Rogers State University has named two faculty members to endowed chairs at the university.
Dr. Holly Kruse from the Department of Communications was named the Greg Kunz Endowed Chair in Communications and Dr. Tetyana Kyrylova from the Department of Applied Technology was named the O.D. Mayor Endowed Chair.
Endowed chairs are faculty positions that are permanently funded by interest from external endowments, which allows the university to attract and retain top faculty.
A Professor of Communications, Dr. Kruse joined the RSU faculty in 2010. She has published research in diverse areas of interest, including cultural studies of popular music and social histories of communication technologies. She is the author of two books, “Site and Sound: Understanding Independent Music Scenes” and “Off-track and Online: The Networked Spaces of Horse Racing.” She is under contract with Polity Press to write a book on gender and technology. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa and her graduate degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Dr. Kyrylova is an Assistant Professor of Applied Technology and has taught at RSU for more than a decade. She was honored with the 2012-13 Faculty Excellence Award for her teaching. She will be based on the RSU Pryor campus and will focus on enhancing educational partnerships with area business/industry and Mayes County schools. In her new role, she will help advance the cybersecurity and technology programs offered at the Pryor campus, as well as work to strengthen ties between the university and the community. She holds a doctoral equivalent degree from Odessa University of Science and Technology in the Ukraine.
The Greg Kunz Endowed Chair in Communications was established by Cascade Communications, the parent company of KWBT Channel 12, the former Warner Brothers television affiliate in Tulsa. In 2006, Warner Brothers closed the WB network and replaced it with the CW network.
The Oliver Dewey Mayor Foundation established the chair in 2002 to help bring highly qualified faculty to the Pryor campus. The foundation honors the legacy of O.D. “Jock” Mayor, a rancher, businessman, entrepreneur and lifelong Mayes County resident. The foundation works exclusively with public, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes granting awards to institutions, organizations and agencies located within Mayes County, Oklahoma, and Grayson County, Texas.