Christina McDowell

Biography

Christina McDowell is a teaching professor of marketing and management communication at the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration, part of the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. She has taught communication and marketing courses since 2006 and has held academic administration roles, including associate dean positions focused on academic program planning, internal and external communication, strategic planning, accreditation, project management, recruitment and retention and outreach. She teaches business writing, persuasive communication and corporate communication and serves as a faculty advisor for community engaged learning projects.

McDowell’s research centers on communicative engagement and examines social, civic, economic and moral issues in corporate communication, integrated marketing communication and communication ethics. She has published peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters and is co author of Corporate Communication and Integrated Marketing Communication: Audience beyond Stakeholders in a Technological Age (2023). She is also co editor and contributing author of The Civically Engaged Woman: The Rhetoric and Activism of the Silenced Voice and Integrated Marketing Communication: Creating Spaces for Engagement (2016).

She has served as editor of the Journal of the Association for Communication Administration and the Journal of Service Learning & Community Based Research. McDowell sits on the editorial boards of the Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning & Community Based Research and the Association for Communication Administration. She is a past president of the Association for Communication Administration and a director at large on the Association of Business Communication Board.

McDowell delivers presentations and leads industry workshops on corporate communication, interpersonal communication, presentation skills, business writing and generational communication in the workplace. She holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric with concentrations in interpersonal and organizational communication and communication ethics, an M.A. in corporate communication and a B.A. in communication with an emphasis in advertising and public relations from Duquesne University.

Education

PhD Duquesne University, 2012
MA Duquesne University, 2005
BA Duquesne University, 2004

Research

• The Civically Engaged Woman: Rhetoric and Activism of the Silenced Voice, Ed. Jill Burk, Ed. Christina McDowell. Lexington Books. (2025)
• McDowell, Christina; Holba, Annette. "The Importance of Topoi in the Business and Professional Communication Classroom"Business and Professional Communication Quarterly. 89.2 (2026): 300-316
• McDowell, Christina; Deluliis, Sarah. Corporate Communication and Integrated Marketing Communication: Audience beyond Stakeholders in a Technological Age. Lexington Books. (2023): 118
• McDowell, Christina; Stewart-Harris, Tyrell. "With Great Power Comes Ethical Communication: Technology, Superheroes, and Family Conversations in Communication Ethics"Communicating with our families: Technology as Continuity, Interruption, and Transformation, Ed. Maryl McGinley, Ed. Jill Burk, Ed. Joel Ward. Lexington Books. (2022)
• Troup, Calvin; McDowell, Christina. "Niceness, Flattery, and Deceit"Western Journal of Communication. 82.1 (2017): 59-74
• McDowell, Christina; Burk, J. "IMC campaigns: Generating a space for civic engagement"Integrated marketing communication: Creating spaces for engagement, Ed. J. Persuit. Lexington Books. (2016)

Awards

• Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Cornell SC Johnson College of Business Faculty Teaching Award – Junior/Senior Core (2023 - 2024) Nolan School
• Junior/Senior Core (2021) Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration
• University of Alaska Anchorage 2016 Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence (2016) University of Alaska, Anchorage