G. Thomas Goodnight was elected as a distinguished scholar in 2014 by the National Communication Association. Goodnight worked as a professor at Northwestern University from 1975 to 2002 and is currently a professor at USC Annenberg, also since 2002. Goodnight has directed over 50 doctoral dissertations in Communication and Rhetoric, several receiving awards. He is a distinguished mentor whose graduates who have led successful careers. He is a distinguished mentor whose graduates have led successful careers. A Fulbright Senior Scholar, he has traveled, researched, and spoken at communication programs in Asia, Europe, North America, South America, and Africa. Goodnight works on advanced studies in communication. Presently, these include sustainability and deliberation, resilience and the city, social theories and the cybersphere, and energy diplomacies. In the fall of 2023, he is a Fellow at Fudan University, Shanghai, and a guest scholar at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is giving reports on nested thinking, network pragmatics, cultural diplomacy, and the political economies of communications.

Goodnight is from Houston, Texas. He hails from an American family that goes back to German and French academics. He is married to his wife Lynn, who is also from Houston. The Goodnights have 3 children, James (a polymath), Katherine (a doctor) and Mark (a banker). They are an active part of the wide Trojan Family.