CEDAR FALLS -- For Ryan McGeough, 38, years working in Louisiana and Florida helped him see the Cedar Valley with fresh eyes.
“When you leave and come back, you tend to recognize the things that are really good about a place,” explained McGeough, who serves as associate professor of communication and media at the University of Northern Iowa.
He grew up in Waterloo and moved to Cedar Falls after ninth grade. He graduated from Cedar Falls High School, then earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UNI.
A doctoral program took him to Louisiana State University. He taught there, then in Boca Raton, Fla., before returning to the Cedar Valley in 2014. Since then, McGeough has earned tenure, written books and become head of his department.
Opportunities to have an impact on students’ lives and serve the community helped draw him home.
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“Ryan is driven by a deep commitment to making education accessible to everyone,” noted John Fritch, dean of UNI’s College of Humanities, Arts and Sciences. “He is clearly both a leader and a role model in his career, having been elected to multiple national and regional leadership positions in which he has used to create opportunities for young people and diverse scholars throughout the nation.”
McGeough exemplifies a strong sense of empathy and a solid work ethic, added Fritch.
For example, McGeough learned several students in his department hadn’t connected when the COVID-19 pandemic forced classes online. As a result, he called each one to ensure they had everything the needed to keep up with their studies.
At about the same time, members of the Cedar Valley Jaycees worried about mounting the organization’s annual school supply drive. McGeough agreed to helm the project.
“It’s a massive undertaking, and so many people in our area depend on that help. There are people who rely on it,” said McGeough. He and his wife Danielle Dick McGeough have two children. “One of the reasons we came back to the area is that the schools are really good. Some of that is because of the way we help each other.”
In addition, McGeough is helping to coordinate a professional clothing closet for UNI students.
“For some students, putting together appropriate, professional attire is difficult, especially if things are pretty tight financially,” he explained. “For those who lack such resources, we will offer basic apparel they can wear to job interviews. It’s the sort of thing that boosts confidence and ensures students feel like they have a better shot.”
McGeough brings this altruistic mindset into the classroom, too. He oversees the university’s required oral communications course, which enrolls as many as 700 students per year in fall, spring and summer sections.
“Unfortunately, the textbook is really expensive – about $150,” he noted.
McGeough joined three colleagues to devise a way to reduce or eliminate the cost. Ultimately, they decided to write a new textbook. It will be offered to enrollees for free by authors Kathryn Golsan, Danielle Dick McGeough, C. Kyle Rudick and McGeough.
“We found some money from the state to help with the minimal expenses,” said McGeough. “It will be free online. For those who want a paper copy, it can be as close to free as possible.”
The project will save UNI students a combined total of $100,000 per year. In addition, UNI graduates who go on to teach oral communication at other institutions will be allowed to offer the book for free to their students.
“It’s been a real blessing to look at a problem and legitimately say, ‘We’re going to do this thing. We’re going to fix this. We’re going to do something good in the world,” said McGeough.
He enjoys that progression from discussion to collaborative planning and action.
“I majored in philosophy as an undergraduate,” he recalled. “I stumbled into that after I took a philosophy class and really liked it. I liked asking big questions.”
He also is a volunteer educator at North Tama and Meskwaki Settlement School.
McGeough enjoys looking at the conditions in which problems present themselves and studying how people respond. What leads people to find common ground?
Timing played a big influence. McGeough graduated from high school a few months before the events of Sept. 11, 2001. This and other factors influenced his research, which examines on how ordinary people use media to argue.
“Sept. 11 was a time when people who were not politicians thrust us all into an intensely political moment. It was an interesting time to study this stuff and make sense of it,” he recalled. “As I’ve continued in my education and research, I circle back to how everyday people disagree and find ways to persuade others.”
