Dr. Coombs received his Ph.D. in Public Affairs and Issues Management from Purdue University. Coombs is a full professor in the Department of Communication at Texas A&M University and holds the Abell Endowed Professorship in Liberal Arts. He is the recipient of the 2002 Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations Society of America, the 2013 Pathfinder Award from the Institute of Public Relations in recognition of his research contributions to the field and to the practice, and the 2014 Business Impact Award from the Association for Business Communication and USC Marshall School of Business, Center for Management Communication. Dr. Coombs has won multiple PRIDE awards from the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association for both books and research articles. He is also a member of the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society.

 

Dr. Coombs was a Fulbright Scholar in Estonia in the Spring of 2013. In the Fall of 2013, he was named NEMO Professor at Lund University, Helsingborg Campus. In 2015 he was invited to lecture at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. In 2015 he was designated an honorary professor in the Department of Business Communication at Aarhus University. He is the past editor for Corporation Communication: An International Journal.

Dr. W. Timothy Coombs’ primary research focuses on crisis communication. In 1995, he published the first article that would lead to the articulation of the Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT). SCCT is recognized as one of the most influential theories in crisis communication. His work has been at the forefront of establishing crisis communication as an identifiable research field within corporate communication. The recognition of his expertise is reflected in the variety of speaking engagements in the U.S., Europe, and Asia.