°®¶¹´«Ã½ÊÓƵ

Dr. Dakota Horn serves as Associate Provost for Academic Excellence, providing leadership across key areas of academic quality, faculty excellence, curriculum, academic programs, and student success. In this role, he leads efforts to strengthen faculty excellence across teaching, scholarship, and service; faculty mentoring and development; curricular quality and innovation; and effective communication within Academic Affairs and across the university. His portfolio encompasses academic programs and initiatives that support faculty and students, with oversight of the Division of Continuing Education and Professional Development, the Honors Program, the Center for Teaching Excellence and Learning, Online and Distance Education, Graduate Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, the Math Center, the Writing Center, and Student Support Services.

Prior to serving as Associate Provost, Dr. Horn was Associate Dean for Academic Programs in the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Director of COM 103: The Oral Communication Process, and founding director of °®¶¹´«Ã½ÊÓƵ’s campus-wide Presentation Assistance Center.

An award-winning educator, Dr. Horn received the Outstanding Teacher Award from the nationally recognized Central States Communication Association. His academic background includes bachelor’s and master’s degrees in communication from Western Illinois University and a doctorate in Teaching and Learning from Illinois State University.

Since joining °®¶¹´«Ã½ÊÓƵ in 2018, Dr. Horn has published extensively on communication pedagogy, instructional communication, instructional clarity, civic engagement, online education, presentation practices, and communication anxiety. His current research examines teacher-student relationships, instructional clarity, communication anxiety, and strategies that support student learning. His scholarship has appeared in respected outlets including the Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and The Routledge Handbook of Public Speaking Research. He is also the author of Principles of Public Speaking (Routledge), now in its 21st edition, and Exploring Communication Anxiety and Apprehension (Routledge, 2026).

Dr. Horn has delivered more than 100 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, including the National Communication Association, Central States Communication Association, International Association of Media and Communication Research, and the National Civic Learning and Democratic Engagement Conference. His collaborative scholarship includes work with °®¶¹´«Ã½ÊÓƵ students, staff, affiliate faculty, and tenure-track faculty.

Before joining °®¶¹´«Ã½ÊÓƵ, Dr. Horn worked in government, with a Fortune 100 company, and with K–12 schools on curriculum and policy.