Regents' Professors and Teachers

Dr. Ian Davidson is Regents’ and University Distinguished Professor of Music. An oboist, Dr. Davidson has appeared as soloist and chamber musician in thirty countries on six continents. He has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and his many international concerts have taken him to Italy, England, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Scotland, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, China, Hungary, Czech Republic, Australia, and the Republic of South Africa. International recitals and residencies include the Moscow Conservatory of Music, Hong Kong Baptist University, the University of Silesia, Trinity College of Music in London, the Institute of Culture in St. Petersburg, the University of Piaui in Brazil, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in South Africa and the State Conservatory of Music in Bratislava. He has earned a Grammy nomination and his numerous recording credits include duets with Willie Nelson on the PBS show Austin City Limits, classical recordings with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, and multiple film scores. He is a founding member of the Wild Basin Winds, an Austin-based national woodwind quintet that has performed in such locations as the Kennedy Center and the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and has commissioned, recorded and premiered dozens of new works.

Dr. Steven A. Beebe is Regents’ and University Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies. He served as Chair of the Department of Communication Studies for 28 years and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Communication for 25 years. Dr. Beebe has been a Visiting Scholar at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. Dr. Beebe is author and co-author of 12 books (with multiple editions totaling more than 70 books) that have been used at hundreds of colleges and universities throughout the world, including Russian and Chinese editions. He has authored or co-authored more than 50 published articles and book chapters, plus over 150 papers and presentations at professional conferences. In 2013 Dr. Beebe served as President of the National Communication Association (NCA), the largest professional communication association in the world. He is a founding member of the Russian Communication Association and co-director of the first Russian Communication Association conference in Pyatigorsk, Russia. He is in demand as a communication consultant, trainer, and speaker listing such clients as IBM, 3M, American Express, U. S. Air Force, Prentice-Hall, Pearson, and the U.S. Department of Education. The National Speaker’s Association has named him Outstanding Communication Professor in America.

Mike Devlin is an associate professor of advertising. He holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Alabama, and an M.A. in mass communication and a B.A. in electronic media communications from Texas Tech University. Prior to earning his Ph.D., Mike worked as a media designer and multimedia specialist in Austin. He currently teaches Advertising Copywriting and Layout. He was the recipient of the 2018 Early Career Teaching Excellence Award from the Advertising Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. Ann Burnette teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in political communication, American public address, persuasion, rhetorical criticism, and public speaking. She also works with students from the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center for the legally blind. She has received the Texas State University Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her teaching has also been honored by the Southern States Communication Association and the Texas State Alumni Association. She publishes scholarship on presidential rhetoric, campaign persuasion, women in public address, and freedom of expression issues. She has shared her insights on political rhetoric on national news media such as The Washington Post and NBC News.

Cynthia I. Gonzales (“Dr. G”), an Associate Professor in the School of Music at Texas State University in San Marcos, TX, was honored in 2019 as a Texas State University System Regents’ Teacher and received the 2018 Texas State Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Before joining the professoriate in the mid-1990s, Dr. G taught K-12 general and choral music in both public and private schools, as well as applied voice lessons.
                Soon after earning a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of North Texas in 1982, Dr. G started singing with professional choral ensembles, beginning with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale in the mid-1980s and concluding with the San Antonio Chamber Choir in 2016. She performed with Grammy®-winning Conspirare for 16 seasons, serving as Soprano Section Leader for more than a decade. She continues to make transcriptions and arrangements for Conspirare when published scores are unavailable. Since retiring as a professional choral musician, Dr. G has returned to her first love: singing and playing guitar. She remains connected to choral music by serving as Music Director at First Lutheran Church in San Marcos, TX; and by composing sight reading pieces for Texas UIL Choir Contest.

Dr. David Nolan is an Associate Professor of Practice and Mass Communication Sequence Coordinator in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in visual communication, media design, photojournalism, visual storytelling, and digital video production in the School. He has taught at the university since 2003 and received a Ph.D. from Texas State in Education in 2012.

Nolan's photography has won numerous awards and has been featured in publications such as: Time, Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, New York Times magazine, Life, New York Newsday, Air Force magazine, Los Angeles Times, Airman Magazine, Torch magazine, countless books, websites and other media.

In 2015 Nolan was awarded the National Press Photographers Association Robin F. Garland Educator Award for outstanding service as a photojournalism educator and in the same year received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching at Texas State. In 2010 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Service at Texas State and in 2008 he was recognized as the Honors Professor of the Year at the university. He has hosted and been on the faculty of the National Press Photographers Association’s Advanced Storytelling Workshop at Texas State since 2009.