Susan Fillippeli

Susan Fillippeli is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication & Journalism. With a PhD in communication from the University of Iowa, she has held faculty positions at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, The University of Puget Sound, and Auburn University. Areas of interest are rhetorical criticism and theory, public address, persuasion, political communication, and the rhetoric of social movements.

In 2001 Fillippeli left Auburn University to pursue a career in the private sector where she served as a communication consultant to political candidates and businesses, and for a software development firm where she worked as a communication and training professional and project manager specializing in corporate communication strategies, crisis communication management, proposal development, campaign management, corporate communication, and training and development. While working in the private sector she earned certification as a project management professional (PMP).

Fillippeli was appointed by Governor Bob Riley to serve two terms on the Alabama Women’s Commission, and by Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries John McMillan to serve on the Lee County Board of Registrars. She has been active in local and state politics for more than 20 years and is a member of First Presbyterian Church in Auburn where she has served three terms as an elder.

Throughout both her academic and corporate career, Fillippeli’s first love has always been teaching. She blends her academic training with her private sector experience in making her classroom a living laboratory for Auburn students.