On the first day of each semester, Diederich College of Communication instructor Dave Wilcox shares his cell phone number right at the top of the course syllabus. “If you’re sending a panicky text from Raynor at 10 p.m. the night before something is due,” he tells students, “and I can spend two minutes answering your question to save you a night of agony, I’m going to do that.”
Wilcox’s trademark openness — plus insights drawn from his decades of experience working as a media strategist in prominent advertising agencies — have made a lasting impact on his students and helped to define how advertising is taught in the college.
“The first time you meet Dave, you just know he’s one of the good ones,” says Lizzie Graft, Comm ’22, a former Wilcox advisee. “He has a way of pushing discussions beyond surface level, always leading the student to think more critically and thoughtfully.”
Leaders of the college praise the complementary strengths he brings to the classroom, where he draws on deep industry knowledge and engages students with riveting storytelling and “healthy doses of humor and empathy.”
“Dave teaches with the head and the heart. Students recognize and value his use of industry expertise and experience to prepare them for their postgraduate professions.”
Dr. Sarah Feldner, acting provost and executive vice president for academic affairs
Students frequently cite him as one of their all-time favorite professors, and he’s been recognized with Marquette’s highest teaching honor, the Rev. John P. Raynor, S.J., Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence. “He asks for excellence from his students, drawing them in with industry-based case studies, while always recognizing each student for their individual talents,” said then-Dean Sarah Feldner, now Marquette’s acting provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, in introducing Wilcox at the awards ceremony in 2024. “Dave teaches with the head and the heart. Students recognize and value his use of industry expertise and experience to prepare them for their postgraduate professions.”
At Marquette since 2015, Wilcox maintains a full advising load and mentors students through his roles as faculty director for the Carl Collective, Marquette’s student ad agency, and faculty adviser for Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.
Nathan Lampres, Comm ’24, now a Marquette graduate student, says Wilcox has been a father figure to him. He was Lampres’ undergraduate academic adviser and also offered guidance when Lampres served as president of Sigma Phi Epsilon. “He helped me navigate every problem I had on my plate,” Lampres says. “He’d say OK, you need to take a step back and rethink this process.”
That influence rippled out to the rest of the fraternity: “He’d meet with people on academic probation and find the reasons why they were struggling and actually focus on that and care for the people, and gave them a lot of motivation to work harder.”
Growing up in the business
Before embarking on teaching and advising as his second act, Wilcox built a career in the family business: advertising.
Wilcox’s parents met in the 1950s while working at the Chicago advertising agency Leo Burnett. Growing up in the ‘70s, Wilcox looked on with fascination when his dad brought home materials from major TV networks to preview the upcoming season of shows. “I thought that was really cool in high school to be in the know about this stuff,” he says. “What emerged was this strong interest in how we connect through media.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree, Wilcox landed his dream job: Working at the same Chicago ad agency where his dad worked when he was a kid. Over the next 20-odd years, Wilcox worked as a media strategist in Chicago, Los Angeles and Madison, Wisconsin, lending his expertise to McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, Universal Pictures, State Farm and other brands.
Eventually, Wilcox decided to leave the business and earn a master’s degree to begin teaching advertising. But the career pivot wasn’t entirely smooth. The first course he taught at Marquette covered media strategy — his area of expertise. On paper, it sounded like a breeze.
“I thought, how hard can it be [to teach] a career path I had my entire professional life?” Wilcox remembers. Pretty hard, it turned out. “People were failing — it was terrible. It was an unmitigated disaster for all of us.”
Recognizing the need to rethink his approach, he rebuilt it: Instead of lecturing, he found ways to impart practical knowledge about the ad business. He also changed the way he interacted with students. “Once I got over the idea of ‘I’m your professor,’ I tried to be a little more approachable,” he says.
“The Daves” — a partnership enriches a legacy
Wilcox has earned a reputation for that approachability at Marquette, where he blends real-world lessons from the advertising world with a human touch that resonates with students and colleagues alike.
“Marquette’s motto of cura personalis is alive and well in Dave Wilcox,” says fellow advertising instructor Dave Hanneken. In Hanneken’s Advertising Campaigns course, his students often rely on Wilcox for help navigating the intricacies of a professional media research tool. “Dave is always willing to help my students develop a better understanding.”
Hanneken, like Wilcox, is an ad industry veteran. Before joining Marquette, he served as executive creative director at Hoffman York in Milwaukee. Both Hanneken and Wilcox — “the Daves” to college insiders — bring pragmatism to the classroom, encouraging students to treat their course work like real client work.
“A lot of what a creative director does is similar to what a teacher does,” Hanneken says. “As a creative director, I may tell my team, ‘You’ve got an idea that’s really strong but the script is weak or the headline doesn’t work. Go back and work it a little more.’ That’s not all that different than what I’d say to a student at Marquette.”
The Daves’ ties to ad industry professionals also give students an edge when learning about modern challenges and opportunities in the industry. Both have recruited former colleagues to share insight as guest speakers. Their connections have also opened doors for student visits to local ad agencies.
While the Daves have become known as a dynamic duo in the Diederich College, Wilcox plans to retire this May, leaving Hanneken to carry the torch and continue as faculty adviser to the Carl Collective.
But Wilcox won’t be ready to sever ties with the university completely. He says he’ll return to campus in the spring of 2026 to watch the capstone presentations of his current advisees — his signature bonds with students holding strong even as he envisions life beyond his final semester.
“I told my advisees, this is my last year here, but you have my cell phone number,” he says.
