Thomas R. Martin

Executive-in-Residence

Education

B.A., Vanderbilt University

Thomas R. Martin serves as Executive-in-Residence in the Department of Communication at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina. He was appointed to the position in 2007, and he works to enhance the relationship between the Communication Department and the business community, as well as to help students successfully launch their careers. In 2023, he founded the Martin Center for Mentorship in Communication to inspire and develop the next generation of leaders and mentors among today’s outstanding communication students, and to foster more robust relationships between those who educate and those who practice in the communications field. The Center’s work includes the Martin Scholars, a selective mentoring, networking, and experiential learning program for graduating seniors that Martin launched in 2016. One hundred eleven Martin Scholars have now completed the program and are living and working in New York, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Nashville, and other locations, holding a wide range of successful positions in the communications field. Twelve new students are participating in the 2025-26 school year. 

Martin is a co-author of “An Overview of the Public Relations Function,” now in its second edition, published by Business Executive Press. He serves on the Board of Trustees for the College of Charleston Foundation, which manages philanthropic donations to provide financial support for the College of Charleston's various initiatives, including scholarships, academic programs, and capital projects. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University, a research center within the Penn State College of Communications that studies and advances ethics and responsibility in corporate communication and other forms of public communication. 

Martin retired in 2007 from ITT Corporation, where he served as Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Relations at the diversified global engineering and manufacturing company. Martin was an officer and a member of the company's Executive Council, responsible for worldwide brand and reputation management, public relations, employee communications, government affairs, corporate advertising, and community relations. Prior to joining ITT, Martin served as Vice President, Corporate Communications, for FedEx, where he was responsible for worldwide public relations, investor relations, and employee communications for the Fortune 150 Company. He was also responsible for the public relations and internal communications efforts for the launch of the FedEx brand in 1994.  

He served as a trustee of the Page Society, a membership organization for senior corporate communication executives, from 2002 to 2015, was President of the Society from 2004 to 2005, and was one of the founders of Page Up, an affiliated organization for rising leaders in the profession. He served on the Board of Governors of the Josephson Institute of Ethics from 2005-2015 and was a trustee of the PRSA Foundation from 2013 to 2018. In 2025, Martin received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Institute for Public Relations. In 2023, he received the Order of the Silver Crescent from the governor of South Carolina in recognition of his long years of service to the College of Charleston. In 2021, he received the Milestones in Mentoring Legacy Award from the Betsy Plank Center at the University of Alabama, given to “individuals who have touched the lives of countless public relations professionals over the course of their distinguished and exceptional careers.” In September of 2011, Martin received the Distinguished Service Award from the Page Society, one of the Society’s two top awards for lifetime achievement. In November of 2006, he was inducted into the PR News Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Wanda, reside in Charleston, South Carolina, and Fairfield, Connecticut. They have two sons, a grandson, and a granddaughter.