Christopher Roush, new dean of the School of Communications, became a well-known name at Quinnipiac when his 17-year-old deaf Chesapeake Bay Retriever went missing at Sleeping Giant State Park.

Now, this infamous dog-owner is hoping to make a name for himself as an accessible, creative and optimistic leader.

[media-credit name=”Quinnipiac University” align=”alignright” width=”300″][/media-credit]“This is a really great school, just nobody knows about it,” Roush said. “The faculty is incredibly strong. The staff is incredibly strong. The students are smart.”

Prior to this position, Roush was the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in Business Journalism at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. At UNC, he was the director of the Carolina Business News Initiative, which trains professional journalists in business journalism, which Roush said is simultaneously connected to all aspects of journalism.

“Sure, a lot of business journalism can be written in a boring way,” Roush said. “But business journalism, if done right, is something that should appeal to everyone because we’re all impacted by business and by the economy on a daily basis.”

Like many aspiring media professionals in the School of Communications, Roush initially planned to become a sports reporter.

“I discovered sports reporters have no life,” Roush said. “Games are at night and you’re traveling with the team at night. So I switched.”

Despite the switch, Roush’s love for sports hasn’t wavered. His office walls feature framed baseball posters and he admitted that he’s a huge Boston Red Sox fan. Additionally, when he began covering business, he discovered it wasn’t much different than sports.

“There are winners and losers,” Roush said. “There is a playing field. It’s just called the stock market.”

Roush said while business journalists are in high demand, first, he has to prove to the students that business journalism is more exciting than it sounds.

“Business journalism isn’t really about numbers,” Roush said. “It’s about people.”

Roush’s goal for his position as dean is also about people. He said he hopes to listen to students’ concerns in the form of a student advisory board and monthly office hours.

“I’m going to meet with those students kind of once a month for an off-the-record conversation about what’s going well and what’s not going well to get feedback from them about what we need to improve,” Roush said.

Roush hasn’t met many students yet, but he encourages aspiring communications professionals to make the most of their time at Quinnipiac.

“This is your time to explore, try new things,” Roush said. “Once you graduate and you get that first job you’re not going to be able to experiment.”