Biography

Robert S. Littlefield (Ph.D., 1984, University of Minnesota) has been a faculty member and administrator at the University of Central Florida since 2016, most recently serving as Founding Director of the Nicholson School of Communication and Media (NSCM) in the College of Sciences (2016-2024). Under his leadership, NSCM launched a doctoral program in Strategic Communication, expanded its academic programs to the newly established UCF Downtown Campus, expanded its Advisory Board and fundraising activities, and established an awards program to recognize outstanding faculty, staff, and students. Prior to joining UCF, Littlefield was a professor at North Dakota State University for more than 35 years.

For decades, Littlefield’s research has focused on crisis and risk communication, crisis leadership and decision-making, and the culture-centered development of risk and crisis messaging. A forensics educator with expertise and a line of research extending back to the 1980s, Littlefield has advanced the history, practice, development, and influence of intercollegiate and high school speech and debate activities.

His work in these areas has appeared in over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and conference proceedings. Littlefield is the author or co-author of eight books and textbooks. He recently published an award-winning book—Resilience and Renewal: The Story of Lions International and the Crisis of COVID-19—detailing how the leaders and members of a global nonprofit organization mobilized and adapted operational practices throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. He has advised over 50 master’s theses and 20 doctoral dissertations across a broad range of topics from strategic risk and crisis communication to forensic pedagogy. As a member of the graduate faculty at UCF, Littlefield currently teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in intercultural communication and risk and crisis communication, among others.