recent developments

Three College faculty lead national academic organizations

New leaders (l-r) Joe Pisani, Kathy Fitzpatrick and Bernell Tripp (Photo by James Leslie)

Three College of Journalism and Communications faculty members head national academic organizations in 2002-03.

Dr. Kathy Fitzpatrick, associate professor of public relations, is the chair of the 316-member Educators Academy of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Fitzpatrick presided at the Academy’s mid-year conference in Miami on March 8-10.
She has served on the Board of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and helped draft the new PRSA Code of Ethics. She served as president of the Dallas chapter of PRSA in 1996.

The PRSA annual conference will be held Nov. 16-19 in San Francisco.

Dr. Joe Pisani, professor of advertising, is president-elect of the American Academy of Advertising (AAA). He will become president on Jan.1, 2003. Pisani, who has been a member of the organization since 1996, also served as treasurer of AAA’s in 1999 and 2000.

The AAA’s includes over 600 advertising educators and industry professionals. Their 2002 annual conference was March 21-24 in Jacksonville.

Dr. Bernell Tripp, associate professor of journalism, is president of the American Journalism Historians Association (AJHA). A member since 1988, Tripp has also served as second vice president and first vice president. She is the organization’s first African-American president.

Tripp said the organization’s goal is to foster interest in media history and work to add journalism history to the curriculum of universities across the country.

The organization’s 357 members are journalism and history educators as well as graduate students and researchers. The annual conference of AJHA will be in Nashville on Oct. 2-5.