Dr. Brian Richardson

Personal Bio

Dr. Brian Richardson (Dr. R.) and his wife Cheryl have two children: Keith, who is an Accounting major at Baylor University, and Ella Kate, who majors in musical theater at Southeast Missouri State University. Dr. R. enjoys working out, running, fantasy football, reading, and traveling. He also conducts communication-related training for various organizations, including the Texas Fire Chiefs Association, City of Forth Worth IT Division, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, UNT Health Science Center, and the UNT System. Dr. Richardson has co-led Study Abroad courses to Peru, Panama, and Nicaragua.

Research Interests

Dr. Richardson's primary research interests include organizational whistleblowing, communication and sport, and disaster/crisis communication. He has published articles recently addressing what whistleblowers’ metaphors reveal about their experiences and school district communication officers’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He is currently working on several projects; these include studies of communicative tensions within families of whistleblowers, how elite baseball players make sense of injury recovery, and how sorority members assess credibility of individuals who report hazing practices.

Notable Activities

• Faculty Advisor for COMM Future Pros
• Faculty Advisor for COMM Alumni Mentoring Program
• Editorial Board Member - Management Communication Quarterly

Recent Publications:

McGlynn, J., Richardson, B. K., & Tran, J. (2025-online). "In the Grip of King Kong": Making Sense of Whistleblower Retaliation Experiences Through Metaphor. Journal of Business Ethics.

Richardson, B., K., Tran, J., & James, E. P. (2025-online). Using whistleblowers’ metaphors to understand why organizational wrongdoing endures. Management Communication Quarterly (Research Note).

McGlynn, J., & Richardson, B. K. (forthcoming). Sport organizations and whistleblowing. In J. Sanderson (Ed.) Organizational Communication and Sport. Lexington Books.

Richardson, B. K. (forthcoming). Studying those who suffer for truth-telling: Navigating recruitment, emotional dissonance, and representation in whistleblowing research. In S. Smith & B. Smith (Eds.) Research Methods for the Marginalized: A Communication Approach. Routledge.

Richardson, B. K., Cosgrove, S., & Elkhalid, A. (2023-online). “They masked our children”: School district communication officers’ sensemaking of parent activists during the COVID-19 pandemic. The International Journal of Business Communication.

Teaching

• COMM 3320 - Conflict Management
• COMM 4120 - Communication & Sport
• COMM 4220 - Theories of Crisis Communication
• COMM 5220 - Organizational Communication
• COMM 5221 - Crisis and Disaster Communication
• COMM 5625 - Communication Consulting

Awards & Honors

• Recipient, 2025 Diamond Anniversary Award for Top Paper. Central States Communication Association’s Organizational and Professional Communication Interest Group. (co-authors Joseph McGlynn and Jacinta Tran)
• Recipient, 2023, Ulys and Vera Knight Faculty Mentor Award, University of North Texas.
• Recipient, 2022, CLASS Advisory Board Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, UNT's College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
• Recipient, 2020 Dr. Charles Eberly Oracle Award which recognizes the outstanding written contribution to Oracle: The Research Journal of the Association of Fraternity/Sorority Advisors during the academic year.