John Delacruz

San Francisco Bay Area
Teaching User Experience (UX) Design during the Spring and Summer Quarters, Head2Head (Award Show Entries) during Fall and Winter Quarters.

Tenure-Track Professor of Advertising at SJSU.

I was elected as President of EdCom (European Foundation for Commercial Communications Education), the education arm of the EACA (European Institute of Communications Agencies) for 2011-2013. My role was to encourage projects and partnerships between member institutions, increase student visibility in the organisation and related industries, develop a strong working relationship between the ad industry and education, and increase the profile of the organisation across Europe. I was also responsible for devising and implementing a social media strategy that created greater visibility and engagement among students from member institutions.

I created the BA(Hons) Advertising and Brand Management degree program at Staffordshire University in 2004 based on anticipated industry needs. The program, still running strong, is industry focused and integrates creative practice, strategy and theory. As Award Leader I taught a number of Modules across all three Levels as well as managing the organizational aspects - day to day running, people management, scheduling, budgeting, recruitment, marketing; as well as being a member of a number of academic and university committees. My academic focus was on Social, Digital and Experiential; Creative Direction and Copywriting; Brand and Communications Strategy. I was also responsible for developing and maintaining industry links. Over time I developed and grew relationships with agencies in London, New York, the North West and the West Midlands. I engaged agencies and student groups via one day briefs (intensive sessions at either the agency itself or in our creative studios), presentations from agency personnel, student pitches to agency personnel and client companies. Another key aspect of my role was developing overseas links - with other advertising programs and industry organizations. I developed an Erasmus funded Intensive Project with Plantijn Hogeschool in Antwerp, Belgium; University of Ljubljana in Slovenia and NHTV in Breda, Netherlands. I also advised and developed a partnership program with WerbeAkademie in Vienna, Austria and an annual one day agency based project with the Advertising Program at Syracuse University in New York. In my role as Award leader I also developed a Research Profile having presented papers at conferences globally, like the Ubiquitous Learning Conference hosted by the University of California, Berkeley in November 2011. My research centered around the application of social media channels and mobile apps as an extension to the creative advertising studio. I also developed staff-training workshops on social media as teaching tools.

Part-time lecturer in Design History