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Matthew Cummings

Director of Communications, Fort Myers - Islands, Beaches and Neighborhoods
Teaches Introduction to IMC

Matthew Cummings

2012 Alexia Vanides Online Teaching Award Recipient

Matthew Cummings is director of communications for the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau (VCB) in Southwest Florida. He leads the VCB's public relations team, promoting tourism and sharing the stories of the islands, beaches, and neighborhoods of Fort Myers with local, national, and international media.

Before joining the VCB, Cummings served as director of strategic communications at Erie Insurance (Nasdaq: ERIE), a Fortune 500 provider of auto, home, business, and life insurance.

In addition to his industry leadership, Cummings has taught in the Reed School of Media and Communications at West Virginia University since 2006. He previously served as assistant director of online programs for the School and lead instructor for the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) graduate program, where he taught and managed the program's introductory course. In 2012, he received the Alexia Vanides IMC Teaching Award in recognition of excellence in teaching.

Cummings brings more than 25 years of award-winning experience in strategic communications, marketing, and public relations to the classroom, with leadership experience across the corporate, nonprofit, agency, tourism, and education sectors. Earlier in his career, he served as vice president of a regional advertising agency and spent five years in commercial radio as an on-air personality. In 2025, the Northwest Pennsylvania Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) named him its PR Person of the Year.

Cummings earned a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University in 2006 and a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 2000. He also completed graduate study in strategic communications at Seton Hall University and educational administration at the University of Nebraska.

Professor Cummings was very active responding to all discussion threads by classmates and myself. He challenged us to dig deeper in our analysis and provided key takeaways as they related to IMC. He also started alternate threads to get our thought process reading for weekly writing assignments.

Professor Cummings took the time to respond to almost every discussion post with insightful feedback and thought–provoking responses. It was nice to have an instructor that was a part of the discussion and not just a voiceless entity.

The feedback from Professor Cummings is what truly helped me in this course. He didn't sugar coat anything for me. He knew my full potential and just wanted me to execute what I knew I could.