By Mackenzie Grizzard | Staff Writer
Being named a Baylor Outstanding Faculty Member of 2024-2025 means excellence in teaching, research, scholarships and more. But for one Baylor grad-turned-Outstanding Faculty member, his students are the ones that make it worth it.
Dr. Keith Richards is an associate professor of marketing in Baylor’s Hankamer School of Business and serves as the undergraduate program director in the marketing department. Richards was honored in the tenured teaching category for 2024-2025 Outstanding Faculty members.
“This is my academic home,” Richards said. “I’m a first [generation] college student, I actually never looked anywhere else. I fell in love with [Baylor] and thankfully was able to make it work out.”
While in undergrad, Richards was a student worker in the same department he works in now, giving him an “insider’s perspective,” he said.
“I just kind of watched the faculty here and just filed it away,” Richards said.
After graduating, Richards worked for Baylor admissions, then did strategy consulting for nearly a decade. Despite such fruitful experiences, Richards knew that fatherhood was what needed to come first.
“I was like, ‘I want a career that’s going to be a great career, but also going to allow me to be a dad,'” Richards said. “So that’s when I went back [and] got a Ph.D.”
When he’s not holding class for marketing and professional selling students, Richards directs the European Business Seminar Winter Program, which gives him an opportunity to further connect with his students, he said.
“Honestly, you get to know each other at a different level,” Richards said. “I let all the students on that program call me Keith, and so when they come back they can actually still call me Keith here.”
Houston senior Sam Kumar was among the several students that participated in the European Business Seminar Winter Program. He, like many others on the trip, developed a strong bond with Richards.
“I am so happy for Dr. Richards and this monumental achievement in his career; it is well deserved,” Kumar said. “If it wasn’t for Dr. Richards, I promise you I would not have gone on this trip.”
In his over 10 years of teaching, Richards said his favorite part of his job is the people and the pace.
“I do love the rhythm of this job because you have these seasons where you can focus and invest and then there’s a momentary change,” Richards said. “At the end of the semester, we’re all shifting to something new. It reminds me that time is short.”
As an educator and longtime Baylor Bear, Richards highlights the university’s teaching faculty and how honored he is to be a part of them.
“Just to be named among these other folks is really humbling,” Richards said. “I think there’s a long tradition here of really good teaching — that’s been a hallmark of Baylor forever.”
While in the classroom, Richards tries his best to connect with his students by trying to understand what they want and try to connect it to what they learn in his class, he said.
“And aside from the fact that they’re bright and good students, they’re great people and it’s just fun to get to know them,” Richards said.
While his students might come and go when the semester ends, many leave forever impacted by Richards, like Tanner Moore, one of Richards’ professional selling students who graduated in December. Moore shares her gratitude for Richards in a thank you note that sits perched on his desk.
“Your wealth of knowledge and experience, coupled with your unwavering support, has been invaluable in preparing me for my career,” Moore said in the note. “Your kindness and authenticity have left a lasting impact on me, and I deeply appreciate the example you’ve set.”
While ready-to-be-graded midterm exams might cover the floor of Richards’ office, handwritten thank you notes from former students take up just as much space on his desk — and in his heart.
“I think the thing they will remember is that I’m passionate about what I do and I care and that I cared about them,” Richards said.
