Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Bright
Hi Laura, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I currently work as an Associate Professor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at UT Austin in the Moody College of Communication and also serve as the Co-Director of the Nelson Center for Brand and Demand Analytics. I have been active in this role at UT since Fall 2019 – prior to this I worked as a professor and department chair at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.
I am a triple Longhorn having received all three of my degrees – B.S., M.A., and Ph.D. – from UT Austin between the years of 1995 – 2008. In 2019, I was recruited to come back to my alma mater to work in my home department as a researcher, educator, and mentor. I specialize in social media effects research and deliver media management and research methods content in the classroom. I also have the privilege of co-teaching the Script to Screen: Commercials class with Matthew McConaughey and Scott Rice every Spring semester. This class is a collaboration between the advertising and film departments and features commercial work from Salesforce, Lincoln, and Greenlights Foundation.
I have lived in Austin on and off for the last 30 years with stints in the technology business including working for an education-based start-up and running a web consulting business with one of my brothers. I first came here in high school as part of a volleyball team and we played part of the tournament at Gregory Gym on campus. I fell in love with it and wanted to come back for college. I started off as a computer science major and quickly changed to advertising by my sophomore year since so many exciting things were happening in the College of Communication as the Internet became commercialized. I was able to do freelance work while I was in college and that spurred me on to continue working in the technology space as an advertising person. My ability to translate between the marketing / sales teams and the technology team gave me a unique spot in most places that I worked.
I switched back to an academic track in my late twenties after the dot com crash and was enamored with research and a tenure track career path. I finished my PhD in 2008 and then worked as a post-doc at a Disney research lab for a year. After I resigned from that job, I got my offer at TCU and moved to Fort Worth in 2010 and spent 9 years there working towards tenure, earning tenure, and then being promoted to department chair. During my first year as chair, I was recruited to come back to UT and left Fort Worth the following year to start my job here.
I am married to Brian Smith and we have been together for a total of 28 years – 20 married. We live in South Austin with an aging coonhound mix named Oscar – he is known as the mayor of Whispering Oaks :). He is also an educator and works at Clayton Elementary School in Austin ISD as an elementary music teacher. He is officially trained as a drummer but also plays piano, guitar, and ukulele and can carry a lovely tune. He cooks, I clean, Oscar gets snacks – it works out ;).
I was born in Bethesda, Maryland in September 1977 into an Air Force family. My father passed away when I was 4 months old which made my brothers and I into “veteran orphans”. We grew up with our Mom in a variety of places including Montana, Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Idaho. I spent the majority of my childhood in El Paso, Texas and loved growing up on the border. Both of my brothers live in Central Texas and my mother lives in Florida. I have three nephews and one niece – no children.
That’s all I can think of for now … let me know where I can elaborate for you :).
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been smooth sections but also quite a few struggles and bumps along the way as well as the trials and tribulations of life in general. Thinking of career struggles, I would say the biggest one has been keeping up the motivation and stamina to do my job well and meet the expectations of the university – we are one of the top advertising and PR schools in the world so there is always a lot of pressure to stay competitive and relevant. I have also struggled with big career decisions and whether or not they would work out for the best – mostly worries and anxiety about impacts to my family.
In my twenties, I had a stretch of time where I lost a significant number of friends and relatives and those were all harsh struggles that led me to think about work and life through a different lens.
In my current job, the most challenging area is juggling research, teaching, mentoring, and my administrative roles in such a way that I can still have a couple of nights off on the weekends. The context switching in this job can get pretty wild.
Lastly, the pandemic was a BIG struggle for educators and universities have not been the same since – we are slowly coming back to pre-COVID activity on campus but it has taken a long time and classrooms are different spaces now.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My research focuses on understanding consumer behavior within social media feeds – specifically related to privacy, digital wellbeing, and data analytics. My main goal is to publish peer-reviewed research in academic journals – my work has appeared in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues in Research and Advertising, the Journal of Interactive Advertising, Computers in Human Behavior, the Journal of Marketing Communication, the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, and Internet Research, among others. You can get a full list of my publications at https://brightwoman.com/cv/. You can also see my research impact on Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&pli=1&user=IQuaf3gAAAAJ.
In the classroom, I teach content in the areas of media management, digital media effects, and advertising research methods. I have been the Associate Editor for the Journal of Interactive Advertising and currently serve on the editorial review boards for the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Current Issues in Research and Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, and the Journal of Social Media in Society.
I am most proud of being a tenured professor at my alma mater in my home department – not many people get to go back “home” and do that in academia.
I would say that what sets me apart at my job is that I tend to look at the dark sides of social media and how it can negatively impact society versus only focusing on the positive aspects of social media advertising and marketing. I’m able to objectively look at both sides of the coin.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Yes! Of course! Here they are:
Evernote
OmniFocus
iCal
SPSS (statistics program for research)
Babbel
And, not much of a podcast gal but do love a good murder mystery audiobook during my commute and while doing chores.
I read the New York Times and Washington Post.
Currently addicted to my Mahjong app for stress relief.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brightwoman.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lbrightphd/
Image Credits
Claire Hargis (headshot photo)
Moody College photographer
