Professor Lee's current research interests focus on strategic and organizational communication. Using institutional theory, he explores corporate social responsibility, organizational transparency, stigmatized industries, varieties of capitalism, and public records laws, amongst other things. 

Prior to academia, he practiced law as an associate attorney with Baker Donelson PC (US), and Yoon & Yang LLC (Korea), as well as an in-house counsel at LG Display (Korea). He advised various companies which include General Electronics, Cox Communications, and Fox Television Stations. Additionally, he worked at Samsung Electronics in its marketing department. 

• PhD, Mass Communication, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
• JD, Emory University (Managing Editor, Emory International Law Review (Issues 22:2 & 23:1))
• BA, Communication, Seoul National University
• License to Practice Law (Tennessee Supreme Court)

·    Lee, T. (in press). CSR communication in stigmatized industries. In A. O’Connor (Eds), The Routledge handbook of corporate social responsibility communication.

·    Lee, T. (2022) Integrating power and gradual institutional change in public relations history: The case of the people’s university in North Carolina after the Civil War. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

·    Lee, T. (2021) How firms communicate their social roles through corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, and corporate sustainability: An institutional comparative analysis of firms’ social reports. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 15(3), 214-230.

·    Lee, T. (2020) Exploring the explicitness, salience of ethics, and transparency of messages in social reports: A cross-national longitudinal content analysis from an institutional perspective. Corporate Communication: An International Journal, 26(2), 279-295.

·    Lee, T. (2020) Communicative institutionalization of CSR: A content analysis of firms’ motivations in social reports from three market economies. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 48(3), 291-309.  

·    Lee, T. & Riffe, D. (2019). Business news coverage of corporate social responsibility in the United States and United Kingdom: Insights from the implicit and explicit framework. Business & Society, 58(4), 683-711.   

·    Lee, T. & Comello, L. (2019). Transparency and industry stigmatization in strategic CSR communication. Management Communication Quarterly, 33(1), 68-85.

·    Kim, H. & Lee, T. (2018). Strategic CSR communication: The moderating role of transparency in trust building. International Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(2), 107-124.

·    Lee, T. & Boynton, L. (2017). Conceptualizing transparency: Propositions for the integration of situational contexts and stakeholders’ perspectives. Public Relations Inquiry, 6(3). 233-251.

·    Lee, T. (2017). The status of corporate social responsibility research in public relations: A content analysis of published articles in eleven scholarly journals from 1980 to 2015. Public Relations Review, 43(1). 211-218.  

·    Lee, T. (2016). Public records fees hidden in the law: A study of conflicting judicial approaches to the determination of the scope of imposable public records fees. Communication Law & Policy, 21(2). 251-79.

• Institutional theory and varieties of capitalism
• Corporate social responsibility
• Organizational transparency
• Stigmatized industries
• Public records laws

• Strategic Planning and Cases
• Strategic Communication Research
• Special Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility
• Quantitative Research Methods - Graduate Seminar

• Presentations at Top Papers Sessions: NCA (Organizational Communication Division, 2019), and AEJMC (Public Relations Division, Students, 2015).
• William Francis Clingman Jr. Ethics Award for Communication Ethics Research (UNC-CH, School of Media and Journalism, 2015, 2016)
• Robert Lance Memorial Award for the Outstanding Student Paper, Honorable Mention (The American Journalism Historians Association, 2015)
• Army Commendation Medal (1st Signal Brigade, 8th US Army, 2003)