He was named the new director in spring 2009.

Drury University Assistant Professor of Communication Curt Gilstrap is the new director of the Master of Arts in Communication program at Drury.

An assistant professor of communication at Drury since 2003, Gilstrap takes over the graduate program for Ron Schie who remains the chair of the communication department and an associate professor of communication.

Beginning in the fall of 2009, the Master of Arts in Communication program will offer two tracks: integrated marketing and organizational leadership and change . Previously, the master's of communication had only one track, integrated marketing.

Gilstrap received his doctorate in rhetorical studies from Purdue University in 2003. He received his master's of communication in 1997 from Missouri State University.

Gilstrap holds interests across a broad swath of critical communication skills development and theory. He has taught courses in persuasion, ethical communication, environmental communication, advanced public speaking, argumentation and advocacy, rhetorical theory, histories of American rhetorical discourse, public communication for technology students, primary and intermediate public speaking, and forensic speech laboratories.

Besides teaching, Gilstrap advises the Drury Debate Program. The author of multiple adjudicated conferences papers, articles and a book chapter, his scholarly pursuits include entrepreneurial communication and environmental discourses as viewed through the lenses of contemporary rhetorical theory.