Skip to main content

The Reed College of Media and College of Creative Arts will merge to form the new WVU College of Creative Arts and Media as of July 1, 2024. Get details.

Whitney Drake

Senior Manager of GM Brand and Story Bureau at General Motors

Whitney E. Drake holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Michigan State University and a Master of Science in Integrated Marketing Communications from West Virginia University, where she teaches IMC 610, IMC 631, IMC 641 and JRL 433. She has also taught social media campaigns at Wayne State University.

Drake currently manages the digital solutions team at GM, which focuses on self-help using artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP) and messaging solutions. Prior to this role, Drake oversaw enterprise-wide customer experience strategy and operations for GM’s Global Social Media Center of Expertise.

Before GM, Drake spent time in the agency world leading digital and social media efforts for global brands like Pure Michigan, T-Mobile, Children’s Place and Budweiser among others. Additionally, she has further corporate experiences on her resume from her work at Procter & Gamble and Ford Motor Company. These combined global, corporate and agency experiences have given her a clear strategic vision in almost any digital instance and experience in most crisis situations.

Her 25 years of experience counseling clients in public relations, social media and integrated communications, both inside and outside the automotive industry have allowed her to create unique and compelling activations around some of the world’s largest events, including the Super Bowl, American Idol, SXSW and the Country Music Association (CMA) Festival.

Drake has shared her insights at notable conferences such as Social Media Marketing World, Oracle Open World, the Incite Customer Care summit, and West Virginia University’s Integrate Conference.

Drake, her twin children, and her husband live in the suburbs of Metro Detroit. She is active in the community as a resource for other parents of preemies and with her charity Hope Closet, which provides dresses for financially constrained young women in high school.



Professor Drake was fabulous. I couldn't have asked for a better professor for my first class of grad school.

Very active, engaged, helping move along slow conversations, asked questions that made students dig deeper and come up with better, stronger answers.

Professor Drake is a great teacher, and leverages real-world events throughout the course, which is particularly helpful for this degree.