Damion Waymer, a native of Orangeburg, SC, is the Director of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of South Carolina. Prior to this appointment, he held varied administrative roles including the Senior Associate Dean of the College of Communication & Information Sciences as well as the as Department Chair of Advertising & Public Relations at The University of Alabama.
Waymer is a scholar and administrator who is committed to access, advancement, and faculty development. Waymer led aggressive faculty recruitment and retention initiatives in his role as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, Development & Diversity at the University of Cincinnati. He spearheaded new faculty development opportunities, and he created annual university-level awards such as the Provost Exemplary Department Award where top departments were recognized for their excellence in a pre-determined area. Additionally, while at the University of Cincinnati, he managed signature faculty recruitment and retention initiatives such as the Dual Career Assistance program—a program designed to help the partners of recruited faculty members find employment within and outside of the University; the Strategic Hiring Opportunity Program—a program designed to purposefully increase the gender and racial and ethnic diversity of the University’s faculty; and the Cluster Hiring Initiative—a cross-disciplinary faculty recruitment initiative designed to harness the power of faculty members in targeted areas in an attempt to help solve the world’s biggest challenges through leading-edge research and interdisciplinary collaborations. In sum, Waymer successfully led these initiatives, with an annual budget of approximately $7 million.
Waymer is a seasoned communication researcher and practitioner who has conducted, for nearly two decades, high quality, internationally respected research in the contexts of public relations, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility (CSR), branding, and strategic communication. He earned his BA degree in Corporate Communication from the College of Charleston and MA and Ph.D. degrees from the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University. Waymer has held faculty appointments at leading research institutions such as Virginia Tech, University of Cincinnati, and Texas A&M University. He and his family currently reside in Columbia, SC.