BIO

David Douglass became the 16th president of the College of Idaho on June 1, 2025. He is an internationally-known educator who has taught, consulted, presented research, and directed institutes in North and South America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.

Over the course of his administrative career, Douglass has served as an Executive Vice President, Provost, Vice President of Academic Affairs, and Dean. Functionally, his roles have included President, Chief Academic Officer (CAO), Chief Student Affairs Officer (CSAO), and Accreditation Officer (ALO), and his portfolio has included oversight of departments ranging from Information Technology to Varsity Athletics. His administrative initiatives have included graduate programs, a Faculty Commons, a Learning Commons, and a Recreational Commons, as well as Centers for Quantitative Analysis and Design (QUAD) and Language Learning. He Co-founded (with Robert Trapp) the International Debate Education Association (IDEA) Center and directed Advocacy Institutes in locations ranging from Dikili, Turkey to Xian, China.

Prior to his career as an administrator, Douglass earned his Ph.D. at Penn State, where he taught in the Developmental Year Program for first-generation students. Thereafter, he accepted a tenure-track position in the Department of Civic Communication and Media at Willamette University, a private liberal arts college in Salem, Oregon. As a member of the faculty, he taught courses in language theory, persuasion, argumentation, and debate. He served on tenure and promotion and curricular development committees, and directed or co-directed the World Views Program (with Cesie Delve-Scheuermann), the Compass Program, and the Ecuador Foreign Study Program, among others. During this period He was named Professor of the Year on three separate occasions.

In terms of scholarship and service, Douglass has published monographs on a variety of topics related to persuasion, pedagogy, and language theory, and he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Northwest Communication Association from 2002-2006. He has been appointed to Boards or Steering Committees of the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), the NIH-funded Idaho INBRE program, the International Debate Education Association, and the Lilly Advisory, among others. He is the recipient of the Hazel Award for service to the Northwest region, and in 2010 his administration received the President’s Award, the highest federal recognition for community service by a college.

Douglass was raised in the village of Agat, Guam, a US territory in Micronesia located in the western Pacific. His family later moved stateside to the San Joaquin Valley in California, where he attended high school and met his future wife, Lily Yee Wong, who works as a flight crew member for Delta Airlines. The couple has three sons, Zachary, Jackson, and Nolan, and resides in Caldwell, Idaho, with their Vizsla, Tucker.

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Speech Communication, Pennsylvania State University, 1992

M.A., Speech Communication/Social Psychology, California State University, Fresno, 1987

B.A., Speech Communication, Magna Cum Laude, California State University, Fresno, 1985

SCHOLARSHIP & RESEARCH

Selected Publications

Douglass, D., “Reflection on the Faculty,” Quest Magazine, Summer 2023, p. 22.

Collins, C. and D. Douglass. “Representation and Resemblance in the Case of the Danish Cartoons.” In Controversial Images. Eds F. Attwood, V. Campbell, I. Hunter and S. Lockyer: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. 36-51.

Douglass, D. “A Day in the Life of a Sabbatical Professor.” The Buzz, Winter 2005: 8-11.

Collins, C., D. Douglass, and P. Varas. “Metaphor and Argument in Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara’s ‘Socialism and the New Man in Cuba.’” In Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. Eds. Frans van Eemeren, J. Anthony Blair, Charles Willard and A Francisca Henkemans. Amsterdam: Sic Sat, 2003. 1023-1027.

Douglass, D. “Issues in the Use of I. A. Richards’ Tenor-Vehicle Model of Metaphor.” Western Journal of Communication 64 (2000): 405-424.

Friedrich, J. and D. Douglass. “Ethics and the Persuasive Enterprise of Teaching Psychology.” American Psychologist 53 (1998): 549-562.

Douglass, D. and J. Friedrich. “Ethics, the Classroom, and Instructional Communication: An Interview with Jo Sprague.” Journal of the Northwest Communication Association 26 (1998): 1-24. [Lead Article]

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS

Selected Talks

Douglass, D., “The Future of Higher Education,” panel presentation for Caldwell Chamber of Commerce, March 26, 2025, Caldwell, Idaho.

Douglass, D. and Larson, S., “Chief Academic Officer Problem-Solving Forum,” presentation at the 2024 Council of Independent College Convention, Portland, Oregon.

Dean’s Forum: “Day to Day Life in Palestine and Israel,” Cruzen-Murray Library, February 2024.

Douglass, D., “Chief Academic Officer Forum,” 2023 Council of Independent Colleges Convention, Tampa, Florida.

Douglass, D. “New Approaches to Study Abroad.” Discussion Session Leadership at the 2022 Convention of the Council of Independent Colleges, Dallas, Texas.

Dean’s Forum: “What the COVID-19 Pandemic Taught Us About Liberal Education,” Langroise Recital Hall, March 2021.

Dean’s Forum: “Homelessness in Idaho—Social and Economic Considerations,” Langroise Recital Hall, January 2020.

Dean’s Forum: “Immigration and Identity,” Langroise Recital Hall, March 2019.

Dean’s Forum: “Antisemitism After Pittsburgh, Islamophobia After Christchurch,” Langroise Recital Hall, March 2019.

Dean’s Forum: “Mediated Lives: The Future of Media in American Society,” Kathryn Albertson International Center, May 2018.

Dean’s Forum: “Gun Rights and Responsibilities,” Langroise Recital Hall, January 2018.

Douglass, D. “Integrating Career and Academic Advising.” 2015 Convention of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, Anaheim, California.

Douglass, D. and Houser, J. “A University’s Guarantee that Every Graduate has a Career Plan.” 2015 Convention of the National Association of Colleges and Employers, Anaheim, California.

Douglass, D. “Housing International Students.” 2015 NASPA International Symposium, New Orleans, Louisiana.

Douglass, D., Houser, J. and Bragg, J. “The Willamette Compass.” 2014 Mountain Pacific Association of Colleges and Employers Conference, San Francisco, California.

Student Affairs Personnel Evaluation: A Competency-based Approach. 2012 Oregon Alliance of Independent Colleges and Universities SSAO Meeting, Portland, Oregon.

Douglass, D. “English, Dialectic and Democracy.” 2007 NELTA Convention, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Douglass, D. “Argument and the ‘Graven Image’: Rhetoric, Representation, and Resemblance in the Case of the Danish Cartoons.” 2007 National Communication Association Convention, Chicago, IL.

Douglass, D. “View from the Editor’s Chair.” 2007 Northwest Communication Association Convention, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Douglass, D. “Scholarship in the Information Age: A Roundtable on the Changing Nature of Research Production, Access, and Information/Media Literacy.” 2005 Convention of the Northwest Communication Association, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.