Key Takeaways
- • Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication hosted the second annual "Hedge Fund: Venture Between the Hedges" competition on April 14, 2025, a Shark Tank-style event funded by industry leaders to drive graduate student research in crisis communication strategy.
- • Graduate student teams competed by developing theory-based crisis communication strategies for a real-world scenario: managing Yosemite National Park operations amid federal funding cuts, demonstrating practical application of academic training to institutional challenges.
- • The winning team receives funding to execute a research project in partnership with the Crisis Insights & Analytics Lab at the Crisis Communication Think Tank (CCTT), directly converting competitive strategy work into publishable research outcomes.
- • Five industry executives served as judges, including Jason Anthoine (ABJ '89), a core CCTT partner and Grady College Board of Trust member, bridging academic rigor with practitioner expertise in crisis management disciplines.
- • The competition framework requires student teams to develop both actionable crisis communication strategies and research questions, ensuring deliverables address both immediate stakeholder concerns and longer-term knowledge gaps in the field.
Summary
The Crisis Communication Hedge Fund represents an institutional innovation in graduate management education, combining venture capital investment mechanics with academic research objectives. Operating under the "Venture Between the Hedges" branding, the initiative entered its second year on April 14, 2025, at Grady College, where it provided tangible funding and industry validation for graduate-level crisis communication research.
The competition structure mirrors traditional venture pitch events: graduate student teams competing for investor capital, but with explicitly academic deliverables. Rather than requesting funding for a commercial venture, competing teams developed comprehensive crisis communication strategies addressing federal funding constraints at Yosemite National Park—a scenario presenting real operational and reputational risks. Teams were required to move beyond strategy recommendations to formulate testable research questions and empirical investigation plans, ensuring that winning proposals generate publishable research insights rather than consultative reports alone.
The judging panel consisted of five industry executives who evaluated submissions based on strategic coherence and research merit. Jason Anthoine, an Grady College alumnus (ABJ '89) and core partner of the Crisis Communication Think Tank, served as the competition's "Head Shark." Anthoine's dual role—both senior practitioner and institutional trustee—exemplifies the program's design to embed industry standards within academic evaluation frameworks, ensuring that student work meets both theoretical rigor and practitioner credibility.
The winning team gains access to funding and institutional support through the Crisis Insights & Analytics Lab at the CCTT to execute their research agenda. This structure directly monetizes academic output and provides graduate students with research infrastructure typically unavailable in standard coursework, while simultaneously generating new empirical work in crisis communication management for institutional deployment. The program's second-year iteration suggests sustained industry commitment and demonstrates viability of the hedge fund competition model for advancing applied research in communications and conflict management disciplines.
The competition structure mirrors traditional venture pitch events: graduate student teams competing for investor capital, but with explicitly academic deliverables. Rather than requesting funding for a commercial venture, competing teams developed comprehensive crisis communication strategies addressing federal funding constraints at Yosemite National Park—a scenario presenting real operational and reputational risks. Teams were required to move beyond strategy recommendations to formulate testable research questions and empirical investigation plans, ensuring that winning proposals generate publishable research insights rather than consultative reports alone.
The judging panel consisted of five industry executives who evaluated submissions based on strategic coherence and research merit. Jason Anthoine, an Grady College alumnus (ABJ '89) and core partner of the Crisis Communication Think Tank, served as the competition's "Head Shark." Anthoine's dual role—both senior practitioner and institutional trustee—exemplifies the program's design to embed industry standards within academic evaluation frameworks, ensuring that student work meets both theoretical rigor and practitioner credibility.
The winning team gains access to funding and institutional support through the Crisis Insights & Analytics Lab at the CCTT to execute their research agenda. This structure directly monetizes academic output and provides graduate students with research infrastructure typically unavailable in standard coursework, while simultaneously generating new empirical work in crisis communication management for institutional deployment. The program's second-year iteration suggests sustained industry commitment and demonstrates viability of the hedge fund competition model for advancing applied research in communications and conflict management disciplines.
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