Many faculty and staff came out to support Nic Dugger at the Distinguished Alumnus ceremony held in the Ingram Building on Oct. 19, 2018. (Back row left to right): Todd O’Neill, assistant professor, Media Arts; Dan Pfeifer, professor, Recording Industry; Billy Pittard, chair of Media Arts; Marc Parrish, director of Technical Systems, Media Arts; Mike Forbes, assistant director of Technical Systems, Media Arts; Dennis O’Neal, professor emeritus, Media Arts; Abby White development director, College of Media and Entertainment and WMOT Roots Radio. (Front row, left to right): Zeny Panol, associate dean, College of Media and Entertainment; Kevin McNulty, associate professor, Media Arts; Ken Paulson, dean, College of Media and Entertainment; and Nic Dugger, 2018 Distinguished Alumnus and owner, TNDV Television.
For the second year in a row, a graduate of the College of Media and Entertainment has been named an MTSU Distinguished Alumnus.
Nic Dugger, a 2001 graduate of MTSU’s Department of Media Arts (formerly Electronic Media Communication), was honored with the MTSU Alumni Association’s highest award in October at a ceremony in the MT Center in the Sam Ingram Building.
TNDV in the MTSU Homecoming parade.
Dugger is the owner of TNDV Television, a company he started in 2004 that specializes in live sporting events, broadcast entertainment specials and corporate-event productions. TNDV boasts a fleet of eight mobile production trucks and multiple HD and 4K flypacks. The company produces over 300 nationwide projects a year and has won seven Emmys in the category of Live Television Production.
Dugger is already a member of the College of Media and Entertainment’s Board of Trust and is the youngest member to be inducted into the college’s Wall of Fame, an annual honor given to select Media and Entertainment graduates. He often loans his equipment, including his trucks, to MTSU students for training. Then, he often hires those students when they graduate.
“I know how important it is for students to see and try the equipment being used in the real world,” Dugger says. “TNDV is proud to have a staff full of MTSU grads, so it is important for us to maintain strong relationships with the students who will become our co-workers and clients in the years to come.”
In 2016, the Nashville Business Journal named TNDV the Small Business of the Year in the Communications category as well as the Small Business of the Year Overall.
“We started, grew and flourished thanks to the Nashville community,” Dugger said. “The recent success of our city is something we support and celebrate and intend to cultivate in the work we do.”
Dugger and TNDV family was a main feature in this past weekend’s MTSU Homecoming Parade. His first truck “Origination” pulled a festive blue and white float that carried not only his own family but his employees’ families as well. They tossed TNDV branded Mentos and toys to the crowd.
Dugger also made a significant donation to the college during his acceptance speech. He called Dean Ken Paulson up to the front and handed him an envelope, warning him that there was one caveat to the gift.
“And the caveat is I have no conditions,” he said. “Keep doing what you’re doing. You are pulling off feats of amazement that cross the graduation stage every semester – many of whom I try to hire when I can – so the transformation has been outstanding. … I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
To learn more about TNDV please click here.
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