Cindy Royal

Professor, Texas State University

Twitter:@CindyRoyal
Cindy Royal is a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University where she leads the Digital Media Innovation undergraduate degree program and is the director of the Media Innovation Lab. She is also the director of the PhDigital Bootcamp (PhDigitalBootcamp.com), which she conceived in 2017, a program preparing future faculty to lead innovative curriculum. She teaches Web design, coding  and digital media innovation courses. She completed Ph.D. studies at The University of Texas in 2005. Her research interests include understanding the role of programming and data in journalism and the integration of technology in education. Her students have gone on to digital media careers at The New York Times, Austin American-Statesman, Gannett, Blackbaud, Khoros, Vrbo, SXSW, Texas Tribune and more. In 2013, Cindy was accepted to the Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University to work on CodeActually.com, a platform to teach journalists how to code. In 2013, she was named Teacher of the Year by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication/Scripps Howard and received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at Texas State. In both 2018 & 2019, Cindy received the Everette Swinney Faculty Senate Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2019 was the University’s Minnie Stevens Piper Professor nominee. More information on her background and activities can be found at cindyroyal com.