University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications

Faculty Members

Mary Ann T. Ferguson , Ph.D.

Professor - Department of Public Relations

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin - Madison
M.A., University of Wisconsin - Madison
B.A., University of Wisconsin - Madison

Office: 2044 Weimer
Phone: (352) 392-6660, 376-0876
E-mail:

Web:

Building Theory in Public Relations: Interorganizational Relationships as a Public Relations Paradigm, 1984, AEJMC.
Dr. Ferguson's Facebook page

Research area

Corporate social responsibility, corporate citizenship, health communications, public relationships

Biography

• Dr. Ferguson has been a professor in the University of Florida ’s College of Journalism and Communications for 27 years.  She teaches public relations research methods, ethics and social responsibility, and corporate social responsibility.  She is an expert in applied communication research methods. 
• Professor Ferguson has directed many large-scale social evaluation research and needs assessment projects on tobacco, gambling, environmental health, health communication, and disaster planning, as well as statewide opinion polls for Florida newspapers, city and county governments, the university, and numerous associations.  Overall, she has been awarded more than $1.3 million in grants while at the University of Florida .  Most recently she supervised a large-scale eyetrack content analysis project of 600 readers of print and online news for The Poynter Institute.  
• In recognition of her scholarship in the area of corporate social responsibility, Dr. Ferguson has been named a Page Legacy Scholar by the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State University College of Communications, for both 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years.  In that research she has conducted in depth analysis of the social responsibility programming of 100 exemplar global corporations.
• In recent years she has developed an expertise in corporate social responsibility in the Middle East and is now working on developing a joint masters degree with Zayed University in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and the University of Florida.
• Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Florida , Dr. Ferguson was employed at IBM in Boulder, Co., and later in the University of Wisconsin ’s Division of Economic and Environmental Development.  She also worked as a publication writer and editor and as a communication consultant in state and local political campaigns
• As a higher education administrator, Dr. Ferguson most recently held positions as Associate Dean for Research and director of the Communication Research Center in the College of Journalism and Communications.  She has been a leader at the University of Florida in shared governance and serves on the UF Faculty Senate, was the Chair for the University Constitution Committee, and is the Chair of the College of Journalism and Communication’s Faculty Senate.
• Dr. Ferguson earned a Ph.D. in mass communication with an emphasis in evaluation research, an M.A. in journalism, and a B.A. in public relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Fall 2009 Office Hours

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