Amazon bestselling, award-winning thriller novelist. Vice Provost for Digital Learning at UCF. Cat person. MWA | ITW | SinC | AG | PWA

Joined November 2009
358 Photos and videos
Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
USA. A breakfast counter. The waitress recommended the biscuits and gravy, and when the plate arrived, I thought something had gone wrong in the kitchen. I say this with shame. The dish looked like a construction site after rain. Pale mounds. Gray ladle-fall. Speckles I could not identify. In my land, the eye eats first. A meal is arranged like a garden. This meal was arranged like weather. "Is it… finished?" I asked, carefully. "Honey, that's what it looks like." The man beside me was already eating his. He did not look up. "Just try it." I am a man who has charged hillsides at dawn. I raised the fork. I tried it. I must now formally apologize to the biscuits, the gravy, the waitress, the kitchen, and the entire breakfast tradition of the American South. It was magnificent. Warm. Peppered. The biscuit drank the gravy the way a field drinks rain — THAT is why it is shaped like that, you fool — and every mound I had insulted was a soft fold of comfort that my homeland, in eight hundred years, never once thought to invent. "Well?" the waitress asked. "I judged it," I confessed. "By its appearance. I am ashamed." "Everybody does, hon." Everybody does. A national dish that forgives you for doubting it. It expects the doubt. It waits for you on the other side of it. Do not judge the gravy by its face. Judge yourself, for hesitating. I order it every Saturday now. I no longer see the construction site. I see only the garden. It was a garden the whole time. The eye must be trained.
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
Behold: the final boss of suburbia. This absolute reformed swamplord looked at a $40 pop-up tent, some 2x4s, and a John Deere, then declared war on sweating forever. You can take the Florida out of the sticks, but the sticks just built him a mobile yard command center with 100% shade and zero shits given. He’s not mowing grass—he’s piloting a rolling redneck yacht through HOA waters, sipping victory while the neighbors rage-type on Nextdoor. One-man parade at 5 mph, full tiki bar vibes, eyesore upgraded to engineering legend. Unfiltered Florida genius. Peak evolution. 🌴🍺
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
On this day 13 years ago, Vine user Ryan McHenry began uploading a series of videos titled "Ryan Gosling Won't Eat His Cereal."
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Just published: "Thomas B. Cavanagh Newsletter - April 2026!". Check it out and subscribe to keep up to date on upcoming releases and appearances! thomasbcavanagh.kit.com/post… via @kit
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If you haven’t yet had a chance to read out the Florida Book Award-winning DIAMOND CUT, now’s your chance! For a limited time it’s available in ebook on Amazon for only 99 cents!! “Fast-paced and suspenseful, but with humor and heart” — Janet Evanovich amazon.com/Diamond-Cut-Thoma…
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
11 Nov 2025
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
The best homecoming tradition in the nation 🐥 Only at @UCF 📍
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
"My parents have been married for 75 years but few have noticed. Most of their friends have died. I contacted 6 local news stations and the Union Tribune newspaper giving details so they could do a story on their lives. Not one response from anyone. I think living into your 90's and staying married 75 years is quite an accomplishment. If you agree, please like and share my post. I want to show them people do care." Credit Eileen Atkinson
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
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I really enjoyed the conversation and appreciated the opportunity to talk about higher ed online learning leadership!
12 Aug 2025
🎙️This week on #EABOfficeHours #Podcast, EAB’s Jennifer Lerner sat down with @tbcavanagh and @JocelynWidmer, co-authors of The Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook, to explore the evolving and strategic role of the Chief Online Learning Officer. LISTEN NOW: bit.ly/4lvFDaJ #OnlineLearning #HigherEd #COLO #EdTech #DigitalLeadership
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
29 Jul 2025
Whoever dubbed this is great! 😂😂
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
find out more about the new COLO Guidebook and consider buying it for yourself or pointing a colleague to it as an important resource for better serving our varied potential learner populations in #highered. dub.sh/topcasts11e188

26 Jun 2025
TOPcast ep188 "It's not bad for provosts to maybe understand this [COLO] role, especially if they're writing job descriptions and hiring a search firm to go find one of these roles. [The COLO Guidebook] might not be a bad book for you to take a look at." - Dr. Thomas B. Cavanagh
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Thanks to Josh Kim and @insidehighered for featuring Jocelyn Widmer and me to talk about our new book, The Chief Online Learning Officers' Guidebook. (And thanks also to Josh for being a contributor to the book!) insidehighered.com/opinion/c…
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
10 Jun 2025
TOPcast ep187 "Instructional designers are equipped to disseminate effective course design and teaching practices at scale in a way that is learner-centric, in a way that benefits today's learners.... They're as much of a scholar of their field as the chemistry professor...."
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If you are not yet a subscriber to my novelist newsletter, it costs zilch and you can unsubscribe at any time. I'll give YOU something-a FREE short story when you sign up! New issue soon with fun updates, an AI surprise, and maybe another surprise gift! thomasbcavanagh.kit.com/sign…

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Unboxing! Thrilled to share my latest book, a nonfiction professional resource co-authored with Jocelyn Widmer and endorsed by UPCEA. The Chief Online Learning Officers’ Guidebook: a Framework for Strategy and Practice in Higher Education! Super proud of how it turned out.
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
hear the whole conversation with Sasha and then consider checking out her book! worth a listen if you want to more successfully add online program student enrollments. dub.sh/topcast11e186
21 May 2025
TOPcast ep186 Dr. Sasha Thackaberry-Voinovich has "so much knowledge [about online program marketing & enrollment] that [she] couldn't fit it all in [her] head. [She] had to put it into a book." - T. Cavanagh. (That book is "How to Grow Enrollment in Online Higher Education.")
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Thomas Cavanagh retweeted
18 May 2025
WE ARE YOUR 2025 @big12conference CHAMPIONS!!!!!! ⚔️
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