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As she prepares to start a new job, Erin Baptiste is reflecting on one of the more unusual classes she took as a senior in the College of Communication, Media, Design and Information.

Pat Finn laughs in this file photo as he watches students working in an improv course he taught at the college. Finn, a well-known actor whose work included roles on The Middle, Seinfeld, Friends and many others, died of cancer in December. Alumni and faculty remembered Finn as a passionate teacher who made improv less intimidating. Below, Finn offers pointers to a group of students during class. Photos by Kimberly Coffin.

The course—a special topics class around improv and strategic communication taught by character actor Pat Finn—challenged students to bring a different set of skills to the kinds of challenges awaiting them as advertisers, marketers, public relations experts and designers.

“Something that stuck with me from that course was not being afraid to say yes—to be open and go with the flow,” said Baptiste (StratComm’18), who is leaving a design, social media and events management role at Groove Toyota, in Englewood, to become marketing director at University Bicycles, in Boulder.

“Anytime I start a new job, I go in feeling—well, like a bit of an idiot,” she said with a laugh. “There’s so much you don’t know. And that openness that Pat encouraged in that improv class showed me it’s OK to not know everything. Saying ‘I don’t know’ isn’t showing ignorance—it’s opening up a chance for other people to share with you.”

Finn, a lecturer at the college between 2016 and 2022, —a loss that was felt at Boulder and beyond, as Finn’s own acting career led to guest roles on Seinfeld, Friends, Murphy Brown, The Middle and elsewhere.

“There are moments in college that have been lost to time. Pat’s course is not one of those,” Baptiste said. “He brought such joy and kindness to the classroom. Pat was so open to whatever you were feeling. He was excited to take that journey with you, and made an experience like improv feel a lot less scary and easier to grasp and use.”

Bringing ‘yes, and’ to the curriculum

Finn’s use of “yes, and”—an improv technique that’s found home in organizational leadership as a tool for building trust and collaboratively solving problems—was something Lori Bergen, founding dean of the college, mentioned in bringing Finn on board in CMDI’s early days. She first met Finn as dean of Marquette University’s Diederich College of Communication, which includes a major in theatre arts, alongside traditional media and communication studies; Finn was an alumnus.

“‘Yes, and’ is almost a cliche in improv, but the idea of keeping things positive, of making other people on your team look good—after all, you’re there together—that’s just what he did, how he taught and how he lived,” Bergen said. “He reached out to me shortly after I started in Boulder to congratulate me, and of course he used ‘yes, and’ to pitch me—‘Who’s innovative enough to bring improv to strategic communication?’ How was I going to say no to that?”

Finn was not a headliner, “but he’s someone you’d recognize, because he always played such cool roles,” Bergen said. “And that was a reflection of who he was as a person—he worked so hard to make other people feel seen, especially our students. And his generosity and warmth of spirit always made you feel special.”

Harsha Gangadharbatla, who was among the founding faculty of CMDI, recalled enlisting Finn to run a workshop for faculty in the early days of the advertising, public relations and design department.

“He really helped bring our faculty together and instill that ‘yes, and’ attitude and approach to solving problems,” said Gangadharbatla, now a distinguished professor and senior associate dean for the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “He played a key role in building the department’s culture during its early days.”

Bergen echoed that, saying Finn’s ability to make people feel special made the workshop, which she attended, a hit.

“Most of us are programmed to not say the first thing that jumps into our head when we’re solving a problem,” she said. “And when you do that, you’re suppressing creativity and imagination. Pat’s workshop was great because in the early days of the college, those were two things we couldn’t afford to bottle up.”

Teaching students to think on their feet

Gangadharbatla said Finn’s skill as an actor and teacher made students comfortable applying lessons from improv to think on their feet and quickly make decisions.

“Pat helped many of the APRD students hone in on their presentation skills and learn how to get comfortable in front of a crowd,” Gangadharbatla said, adding that Finn’s impact was especially felt at the National Student Advertising Competition, where his guidance helped students earn second place in the district in 2018.

It was perhaps unusual for a Hollywood actor to wind up teaching in Boulder, but Harrison Morof (StratComm’18) remembered him talking about his daughters, who both graduated from CMDI and work in entertainment. worked on Michelle Obama’s The Light We Carry and Rupal; Caitlin Finn (Comm’19) has held roles at Netflix, ESPN and elsewhere. His son, Ryan, attended Marquette.

“It was a very touching, sweet thing,” Morof said. “I’m sure he was teaching here to be closer to his daughters, which I think we all admired and appreciated.”

Morof, associate director of media and analytics at Duncan Channon, grew up watching improv on Saturday Night Live, and saw the chance to take the course with Finn as a truly unique opportunity.

“He had a way of making everyone feel welcome and important,” Morof said. “Going up in front of your peers and wanting to impress them—I remember being nervous about that, but he was so good at encouraging us to experiment and take risks while being gentle and making sure you felt safe.”

Making quick pivots

Improv lessons also have helped him rapidly pivot when change happens at work—important, since many of Morof’s clients are in healthcare.

“We worked on California’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, and things were changing by the day,” he said, including who was eligible, how patients got it, moving supply to meet demand, even the period when the Johnson & Johnson shot was temporarily paused. “Figuring out how to solve those kinds of dynamic problems was absolutely influenced by flexing that improv, ‘yes, and’ muscle.”

It’s a sentiment Baptiste shared, as well—especially when her work has taken her places where she may be the only creative professional on the team, surrounded by finance or analytics experts who don’t get the rush of seeing an idea take form as a campaign.

“When you’re on a team where other peoples’ work doesn’t have the same public visibility as yours, it becomes so much more important to hear what they’re saying and recognize how they are informing your process,” she said.

“I have been struck several times in my career about how much I think about improv as a result of that class—like, my team and I should do a class like that, or my husband and I should, because it just opens up communication so much. In such a short time, Pat made such a huge impact on my life.”

Joe Arney covers research and general news for the college.