MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — College of Media and Entertainment associate professor and interim chair Bob Gordon recently received Middle Tennessee State University’s second Conference USA Faculty Achievement Award.

Since 2014, MTSU has been a member of CUSA, one of the nation’s best athletic conferences for student-athlete academic performance. In 2024, the conference established the Faculty Achievement and Professor of the Year Awards to honor the exceptional achievements of faculty members at conference universities.

University officials said Gordon, a long-time video and film production professor and interim chair in the Department of Media Arts, was selected from many competitive applications by a committee of faculty colleagues.

“This is such a well-deserved recognition for Bob. His dedication and passion to teaching students is in a class all by itself,” said Provost Mark Byrnes. “This award is proof of the great impact he’s made in academia and in the lives of the students he expertly trains for successful professional careers.”

MTSU College of Media and Entertainment Dean Beverly Keel said she is thrilled Gordon is being honored for his excellence in teaching.

“I am so pleased CUSA has recognized Professor Bob Gordon for his dedication to our students,” Keel said. “He has prepared a generation of students for careers in TV production by working countless hours to provide them real-world, hands-on experience.”

She continued, “His students have gone on to work with artists from Beyoncé to Carrie Underwood, as well as numerous television shows.”

Gordon has taught at MTSU since 2007 and has made it his mission to make sure his students get hands-on experiences and skills that give them a competitive advantage in the job market by managing, producing and directing events for ESPN+, awards shows and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival before they launch their professional careers.

“I am both thankful and grateful for this recognition. I know many talented and experienced colleagues were considered as well, and I am appreciative of this honor. I will do all in my power to serve it well,” Gordon said.

Following in his father’s footsteps, Gordon began a 48-year career in television, producing and directing news, talk and sporting events at stations in Oklahoma and Michigan before coming to Nashville, where he worked as an executive producer for WKRN-TV News 2 and then operations manager at WTVF-TV NewsChannel 5.

Gordon also serves as the executive producer for Media Arts Productions, MTSU’s television production company and faculty advisor for Blue Raider Student Television, MTSU’s countywide cable channel. He has also received the Outstanding Experiential Learning Faculty Award three times and received the President’s Silver Column award last fall.

At the beginning of each semester, he introduces himself by saying, “I’m not here to teach you the way it was or how it should be. I am here to teach you how it is and prepare you to go and make things better.”

Gordon earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Cincinnati.

His award follows last year’s inaugural MTSU faculty award recipient, Department of Art and Design professor Sisavanh Houghton from the College of Liberal Arts.

To learn more about MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment, visit https://media.mtsu.edu/. To learn more about MTSU’s Department of Media Arts, visit https://mediaarts.mtsu.edu/.

— DeAnn Hays (deann.hays@mtsu.edu)