• Seniors honor Baylor alum as Collins Outstanding Professor

    Dr. Blair BrowningEach year, Baylor seniors vote to decide the winner of the Collins Outstanding Professor award. It wasn’t all that long ago that this year’s winner was voting on the award himself.

    Dr. Blair Browning, BA ’95, MA ’99, had several previous Collins award winners when he was a student at Baylor. As an assistant professor of communication studies today, Browning says he’s put to use some of the teaching skills he learned watching his professors as a student at Baylor.

    “I fell in love with the job because it’s connecting with students, as well as giving info in a practical way,” Browning told the Lariat. “I’m modeling what I had professors do well for me. I don’t want to just teach a class; I want to teach a class I would want to engage in. … [And] I don’t want to just teach. I want to teach here.”

    After earning his master’s from Baylor in 1999, Browning was hired as a lecturer in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Communication Studies; he was promoted to assistant professor in 2008. He might look familiar to you even if you’ve never taken a communications class; since fall 2008, he has been emcee/host for All University Sing and Pigskin Revue.

    Sic ’em, Dr. Browning!

    [4/12 update: Browning will give his Collins lecture on Tuesday, April 24 at 4 p.m. in Castellaw 101; the title of his lecture is “Authentic Leadership: How critical life events act as catalysts for change.”]