Robert J Thompson

RJ Thompson, MFA, is an award-winning marketing and graphic-interactive design professional. At Pitt, RJ was the Manager of Digital Strategy in Pitt Health Sciences Strategic Communications and the Director of Digital Marketing in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining Pitt, he was a tenured faculty member in the Graphic and Interactive Design program in the Department of Art at Youngstown State University. Previous to Youngstown State, RJ taught at Carnegie Mellon University, La Roche University, and Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. Continuing his career in education, since e2019 RJ has maintained adjunct professor appointments in the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh (marketing and advertising), Rowland School of Business and School of Communications at Point Park University (digital marketing and interactive design, respectively), and the College of the Humanities at the Community College of Allegheny County (graphic design and interactive design.) Outside of marketing, design, and teaching, RJ is also the Co-Principal and Creative Strategist for +Public, a Pennsylvania-based social enterprise that focuses on cultivating community and economic development impact through the creation of branded communication platforms, creative place-making, and storytelling initiatives for communities-in-revival. In 2024, RJ founded Bellevue Forward, a 501(c)3 non-profit economic development organization that seeks to lift economic progress in the borough of Bellevue, Pennsylvania. Throughout his career, RJ has received many accolades for his creative works: In 2015, he was one of several recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” grant, valued at $100,000, for the INPLACE (“Innovative Plan for Leveraging Arts & Community Engagement”) project. In 2017, RJ received a “Best of Marketing Award” from the Ohio Economic Development Association for his efforts in rebranding the City of Youngstown, Ohio. In 2018, RJ was accepted into the prestigious Cohort 2 of the National Arts Marketing Project, a program supported by Americans for the Arts and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. In 2019, RJ also received a scholarship to join the National Arts Strategies Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy through the School of Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, RJ was honored with the Ohio Governor's Award in the Arts in Community Development, the state of Ohio’s highest recognition in the arts sector. Recently, RJ was named Vice Chair of the national advisory board for the National Institute for Social Media, renewed as a board member leader in the PA Humanities, and received many accolades from GDUSA Magazine and the University & College Designers Association for several Pitt marketing projects. Recently, RJ was awarded the University of Pittsburgh Staff Council Mentor Award. RJ is President Emeritus of the Pittsburgh chapter of the American Marketing Association and current President of the American Institute of Graphic Arts - Pittsburgh chapter. RJ lives in Bellevue, Pennsylvania, with his wife, Erin, and their daughter, Amelia Parker.