Twister Marquiss

Twister Marquiss joined the McCoy College of Business at Texas State University in 2021, becoming its first Manager of Marketing and Communications (MarCom). He oversees the MarCom Team with a focus on driving the college’s marketing, strategic communications, and public relations initiatives. His responsibilities include strengthening the McCoy College brand voice and reputation, promoting programs and research, and developing connected communications across the organization. He has extensive experience in finding and sharing the personal and organizational stories that support inclusion and build brand pride.

In his first year at McCoy College, the MarCom Team made tremendous impacts in establishing the college's brand and improving its visibility throughout Texas and nationally. The team drove a 73% increase in website page views, and by 2023, website users had doubled per academic year. Social media followers more than tripled, and engagement on the McCoy College LinkedIn account has been higher than any other business school in Texas. In 2023, the creative team’s overall strategic and tactical campaign efforts led to a 22-spot leap for McCoy College's part-time MBA in the U.S. News and World Report rankings. Perhaps most importantly, the MarCom Team's advertising success has significantly increased graduate-program applications. In Fall 2023, McCoy College saw an 11% increase in combined enrollment, nearly four times that of Texas State's overall enrollment increase. With these results, Twister and teammate Nichole Black were presented with the college's Changemaker Award in 2023.

Twister previously served as Director of the Common Experience at Texas State University. During his four-plus years as director, the Common Experience was the nation's #1 initiative of its kind, setting numerous national benchmarks for student participation, event attendance, and social media engagement, providing an academic-experience model for several other institutions. He was a faculty member at Texas State for 18 years, teaching courses in the Department of English, Honors College, and University College. He has held editorial and design positions with numerous journals and magazines, and his fiction and photography have appeared in Narrative Magazine and other publications. He also hosted a one-time segment for CNN Headline News.

Twister earned a terminal M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Texas State, where he was a Mitte Foundation Scholar, and a B.A. in English from the Honors Program at St. Mary's University in San Antonio, where he was recruited to be Sports Information Director — his first position in university marketing and communications — when he was just 19 years old. ✯