Meet Dr. Deborah Burris, Pfeiffer’s Associate Professor of Communication, Chair of Social Sciences, and Director of the Pfeiffer Journey. She has been teaching at Pfeiffer for 27 years! She teaches a wide variety of Communication classes, as well as Peer Mentor classes.

When asked about what got her interested in her field, Dr. Burris said high school competitive speech tournaments and her college mentors were what made her what to pursue a career in communications. When teaching her classes, Dr. Burris hopes that her students will find a new sense of who they are in relation to others, as well as a confidence in their own abilities.

Throughout her professional career, Dr. Burris has delivered presentations to many different conferences related to her work at Pfeiffer, such as First Year Programs, Sophomore Programs, General Education, Vocational Development and Models, and General Education. She has also pursued several communication certifications so that she can apply the skills to her curriculum and course objectives.

When asked about what she has done recently in her field, Dr. Burris said, “At the end of 2022 I completed a systemic team coaching certification and have been working with the other department chairs and the Dean to implement these principles at Pfeiffer. Our goal is to learn together how to impact our own system in regard to how we work together to realize the University’s mission.”