Susan McMurray joined the Communication Faculty at ORU after teaching the basic communication course at Oklahoma State University. Previous to earning her graduate degree, she worked in the fields of Human Resources and Training and Development, McMurray served as a Human Resource practitioner in the medical industry in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Being an Alum of ORU herself, Susan is passionate about teaching ORU students and helping them to experience the legacy of a whole-person education at ORU.
At ORU, McMurray has taught a variety of Communication courses including Advanced Public Speaking, Business & Professional Speech, Interpersonal Communication, Interviewing, Oral Communication, Organizational Communication, Senior Paper Preparation, Senior Paper Research, and Training & Development. She also serves as a faculty member for the Honors Department and teaches the Principles of Leadership class to the ORU Honor Program’s Fellows and Scholars.
McMurray is also a founding faculty member of the Online Communication Bachelor’s degree at ORU. She has designed the curriculum for several of ORU’s communication courses and teaches several online courses including Advanced Public Speaking, Business and Professional Speech, and Training & Development. Within just a few years of developing the online Communication degree, Oral Roberts University was ranked in the top 25 in the country for its online Bachelor’s degree in Communication according to the Guide to Online Schools.
McMurray’s area of specialty is in the field of training and development. She has served on the Board of the Northeast Oklahoma Chapter of the Association for Talent Development (ATD). She has presented at the Oklahoma state ATD conference as well as other professional meetings for ATD and is also a member of The Tulsa Area Human Resource Association (TAHRA). She has served as the Faculty Advisor for both the ORU student chapters of The Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) and ATD. Under Mrs. McMurray’s leadership, the ORU student chapter of SHRM was awarded a superior merit award for 14 consecutive years, putting the ORU chapter in the top 20% of student chapters. Susan currently serves as the Faculty Advisor for Alpa Chi Zeta, the ORU chapter of the National Communication Association Honor Society.
She has co-authored the textbook entitled, Becoming a Better Communicator: A Basic Course in Interpersonal and Public Communication by Gallagher, Farmer, McMurray, Olsen and Miller. This book was written after discovering
the need to offer a Christian world-view for the basic speech communication course
at the Communication 101 level.
She won the Innovation in Online Teaching Award in 2016 which was presented by the
Oral Roberts University Distance Learning Department. Susan was also awarded the Outstanding
Communication Faculty member in 2005.
McMurray has her M.A. in Communication from Oklahoma State University and her B.A.
in Organizational and Interpersonal Communication from Oral Roberts University. She
is currently an assistant professor in the Communication and Media Department of the
College of Arts and Cultural Studies at Oral Roberts University.