Ronald E. Taylor holds the rank of emeritus professor in the School of Advertising and Public Relations at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S. in Advertising and Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was been a faculty member at Youngstown State University and Parkland College. He joined the Tennessee faculty in 1982-83 as the head of the Department of Advertising and was Director of the School of Advertising and Public Relations, 2003-2011. He taught and researched message strategy. He lectured at the Sorbonne on differences between American and French advertising and conducted research in Belgium, France, and Spain. He earned the Certificat Pratique de Francais Commercial et Economique de la Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de Paris in 1995, was elected to the Knoxville Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2001, and received the Charles H. Sandage Excellence in Teaching Award presented by the American Academy of Advertising in 2013.

Education: 
Ph.D., Communication, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.S., Advertising, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A.B., Journalism, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Research Interests: 
Advertising law and regulation
Message strategy
Qualitative research