The Fanning Center for Business Communication

Dear Friends,

For nearly 35 years, the Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication has promoted business communication excellence in a rapidly changing global and digital world. At the heart of this mission is a concern for the individual, a focus on ethics and integrity in business, and a commitment to advancing the College and the University. We activate this mission in four ways:

World-class academic experience
Thought leadership
Outreach and engagement
Strategic partnerships

The Fanning Center exists to influence the ways in which both students and faculty see the role of writing, speaking, listening, and other communication behaviors in the workplace. Our curriculum serves undergraduate, graduate, and specialized programs within the Mendoza College of Business. We also regularly collaborate with non-Mendoza campus partners who seek our communication expertise.

When not in the classroom, Fanning Center faculty research and publish on a wide range of issues including management communication, listening, persuasion, change and conflict communication. With more than 400 case studies in business and management communication, the Notre Dame Case Collection in Management and Corporate Communication is the largest of its kind in the English language. Fanning Center cases are used in more than 30 countries around the world. Many of our cases have been translated into Mandarin, Greek, Portuguese, and other languages.

Very few top-tier and second-tier programs in business have made the level of commitment that Notre Dame has made to improve their students’ understanding of communication.
Fanning Center courses offer tactics and skills at the entry level for all students, as well as strategy and critical thinking at more advanced levels. These are the so-called “soft skills” that recruiters and marketplace executives tell us are both hard to find and in high demand among firms who employ Notre Dame graduates. These skills are hard to find because they take considerable time to develop and because not all students choose to acquire them. They are increasing in demand because of automation, AI, machine learning and the ephemeral nature of technical, so-called “hard skills.”

Teaching our students to interact successfully with others in the workplace and larger global economy becomes increasingly important. The Fanning Center has been a national leader in the development of such interpersonal communication skills for more than three decades.

We are proud to partner with ThinkND to invite our alumni, parents, and friends of the University to learn with us.

With best wishes,

Amanda G. McKendree, Ph.D.
Arthur F. and Mary J. O’Neil Director, Fanning Center for Business Communication
Teaching Professor of Management & Organization, Mendoza College of Business
Academic Director for Undergraduate Studies, Mendoza College of Business
University of Notre Dame