multidimensional learning environments on the Web. He has constructed three 3,000-page Web sites from scratch – Salisbury State University, Union Institute, and Space Today Online. The professor has extensive experience as a resident of Second Life, a user-built on-line community simulation where he has delivered academic course materials. He is accomplished in blogging and podcasting.
VIRTUAL-REALITY COMMUNICATION: Dr. Curtis has extensive experience in building and scripting in 3-D virtual-reality worlds, principally the Second Life environment where he has constructed an 88,000 sqm public park and two generations of in-world campuses for UNCP. Dr. Curtis has been active in Second Life education as well as political journalism and social networks. His photos from the real world as well as from Second Life are displayed at an in-world gallery.
Dr. Curtis' blog, Second Edition, describes the passing scene and traces the society and culture, politics and economics of Second Life. With it, he examines the emerging society with millions of residents displaying personalities, spawning controversies, and generating innovations. Together, they have cultural identity, social norms and a loose-knit global organization. As in real life, cultural expression is of the utmost importance to the residents of Second Life. His blog reports on the intertwining of the lives of people, both public and private.
MANAGEMENT: He has extensive academic administration experience and business management experience, including Executive Assistant to the President, and Chief of Staff, Office of the President, at the Union Institute & University, where he also was Director of the Center for Strategic Planning, Dean for Academic Information Services, Webmaster, and Professor in the Center for Distance Learning. He has been a member of several academic re-accreditation and licensure committees for the colleges and universities where he has served.
He served as an editor for Popular Mechanics magazine and then founded Modern Electronics magazine, creating a staff of editors, authors and artists. He was vice president and director of editorial for Tab Books, now a division of McGraw-Hill, where he supervised 175 creative persons in-house, 600 authors, a $10-million budget, and production of 150 new titles a year. Then Dr. Curtis, with his spouse Dr. Judy Curtis, founded ARCsoft Publishers, which produced national bestselling books with global sales.
Honors:
- Apple Distinguished Educator, 2000-present
- Educational Advisor to the American Radio Relay League, 2000-present
- NASA Solar System Ambassador, 2000-present
- Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 2000-present, nominated by university students
- Marquis Who's Who, 2004-present
- Marquis International Who's Who, 2006-present
- Faculty Senator, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, 2006-2009
- Outstanding Academic Advisor Award, Salisbury State University
- Distinguished Faculty Award, nominee, Salisbury State University
- Excellence In Teaching Award, nominee, Mortar Board, Hood College
- Outstanding Newswriting, C.B. Lartz Award, Sharon Herald daily newspaper
- Outstanding Program Award for radio and television production, College of Communication, Ohio University
- Awards for public service communications work on behalf of communities in disasters
- Web sites have received awards for design and content.
- UNCP NEWSWIRE: Dr. Curtis honored by American Library Association