About Us

News

Patrice Tanaka to Serve on PRSA Task Force To Explore Certification of Public Relations Professionals

New York (August 14, 2007) – The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) board of directors has approved the establishment of a Task Force to Explore Certification of Public Relations Professionals.

“The issue of certification has been discussed, dissected and debated for years,” says PRSA Chair and CEO Rhoda Weiss, APR, Fellow PRSA. “This task force — working in partnership with PRSA accreditation groups representing APR (Accreditation in Public Relations), Board of Ethics and Professional Standards and College of Fellows, as well as the 150 Chapters, Districts and Professional Interest Sections — will help us determine the next steps in ensuring the highest level of professional accomplishment. The objective is to explore professional credentials that could be validated by an outside certification process. Our ultimate goal is to consider a process that offers a competitive marketplace advantage.”

The Task Force is comprised of senior professionals representing a cross section of disciplines and special interest areas among PRSA’s nearly 32,000 professional and student members, according to Weiss. In addition to leaders from professional practice and academia, members have been drawn from leaders within the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards, Professional Interest Sections, Educators Academy, College of Fellows, Accreditation and more.

Bob Frause, APR, Fellow PRSA, chair & CEO, The Frause Group, will chair the Task Force. Frause is past chair of the PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards and president-elect of the College of Fellows. He has served on many PRSA committees, including Strategic Planning and the Foundation Advisory Board.

“I am honored to lead this important effort for PRSA as well as the many thousands of professionals who could possibly benefit from a strong, practice-centric certification of their competencies,” Frause said.  “This Task Force will leave no stone unturned in bringing a definitive set of recommendations and actions regarding professional certification to the PRSA board of directors.”

Initially the Task Force will set out to accomplish these objectives:

• Conduct a comprehensive study regarding the feasibility of professional certification for public relations.
• Identify potential areas of certification with leaders of PRSA professional practice areas, such as utilities, government, health care and others where large numbers of professionals practice public relations-related specialties.
• Select one or two areas to be the initial focus of this inquiry and explore how PRSA might establish certification.
• Explore how PRSA might oversee certification to assure that wherever it may be proposed within the spectrum of activities, a credible, uniform and highly acceptable approach is undertaken, independently monitored and validated.
• Present the Task Force findings to PRSA leadership.

Members of the Task Force on Certification of Public Relations Professionals include:

• Chair Bob Frause, APR, Fellow PRSA; Chair & CEO, The Frause Group; President-Elect, PRSA College of Fellows; Past-Chair, Board of Ethics and Professional Standards
• Gail Baker, Ph.D., APR, Fellow PRSA; Dean, College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, University of Nebraska at Omaha; Chair, PRSA Individual Awards
• Gerry Corbett, APR, Fellow PRSA; Vice President, Branding & Corporate Communication Group, Hitachi America; National PRSA Board Member
• Ray Crockett, APR; Director, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola North America; National PRSA Board Member
• Steven Grant, APR; Senior Manager, Public Relations, National Education Association; Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University; Chair, PRSA Capitol Hill Initiatives
• Mary Graybill, APR; Principal, Graybill Communications; Immediate Past Chair, Universal Accreditation Board
• Vivian Hamilton, APR, Fellow PRSA; Communications Manager, Alaska Mental Health Trust; Past Chair, PRSA College of Fellows
• Jeff Julin, APR; President, MGA Communications; PRSA National Chair-Elect; Chair, PRSA Strategic Planning Committee
• Fred Lash, APR; Senior Adviser, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Joint Communication; Adjunct Faculty, George Washington University
• James Lukaszewski, APR, Fellow PRSA, ABC, CCEP; The Lukaszewski Group; Vice Chair, PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards
• Gary McCormick, APR, Fellow PRSA; Director of Public Relations, Scripps Networks; President, PRSA Foundation
• Douglas Spong, APR; President, Carmichael Lynch Spong; Past Chair, PRSA Honors & Awards Committee
• Jerry Swerling, Director and Professor of Public Relations Studies, University of Southern California Annenberg School of Communication
• Patrice Tanaka, Co-Chair and Chief Creative Officer, CRT/tanaka; Recipient, PRSA National Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service
• Susan Walton, Associate Professor of Public Relations, Brigham Young University; PRSA National Strategic Planning Committee
• Patricia Whalen, Ph.D., APR; Assistant Professor of Public Relations & Advertising, DePaul University; PRSA Board of Ethics & Professional Standards
• Gail Winslow-Pine, APR; Director, Marketing & Corporate Communications, Catholic Medical Center; Chair, PRSA Sections Council

About the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

The Public Relations Society of America (www.prsa.org), headquartered in New York City, is the world's largest organization for public relations professionals with nearly 32,000 professional and student members. PRSA is organized into 109 Chapters nationwide and 20 Professional Interest Sections and Affinity Groups, which represent business and industry, counseling firms, independent practitioners, military, government, associations, hospitals, schools, professional services firms and nonprofit organizations. The Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) has 285 Chapters at colleges and universities throughout the United States.