Kathleen Kelly, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Public Relations professor, will retire at the end of the spring 2019 semester after 16 years at the College, including three years as chair of the Public Relations Department.

Kelly is widely recognized as the leading authority on fundraising as a specialization of public relations and expanded and elevated UFCJC curriculum. She was the recipient of three of the highest awards in public relations teaching and research: the 2004 PRSA Outstanding Educator Award, the PRSA Foundation’s Jackson Jackson and Wagner Behavioral Science Prize in 1999, and the Institute for Public Relations’ 1995 Pathfinder Award in recognition of lifetime achievement in public relations research.

Kelly’s research has focused on organization-public relationships, particularly donor relations. In addition to 70 articles, book chapters, monographs, and refereed papers, she is the sole author of two award-winning books on fundraising, including the first academic textbook on the subject: “Effective Fund-Raising Management.”

She is a member of the prestigious Arthur W. Page Society, an invitation-only, professional association composed of the chief communication officers (CCOs) of the world’s largest corporations, the CEOs of the leading public relations agencies, and a few distinguished academics from public relations and business.  She also is an elected member of PRSA’s College of Fellows.

She served 12 years as a trustee of the Institute for Public Relations and represented PRSA on the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (ACEJMC) for seven years.  She was a member of the executive committees of both the 1999 and 2006 National Commissions on Public Relations Education.

Prior to coming to CJC, Kelly was professor and coordinator of the public relations program at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, La., where she held an endowed research professorship for 10 years. She received her bachelor’s (1973), master’s (1979) and Ph.D. (1989) from the University of Maryland, where she also taught for five years.

Posted: April 15, 2019
Category: College News
Tagged as: Kathleen Kelly