Before Daniel Dunn, professor of communication, started teaching at PNW, he was selling shoes to pay his way through college. Dunn has come a long way since then.

After losing his father at the age of 14 and his mother at 17, Dunn, an only child, had to move to Detroit, Michigan to live with relatives. Through these hardships, and with the odds stacked against him, Dunn persevered. He continued to pursue his education, earning his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree at Wayne State University.

“You can’t always let others beat you down. You have to separate noise from signal,” Dunn said of his past.

Dunn went on to become a leader. He has won numerous teaching awards, including the Amoco Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award and the Central States Communication Association Young Teacher Award. He has co-written a textbook with Lisa Goodnight, senior dean of students and professor of communication, titled “Communication: Embracing Difference.” Dunn also had the opportunity to teach in the Management Development Program at Harvard University in 2007.

He is best known at PNW in the classroom, where he teaches with a conversational style lecture, appealing to students with humor and repetition.

“It’s my responsibility to treat students with respect,” Dunn said. “I have a different skill set than my students, but I am not any better than them.”

Dunn, who said he “sort of fell into the teaching field,” credits a former professor for influencing his teaching style.

“I had a great undergraduate instructor. I really liked the way he treated students, and I found his teaching really engaging,” Dunn said.

Dunn’s personal experience with this teacher is what encourages him to keep an engaging classroom environment. He understands how vital it is to connect with students, especially with all that they may be juggling outside of school.

When preparing for a course, Dunn finds it important to navigate the class’s personality in order to feed off the interaction with the students. This way, he is never doing exactly the same thing, which keeps his classes interesting.

“Dan is really animated and very energetic,” Katherine Opach, senior communication major, said. “I enjoyed going to his classrooms, and he made sure that his students did enjoy going to his class.”

She also mentioned how he was humorous, kind and easy to talk to.

Another one of his students, Jessica Someson, senior communication major, said that professor Dunn is very enthusiastic about everything he teaches.

“At first I was nervous trying to write down everything he said, but the way he relayed the information to us and repeated himself made it easier to learn,” Someson said.

Dunn stressed the importance of meeting with instructors when one does not understand class material or when one is struggling with class. Most importantly, Dunn’s hope for students is for them to understand how powerful it is to have passion for the work they do.

“You really have to be passionate. I think it is the most important component of a career. If you’re not passionate about what you do, then it is hard to be happy,” Dunn said.

Dunn also enjoys running daily, spending time with his family and watching his favorite baseball team, the Detroit Tigers.