Brian H. Spitzberg is a senate distinguished professor emeritus at the School of Communication at San Diego State University. He received his BA from the University of Texas—Arlington (1978), his MA (1980) and PhD (1981) from the University of Southern California, and his Certified Threat Management (CTMTM) qualification in 2017. He is a core researcher at the Center for Communication, Health, & the Public Good, and a co-founder & advisory board member at the Center for Human Dynamics in the Mobile Age, SDSU. He received the 2009 Western States Communication Association Scholar Award, the 2011 National Communication Association Larry Kibler Memorial Award, and the 2017 Mark Knapp NCA Award for his career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication. He co-authored the book "The Dark Side of Relationship Pursuit", which won both the biennial International Association for Relationship Research Book Award (1st ed.: 2008) and the NCA Gerald Miller book award (2nd ed., 2015). He is an author and co-author of over 140 scholarly articles and book chapters, cited over 15,000 times. He has co-authored and co-edited several scholarly books on communication competence and the dark side of communication. His primary areas of research involve meme diffusion, assessment, interpersonal communication skills, jealousy, conflict, threats, coercion, violence, and stalking.