Every month, Felicity Tutu engages in an activity she absolutely adores. She emcees an online forum with customers from across the world to discuss the latest customs and trade compliance changes for her employer, a leading global logistics company headquartered in Houston.
Tutu knows what you may be thinking. You’re emceeing what? About… trade compliance? But hearing Tutu speak for only a few minutes, and this becomes clear: She welcomes the challenge with a smile and warmth that extends beyond the screen.
It’s just another day on the job for this 27-year-old Northside Village resident, who earned a Master of Arts in Strategic Communications from UHD’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences this May.
Tutu also possesses more than verbal agility. In 2019, she received the Excellence in Communications Studies award from the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, a recognition for her academic achievements during her undergraduate career at UHD.
This spring, as a graduate student, Tutu was one of two students to receive the newly created Community Engagement and Leadership Award from CHSS for her voluntary work with Houston’s Ensemble Theatre. She helped the well-known theater organization create a brand strategy for its youth program.
"Being honored for academic accomplishments is great but to be commended for work beyond the classroom – right here in my community – was major for me,” Tutu explains.
Serving as a peer mentor also netted Tutu UHD recognition. “I know it can be a scary going through a graduate program,” she says. “So, if anyone in the program said, ‘I am struggling, and I don’t know what to do,’ I was there to lend a hand.”
Early on, Tutu suspected she could make communications her career. In middle school, her teachers noticed her verbal ability and asked her to read the morning announcements. Soon after, Tutu began exploring her love for journalism and eventually served as the yearbook editor-in-chief. “That’s when I realized words are kind of my thing,” she says.
Yet it hasn’t always been easy for Tutu to earn her advanced communications degree. “I was working full time and navigating my own mental health struggles, and I still managed to get this done,” says Tutu. “I’m the first in my family to get an advanced degree. I wanted to inspire my older brother and younger siblings that the sky is the limit.”
These days, Tutu puts her training to use at CEVA Logistics, in a remote position that she convinced a colleague and future boss to create. “I told my supervisor I could help the business level up in an environment where we are the underdog,” she says. The boss gave her a resounding ‘yes’ and within no time, she was in Den Haag, Netherlands, bringing her promise to life.
On forum days, Tutu’s silky voice guides listeners through heady conversation on tariffs and tax charges, global threats and transportation challenges, content many people would not spend two minutes listening to much less an hour. But the audience of 250 logistics professionals are spellbound, with trade compliance leaders from Fortune 500 companies sharing praises.
UHD’s Strategic Communications graduate program gave Tutu even more confidence. Dr. Darius Benton, UHD Arts & Communications professor and MASC program director, was especially effective at encouraging her and his students. “He helped me understand the work we would do in a meaningful way,” Tutu says. “He said I could do it.”
Tutu dreams of one day being her own boss, but not a bottom-line driven CEO. “I want to extend the opportunity for the younger generation to get into this industry,” she says. “I hope to inspire them to lead.”
The graduate program gave her invaluable skills. “I think UHD is offering the most contemporary communications master’s degree in Texas,” Tutu adds. “The content UHD delivers is relevant and timely. That’s why it was valuable to me. And I have faith the UHD MASC graduate degree program will continue to transform as world around us does to meet the need of practitioners like me.”