W. Timothy Coombs (PhD, Public Affairs and Issues Management, Purdue University) is a professor in the Nicholson School of Communication at the University of Central Florida. His books include Applied Crisis Communication and Crisis Management: Cases and Exercises, Code Red in the Boardroom, and, with Sherry Holladay, Managing Corporate Social Responsibility, PR Strategy and Application, and The Handbook of Crisis Communication. His crisis communication research was awarded the 2002 Jackson, Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize from the Public Relations Society of America. Dr. Coombs has published more than 40 research articles, most focusing on crisis communication, as well as more than 30 book chapters on the subject. He has worked with consulting firms in the U.S. and Europe on ways to improve crisis communication efforts for their clients, and has been invited by governments and businesses around the world to present his ideas and insights into crisis communication.