SRS Welcomes Three New Faculty

The Stan Richards School of Advertising at Moody College of Communication has expanded its faculty and welcomes Laura Bright, Octavio Kano, and Rohitash Rao to the program. Each of these professors bring experience and expertise from their respective fields and hope to push the boundaries within advertising and public relation education.

Laura Bright joins UT from Texas Christian University, where she formerly served as chair and associate professor in the Department of Strategic Communication, and also was the Co-Director of the Certified Public Communicator Program. Bright is an accomplished and  published author who has dedicated research towards exploring social media addiction and fatigue, big data and analytics, personalized advertising and digital privacy. She brings more than ten years of research and work experience in interactive advertising, and will teach as an associate professor of media analytics this semester.

Octavio Kano-Galvan joins UT faculty as an assistant professor of practice in visual production. Kano as acquired twenty years of experience working in the creative industry developing and implementing responsive and interactive multimedia designs and advertising campaigns. These include print media, art direction, photography, 3D motion graphics and social media. This Fall, Kano will begin teaching a 360-Video Production class that aims to expose students to the production process and equip them with the skills and tools they need to bring content to life behind the lens. 

Rohitash Rao joins UT as an assistant professor in practice in multimedia experiences. Rao is an award winning creative director, animator, director, and children’s book author. He has created and produced many successful campaigns for company giants such as Taco Bell, Little Caesars Pizza, Toyota, and Energizer. This semester Rao will teach introductory creative classes within the Texas Creative program where he will bring his insights and genius to help prepare creative directors, strategists, and copywriters for the workplace.