FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CPRE Elects Leaders and Announces Goals for 2025
The Commission on Public Relations Education has elected leaders and announced goals for 2025.
Dr. Pamela Bourland-Davis will serve as vice chair representing public relations educators. Dr. Deborah Silverman will serve as secretary, and Dr. Adrienne Wallace will serve as director-at-large.
Dr. Pamela Bourland-Davis is professor of public relations and professional communication and leadership at Georgia Southern University where she served as department chair for 19 years.
She has presented or published papers and chapters on topics ranging from crisis communication and activism to organizational culture and internship management. She is the immediate past editor of the Journal of Public Relations Education and represents the journal on the Commission for Public Relations Education. She served as co-chair of the Commission’s Research Committee, which produced the 50th anniversary Signature Report in 2023, Navigating Change: Recommendations for Advancing Undergraduate Public Relations Education, for which she also served as co-editor and chapter co-author. She worked with JPRE leadership on a special issue focused on extending the CPRE report data and applications in the classroom.
A past chair of AEJMC’s Public Relations division, she also served two terms on AEJMC’s Finance Committee leading an ad hoc committee review of staff salaries. She has served in a variety of other leadership positions for AEJMC and the PRD, as well as for NCA and PRSA. She is a past president of Southern States Communication Association.
Dr. Deborah A. Silverman serves as current Secretary of the Commission and as a member of the Commission’s Fundraising Committee. She is chair and associate professor in the SUNY Buffalo State Communication Department, where she also is coordinator of the online M.S. in Public Relations program and faculty adviser to its PRSSA chapter.
Silverman has served on the Commission’s 50th Anniversary Committee, its Communications and Promotions Committee, its Ethics Committee, and as 2022 chair of its DEI Committee, where she developed an initial inventory of DEI resources for PR educators. She also served for five years on the national Public Relations Society of America Board of Directors, including one year as treasurer, and for three years as chair of PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards. She is the author or co-author of two textbooks for public relations students and has published book chapters and journal articles that focus on public relations education.
Dr. Adrienne Wallace’s involvement with the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) began before any formal connection. She co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Public Relations Education focused on classroom activities aligned with the KSAs outlined in the 2017 Fast Forward report by CPRE. Later, she co-edited the CPRE 50th Anniversary Issue of JPRE with Pamela Bourland-Davis and Elizabeth Toth.
Dr. Wallace’s leadership roles in CPRE to date include her work on the author team for the CPRE 2023 report (Chapter 8: PR as a Driver of Social Change), co-chair of the research committee with colleague Dr. Emily Kinsky (2024-present), service as a CPRE member as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Public Relations Education (2024-present); and Director-at-Large on CPRE Board of Directors (2024-present).
She also has revitalized CPRE’s Research Panel with Dr. Emily Kinsky, establishing an evergreen process for the committee and panelists, has assisted CPRE in fundraising efforts, and helped with the RFP process for the CPRE website through industry connections.
Drs. Bourland-Davis, Silverman, and Wallace join the following leaders in their 2025 CPRE Board of Director roles:
- Gary McCormick (Principal/Owner/ GMc Communications), who moves from Co-Chair/Practitioners to Immediate Past Co-Chair Practitioners;
- Julie O’Neil (Associate Dean for Graduate Studies and Administration, Texas Christian University), who continues in her second year as Co-Chair/Educators;
- Chris Brathwaite (Chief Communications Officer, American Electric Power), who moves from Vice Chair to Co-Chair/Practitioners;
- Neil Foote (Associate Dean for Research, External Affairs, University of North Texas, and President/CEO, Foote Communications, LLC), who continues in his second year as Treasurer; and
- Matt Tidwell (Director, Professional Graduate Studies, William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Kansas), who continues in his second year as a Director-at-Large.
The Commission’s goals for 2025 include the following:
- Conduct research on public relations graduate education and other pressing issues important to public relations pedagogy.
- Create meaningful industry/educator dialogue about issues important to public relations students and early professionals.
- Continue to raise awareness of CPRE research and programming.
“We’re delighted with the momentum that the Commission has built since we unveiled our 2023 Signature Report and celebrated the Commission’s 50th anniversary a year ago,” said Dr. Julie O’Neil, CPRE co-chair for educators.
“With so many changes around the world, it’s important that we support curricula that prepare public relations students for the issues that will continue to confront all areas of our society,” said Gary McCormick, CPRE co-chair for practitioners.
Details about the Commission can be found at its website: https://www.commissionpred.org/.
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About CPRE: The Commission on Public Relations Education, the authoritative voice on public relations education, was founded in 1973 by the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and the Public Relations Society of America to address the quality of public relations education in the United States.
Since then, CPRE has issued periodic research reports and recommendations on undergraduate and graduate education in public relations for universities, accrediting bodies, and professional associations around the world. Today, with 24 member organizations in the U.S. and abroad, CPRE operates year-round as a 501(c)3 organization in partnership with the Institute for Public Relations and continues to offer a forum for public relations education with a global perspective.
Contact: Julie O’Neil
Email: j.oneil@tcu.edu
Phone: (817) 223-7860