Rate My Professor Deb Morrison

Deb Morrison is the Distinguished Professor of Advertising and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. She earned a PhD and MA from the University of Texas at Austin and a BJ from Sam Houston State University. Morrison previously directed Texas Creative and served on the faculty in the Department of Advertising at the University of Texas at Austin. At the University of Oregon, she directed the SOJC advertising program from 2006 to 2021 and co-created the Master's in Advertising and Brand Responsibility with Professor Emerita Kim Sheehan. She also co-founded the Science & Memory experiential learning platform focused on stories of environmental and climate change, which received the University of Oregon Innovation and Impact Research Award in 2015.

Her research specializations encompass the creative process in creative professionals, creative organizations, teamsmanship, creative training grounds in the advertising industry, and the intersection of creative professionalism with the climate emergency. Key publications include The Creative Process Illustrated: How Advertising’s Big Ideas are Born (2010, with Glenn Griffin), Idea Industry: How to Crack the Advertising Career Code (2009, with Brett Robbs), and the forthcoming Brave Work on the Age of Climate Change: A Creative's Guide to Advertising and Brand Messages in Complicated Times (2025). Morrison has received the 2018 American Advertising Academy Sandage Award for Distinguished Teaching, the 2015 AEJMC Distinguished Teaching Award, two SOJC Marshall Awards for Innovative Teaching (2008 and 2009), Grandmaster designation from the Art Directors Club in New York (2009), and induction into the One Club for Creativity Educators Hall of Fame (2024), the first for a public university professor. She served on the board of The One Club for Creativity from 2004 to 2009 and has delivered talks at SXSW, TEDx UOregon, the United Nations, the Smithsonian, Google, and other venues on creativity, advertising talent, and climate responsibility.