Robert R. Ulmer is professor of Communication Studies and dean of the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The Greenspun College of Urban Affairs' mission is to create unique solutions to support community resiliency. His teaching, research, and advisory roles focus on producing effective risk and crisis communication through renewal, growth, and transformation. His current work involves creating transdisciplinary research solutions and engaging public/private partnerships to develop crisis-prepared and response-capable communities and organizations. Recently, the Greenspun College of Urban Affairs launched the MGM Resorts International Public Policy Institute. The Institute is bipartisan (the co-chairs are former Senator Harry Reid and former Speaker John Boehner) and focuses on creating innovative solutions to pressing national social crises. He is also involved in several research initiatives focused on tourist safety, smart cities, urban leadership, community trauma, and community resiliency.

His recent and current work is funded by MGM Resorts International, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency. He has worked in an advisory role both nationally and internationally for a wide variety of public and private organizations during risk and crisis events. He has served as an advisor on several large-scale oil spills, issues of homeland security and terrorism, financial crises, environmental disasters, food safety crises, and public health and community crises.

He has published articles in Management Communication Quarterly; Journal of Applied Poultry Research; Communication Yearbook; Journal of Business Ethics; Public Relations Review; Journal of Organizational Change Management; Journal of Applied Communication Research; Handbook of Crisis Communication, Argumentation, and Advocacy; Public Relations Review; Communication Studies; Handbook of Risk and Crisis Communication; Encyclopedia of Public Relations; International Handbook of Crisis Communication; Handbook of Crisis Communication; and Handbook of Public Relations.