John Tisdale teaches media writing and media history classes. He taught journalism at Lamar University and Baylor University before joining the TCU faculty in 2002. He worked as a reporter or copy editor at the Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, Columbus (Mississippi) Commercial-Dispatch, Orange (Texas) Leader, Temple (Texas) Telegram, and the Waco (Texas) Tribune-Herald.

Tisdale earned a master's and doctorate in American history while advising the student newspaper at Baylor. He has recently published articles in The Oral History Review, the Journal of Mississippi History, and the Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record. His research area focuses on the 1950s.