The executive steering committee is comprised of distinguished scholars in strategic communication who have published numerous significant works in the field. Representatives from all over the world ensure that the conclave is truly global in nature. These thought-leaders will consider futuristic problems, challenges, and crises that strategic communication will face in the next years and decades, offering innovative preparation strategies for the field and its practitioners in government, industry, education and NGOs.
Our members focus on specific areas as distinct as artificial intelligence, ethics, government-citizen relationship management, public affairs and activism, misinformation in public health, social media marketing and analytics, communication technology, emergency preparedness and defense applications.
Core Executive Board members are futurists who saw the need to address the turbulent challenges and crises in the modern world and as applied to our field of strategic communication.
Shannon A. Bowen, Ph.D., Founder & Executive Director, specializes in applied ethics, issues management, and decision models for helping organizations better face challenges. Her most cited works are on Kantian ethics, and she recently held an NSF grant with the Artificial Intelligence Institute studying emergency information during crises such as hurricanes.
Elina Erzikova, Ph. D. – Conference Director - Professor of Public Relations at Central Michigan University. She is a Fellow of the Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations at the University of Alabama. Her primary areas of research interest include relationships between the media & power and public relations leadership.
Dr. Ansgar Zerfass is Professor and Chair of Strategic Communication at Leipzig University, Germany, and Professor of Communication and Leadership at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway. He is editor of the International Journal of Strategic Communication, Routledge, USA, and Board Member of the International Communication Association (ICA), Washington D.C.
Yicheng Zhu (Ph.D., University of South Carolina) is an assistant professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Beijing Normal University, China P.R. His research interests include international public relations, public diplomacy, and computational communication research.
Steering Committee members advise, present research and concepts, and review papers with regard to how the future will impact their specialty area in strategic communication.
Bruce K. Berger, Ph.D., is professor emeritus, advertising and public relations, at the University of Alabama (UA), and founding director of The Plank Center for Leadership in Public Relations. His research has been recognized with IPR’s Pathfinder Award (2012) and the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize (2013). Previously, Berger was a PR executive for two global companies for 20 years and worked on projects in 30 countries.
Jesper Falkheimer (Ph.D.) is Professor of Strategic Communication, Lund University, Sweden, and Professor II at Kristiana University College, Oslo, Norway. He is Editor-in-Chief for Journal of Communication Management, has extensive managerial experience and is a member of several academic and corporate boards. Among his recent publications are Strategic Communication: An Introduction to Theory and Global Practice (Routledge) and Research Handbook on Strategic Communication (Edward Elgar), with Mats Heide.
Jeong-Nam Kim is the Gaylord Family Endowed Chair of Strategic Communication at the University of Oklahoma. He serves as a senior editor of the journal “Health Communication,” and was elected as an educator member of the Arthur W. Page Society. Kim was awarded the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize for his research. Kim investigates "public behavior" and its implications for social dynamics. He has theorized on people’s communicative actions in individual life and in response to social problems. He applies theories, such as his Situational Theory of Problem Solving, to the fields of public relations, strategic communication, health communication, public diplomacy, corporate and government communication.
Dr. Vilma Luoma-aho is professor of Corporate Communication and Vice Dean at JSBE, Jyväskylä University School of Business and Economics, Finland. She is author and editor of the new Handbook of Digital Corporate Communication (2023), and has published in leading communication journals on emerging topics such as social media influencers, and negative engagement, and currently leads an Academy of Finland funded research project on young people and brands in social media.
Katie R. Place is Professor of Strategic Communication in the School of Communication at Quinnipiac University, USA. Her research examines power, ethics, and listening in public relations. She has authored more than 60 conference papers or publications in such peer-reviewed journals as Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Media Ethics.
Sónia Pedro Sebastião is a Full Professor of Communication Sciences at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon. She acts as Scientific and Pedagogical Coordinator of the Communication Sciences Department and as President of the Executive Board of the Research Center for Public Administration and Public Policies.
Jens Seiffert-Brockmann is Professor of Business Communication at the Department of Foreign Language Business Communication at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU). He is the head of the Institute for Communication Management and Media, and program director of WU’s master’s program in Business Communication.
Dr. Kelly Page Werder is an Associate Professor in the Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications at the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida, USA. She has served as Editor of the International Journal of Strategic Communication (Routledge/Taylor & Francis) since 2012.
Affiliate members of the Consortium represent numerous countries, continents, and theoretical perspectives; they advise the group on trends and issues in their region and research area.
Flora Hung-Baesecke teaches at University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Her research interests include CSR, stakeholder engagement, and social media. She publishes in refereed journals and won several top paper awards. She is a member of the Arthur W. Page Society and is active in the international academic community.
Dr. Buhmann is associate professor of communication at BI Norwegian Business School and director of The Nordic Alliance for Communication & Management (#NORA). His current research focuses on digitalization and automation in corporate communication. Recent work has been published in academic journals, such as Business Ethics Quarterly, New Media & Society, Technology in Society, and Public Relations Review.
Yi-Ru Regina Chen, Ph.D., specializes in strategic communication, social media engagement and gamification, CSR, and creating shared value (CSV). Her current research focuses on the psychology of strategic communication and social influence among specific stakeholders. She received the Hong Kong General Research Grant and the ICA PRD’s Robert Heath Award.
Ib T. Gulbrandsen is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Arts, Roskilde University. His current research focuses on how AI systems affect professional communicators’ strategy-practices. He works at the interdisciplinary nexus of communication, technology, and strategy, and has published in i.a. Big Data & Society, International Journal of Management Reviews, Media, Culture & Society, and Organization.
Prof. Yusuke Ibuki is an associate professor in the Faculty of Business Administration at Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan. His research focus is primarily on the human resource development of the strategic communication practitioner for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. He was an executive director for the Japan Society for Corporate Communication Studies and is currently serving as an executive director for the Japan Academy of Advertising.
Takashi Inoue, 50 years in public relations, CEO Inoue Public Relations, and Visiting Professor Kyoto University Business School. Known for the "three forces of hyper-globalization", and "Self-Correction Model.” Author of several books and in English: Public Relations in Hyper-globalization: Essential Relationship Management - A Japan Perspective (Routledge, 2018).
Vindel Kerr, D.B.A., is a former Assistant Professor of Business Ethics (The U.W.I.), Founder of GovStrat Limited and an internationally award-winning corporate governance expert. Vindel is a serving CEO, NED and former Chairman and Director of several SOEs. He has trained or advised 10,000+ Board Directors/Executives, globally. His research focuses on the intercept of ethics and law, corruption and whistleblowing.
Alessandro Lovari is as Associate Professor of Sociology of Communication at the University of Cagliari (Italy). Lovari’s research focuses on public sector communication, public relations, and health communication. He also studies social media impact on organizations and citizens’ behaviors. He was visiting research scholar at Purdue University, University of Cincinnati, and University of South Carolina (USA). His works appear in several books and international journals like Public Relations Review, Journal of Public Affairs, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Health Communication, International Journal of Communication.
Alessandra Mazzei is Associate Professor of Corporate Communication at Università IULM, where she is also Director of the Centre for Employee Relations and Communication and Coordinator of the bachelor programme in Corporate Communication and Public Relations. Main research interests are: Corporate Communication, Employee communication and engagement, Organizational voice, silence and dissent, Diversity & Inclusion, Internal Crisis Communication.
Linjuan Rita Men, Ph.D., APR, is Professor of Public Relations and Director of Internal Communication Research in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. Men’s background is based primarily in corporate communication research and consulting. Her research interests include internal communication, leadership communication, emerging technologies, and entrepreneurial communications.
Ángeles Moreno is outgoing President of the European Public Relations and Research Association and a leader researcher at the high-performance Group of Advanced Studies on Communication-University Rey Juan Carlos. She is highly regarded as an author with (+120 publications H-index: 30), awarded by PRSA, ICA, EUPRERA and AIRP. She is in the ranking of most relevant Spanish scientific and has hold positions in main academic associations and committees of national and international research bodies.
Sunday Odedele, Lagos, Nigeria specializes on Research and International Public Relations. Advisory board member of The Federation of Public Relations Association of Italy. Speaker at the First World Public Relations Festival, Rome, 2003. Co-author of the Evolution of Public Relations: Case Studies of Countries in Transition (IPR, 2004/2008. The Role of Philosophy of Public Relations and Corporate Communication in Institutionalizing Public Relations and Corporate Communication (IPR, 2008). Author of Public Relations and Communication Management in Africa, (2008/2012).
Linwan Wu (Ph.D., University of Florida) is currently an Associate Professor of Advertising and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Information and Communications at the University of South Carolina. His research focuses on advertising psychology and communication technology.
Sung-Un Yang, Ph.D. (University of Maryland, 2005), is a professor at the Media School, Indiana University. Before joining Indiana University in 2012, Sung-Un was a tenured faculty in the Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. He has served as Editor-in-Chief (from 2022-2024) of the Journal of Public Relations Research (JPRR).