Professor: Dr. Cindy Royal
email: croyal@txstate.edu
office: OM 106D in the Maker Space area
office hours:  MW 3-5pm or by appt.
office phone: 512-245-3481

Cindy Royal is a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, leading the Digital Media Innovation sequence. She is the founding director of the Media Innovation Lab (MILab). Cindy completed Ph.D. studies in Journalism and Mass Communication from The University of Texas at Austin in May 2005. At UT, she focused on the effects of the Internet on communication and culture. Her dissertation was on how gendered spaces frame women’s relationship with the Internet. Prior to doctoral studies, she had a long career in the technology industry at Compaq Computer in Houston and NCR Corporation in Dayton, OH. She has a Master of Business Administration from the University of Richmond and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Additional detail regarding her education and experience can be found on her online resume.

She hosts her own concert review website, On That Note, and enjoys working on other Web design projects.  For fun, she likes to go out to hear live music, and she enjoys kayaking and hiking around Lady Bird Lake in Austin. She is an active member in the Austin tech community. She was founder and a co-organizer of the Austin chapter of Hacks/Hackers from 2010-2018.

In 2013, Cindy received Texas State’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. She was also named the Scripps Howard/AEJMC Journalism and Mass Communication Teacher of the Year. You can see the intro they produced on her background here. In 2018 and 2019, she received the Everette Swinney Faculty Senate Excellence in Teaching Award, and in 2018, she was named one of the Top 20 Innovative Journalism Educators by MediaShift. During the 2013-2014 academic year, she was in residence at Stanford University as a Knight Journalism Fellow.

Get in touch with her on Twitter at @cindyroyal.