Introduction to Public Relations: Strategic, Digital, and Socially Responsible Communication

Janis Teruggi Page draws from 20 years of executive experience managing strategic communications for regional and national media companies. She managed corporate, consumer, and media relations, creating programming partnerships with major TV networks, directing PR for national industry trade show events, and supervising new product launches. She is a member of PRSA and continues to serve clients through her consultancy, MediawerksPR.

An award-winning educator, Janis is a faculty member of the Department of Communication, University of Illinois at Chicago and a Fulbright Distinguished Chair scholar. She has developed and taught both undergraduate- and graduate-level PR courses that instruct principles, writing, cases, campaigns, corporate advocacy, issues management, sustainability, and visual communication.

Janis has produced more than 50 conference papers, book chapters, and refereed articles. Her work appears in the Journal of Public Interest Communication, the Journal of Public Relations Education, the Journal of Political Management, and the Handbook of Strategic Communication, among others. Janis is also coauthor of the 2021 textbook Visual Communication Insights and Strategies. She earned a PhD from Missouri School of Journalism in 2005.

Lawrence J. Parnell is an award-winning practitioner and educator. In 2003, he was selected the PR Professional of the Year by PRWeek; in 2009, he was named to the PR News Hall of Fame; and The George Washington University Master’s in Strategic Public Relations program, which he led for 16 years, was named Best PR Education Program by PRWeek in 2015. In August 2024, he was named the PR Educator of the Year by PR News.

He offers the practical experience of more than 30 years of communications work in government, corporate, and agency settings and 16 years in academia as an associate professor of strategic public relations and program director at The George Washington University (GW). As well, he has served as an adjunct professor at the GW School of Business teaching strategic communications to MBA candidates. Parnell is an active member of PRSA and the prestigious Page Society.

During his career, he has advised elected officials, government leaders, and corporate executives at the national and global levels on major business and communications issues. He continues to provide high-level communications consulting and executive coaching to corporations, nonprofits, and government organizations through his firm Parnell Communications.

His research on CSR, PR, and public diplomacy has been presented at national and global industry and academic conferences and published in Shaping International Public Opinion: A Model for Nation Branding and Public Diplomacy.