Andy Gustafson, PhD

Dr. Andy Gustafson is an experienced executive communications coach for Crenshaw Associates. He also serves as an Associate Professor and Director of the MBA Leadership Communications Program at Penn State University, where he has taught for 30 years. Andy’s focus is to help business leaders use their communications to engender trust and reliability and to positively influence both internal and external audiences.

Throughout his career, Andy has developed a unique approach to logical, practical, and effective communication. This includes the critical elements of audience assessment, content design, effective graphical representation of business data and polished delivery. He is known for his workshops on building “best practice” communications for individuals and teams that ultimately increase executive presence. Andy is also effective in mitigating tendencies that hinder good communication including distracting speech patterns, too little/too much detail, poor message construction and incongruent visual and audio messaging.

In his consulting work, Dr. Gustafson customizes programs for industry leaders leveraging his principles of effective content delivery. He works 1:1 and in groups with a structured approach that enables leaders to disseminate information in a way that also provides the confidence to “command the room”. His approach includes a blend of interactive discussion, effective communication curriculum, practice and video review to design clear and concise communication.

Dr. Gustafson’s approach is based on his extensive research, classroom experience and delivery of executive education. He has designed and delivered custom curricula for executives in a broad array of sectors, both in the US and globally. Client companies have included Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, AT&T, IBM, State Farm Insurance, McDonalds Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruise Line, Alcoa Chemical, Lockheed-Martin, Berk-Tek, Fulton Bank, PNC Bank, Ferring Pharmaceutical and Hirtle Callaghan.

Andy earned his BA and MA degrees in Communication Arts & Sciences at California State University. He then went on to earn a PhD in Speech Communication from Pennsylvania State University. Andy lives with his family in State College, PA.