Jason Davids Scott, PhD (they/them) is the Associate Dean of the Roy H. Park School of Communications. Dr. Scott comes to Ithaca College after over a decade as a professor and leader at the Sidney Poitier New American Film School at Arizona State University, where, as interim director of the newly-formed program, they oversaw a doubling of enrollment, the establishment of new media production facilities and programs in Mesa, AZ and Los Angeles, and the naming of the school after the legendary film actor a year before his passing. In the classroom, Dr. Scott taught courses on Sex and Violence in Film and Television, Independent Film, Technical Writing for the Film Industry, Film/TV Industry History, and courses in screenwriting, project development, and livestream production. They retired as Emeritus Associate Professor, the first faculty member from the school’s film program to ever retire with such honors.
Dr. Scott, known as “JDS,” was born and raised in Southern California, to parents with established careers in journalism and public relations – their dad was a publicist for Disneyland, and later several major film studios. After graduating from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Cinema Studies, Dr. Scott followed in their father’s footsteps and became a publicist in New York City, working on the marketing and PR campaigns and creating materials for dozens of independent, queer, and foreign films in the heyday of “indie” cinema. This included serving as unit publicist on the films “Dazed and Confused,” “The Crow,” and “Party Girl,” and creating the original marketing materials for the award-winning documentary “Hoop Dreams.”
Relocating to Los Angeles, they shifted into the world of feature film development, working for several years as a story analyst and administrator for Castle Rock Entertainment, and later actress/producer Helen Hunt. In 2001, they returned to graduate school at UC Santa Barbara, earning an MA and Ph.D. in Theatre Studies, while specializing in the intersection of media, performance, and culture, and serving as a teaching assistant in both the theatre and film programs. In addition to directing and performing in numerous productions, Dr. Scott established a long-running student variety show and earned recognition for outstanding contributions to campus culture.
After two years as a lecturer at Arizona State University, Dr. Scott worked for two years as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, directing multiple mainstage, summer, and student-devised productions. Returning to ASU in 2013, Dr. Scott was asked to lead the growing film programs, being appointed as Area Coordinator, Assistant Director (lead faculty member), and eventually interim director (2020-2022) for the film school. During this time, publications included contributions to The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Actors and Acting, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Directors, and Monologues for Latino/a Actors; book chapters on directors Wes Anderson and Hal Hartley, actor Robert Downey Jr, and the television series Outlander; and peer-reviewed articles on representations of sexual identity, violence and trauma in digital culture and television.
In 2019, Cognella Publishing released Dr. Scott’s Everything but the Script , the only professional textbook on writing specifically for the film industry, including standards for story reports (coverage), writer’s notes, pitch letters, press releases, production notes, personal bios, screening invitations, and copy for digital/social media. Dr. Scott was appointed Associate Professor with tenure in 2020, and for three years served as the Chairperson for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts Faculty Personnel Committee.
In addition to continuing to work as a public relations and marketing consultant, Dr. Scott has also developed a career in documentary production, serving as faculty producer of the apocalypse-inspired informational web platform “Channel Zed,” Series Production Coordinator on season five of the educational series “Poetry in America,” and Associate Producer on the ASU environmental short “The Assignment” with the Center for Science and Imagination. In 2025, Dr. Scott directed and co-produced “Welcome to the Dorrance Dome,” the first customized 360-dome documentary produced by and exhibited at Arizona Science Center.
Dr. Scott is an avid baseball fan (St. Louis Cardinals), amateur singer/musician, road tripper, and longtime youth league umpire, and currently shares a home with two dogs (Bert and Ernie), three cats, and way too many books.