Scott Hamula

Associate Professor/Chair, Department of Strategic Communication, Ithaca College

Scott Hamula began teaching in higher education in 1989. In addition to being a full-time radio advertising professional, he was an adjunct professor at three community colleges in Michigan and Upstate New York. He made the flip from fulltime media professional to full-time teaching in 1994 when he was hired into an assistant professor position at Keuka College (1000 students) in Penn Yan, NY. Scott was the marketing faculty member in the Business Department where he taught a very wide variety of courses. In the spring of 1999 Scott was hired as an assistant professor at Ithaca College (6500 students) in Ithaca, NY, where he co-created their Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) major which launched in 2003. Scott is now a tenured associate professor, the IMC (major/minor) Program Director, and the Department of Strategic Communication Chair. The courses that he primarily teaches are Introduction to Strategic Communication (freshmen), Advertising (sophomore), and Ad Lab (senior capstone). 

Scott's primary research interests are in nontraditional media revenue [NTR], experiential marketing and brand activation in radio and television, as well as branding strategies in higher education. He has presented his research and served on panels at the national conferences of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the Broadcast Education Association (BEA), soleauthored and co-authored papers published in academic journals, a book chapter on ethical dilemmas facing entry level advertising graduates, and a special feature on cause marketing in a widely adopted advertising textbook. In addition, professional and trade media have sought out his research and expertise for interviews and contributions for publication. These works were generated at media outlets including Advertising Week, Momentology, WalletHub, U.S. News & World Report, Intuit, American Express, and the New York Business Journal.

Scott's experience spans advertising sales, copywriting, and station management at radio properties in Michigan and New York. While his media work began during his college and graduate school years when Scott interned at WBEN-AM/FM in Buffalo and WGN-AM in Chicago, his postgrad professional career started when he took a position as an advertising account executive with the Midwest Family Radio group. While with their stations in Southwest Michigan, Scott rose to the position of their First local advertising sales manager. Desiring to move back east, he took a position as the general advertising sales manager, later advancing to general manager, for WGVA-AM and WECQ-FM in Geneva, NY. After the stations were purchased by the Finger Lakes Radio Group Scott continued to work for them at their Canandaigua, NY, properties, WCGR-AM and WLKA-FM. While teaching at Keuka and Ithaca College, Scott continued to work and consult parttime with the radio group as a senior advertising account manager.

Service to the profession of advertising is an area Scott finds particularly rewarding. As a member and former officer in the Advertising Division of AEJMC, he has served as a research paper reviewer, research chair, panel coordinator, moderator, and discussant. As the division’s event coordinator he arranged and hosted off-sites visits at conferences for faculty members to learn from professionals at advertising agencies while attending the AEJMC national conferences. Scott was recognized with the Advertising Division’s Outstanding Service Award in 2016. Since joining Ithaca College in the fall of 1999, he has been the faculty advisor for our AAF student chapter, Park AdVenue, as well as the advisor for Ithaca's NSAC team. Over these years Ithaca College students have been well represented in AAF programs: Most Promising Multicultural Student, Vance and Betty Lee Stickell Student Internship, and Alpha Delta Sigma National Honor Society. For almost the past six years, he has had the pleasure of serving on AAF’s National Education Executive Committee (NEEC). He is now the chair-elect and the District Two faculty representative, and has served as a member of the National Student Advertising Competition (NSAC) Subcommittee, assisting with score keeping at nationals, and a member of the Outreach & Promotion Task Force. Since January 2016, Scott has had the honor of being a faculty member of the National Advertising Review Board (NARB), a unit of the National Advertising Division (NAD), Advertising Self-Regulatory Council (ASRC), Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). Thus far, he has chaired five panels for the NARB. Scott has also been called as advertising expert witness in several New York State Attorney General court cases. Recently he was appointed to Adweek magazine’s Academic Council which writes opinion pieces for Adweek’s Voice channel and weighs in with thought leadership on stories their writers and editors are pursuing. Lastly, Scott has served as a judge for regional, national, and international advertising competitions: ADDY awards in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Albany/Capital District of New York, Genesis awards for the Communications Association of the Southern Tier of New York, Chief Marketer Marketing ARC Awards, and The One Club for Creativity Young Ones Students Awards.