Georgia Southern University’s Pamela G. Bourland-Davis, Ph.D., has been selected to serve as vice chair for the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE), where she will represent public relations educators.
“I’m honored to serve in a line of distinguished practitioners and educators on the Commission on Public Relations Education to continue to support public relations education at the national and international levels,” said Bourland-Davis. “The Commission has been a group that has produced invaluable guidance on public relations programs, which we have used at Georgia Southern. These foundations are part of our attaining ‘Certification in Public Relations Education.’”
Bourland-Davis is a professor at Georgia Southern specializing in public relations and professional communication and leadership. She previously served as department chair for 19 years. Her work includes numerous presentations and publications on diverse topics, such as crisis communication, activism, organizational culture and internship management.
She recently completed her term as editor of the Journal of Public Relations Education (JPRE) and will now represent the JPRE on the CPRE. As co-chair of the Commission’s Research Committee, she contributed to the 50th-anniversary report, “Navigating Change: Recommendations for Advancing Undergraduate Public Relations Education,” serving as both co-editor and chapter co-author. She also partnered with JPRE leadership on a special journal issue aimed at exploring how the CPRE report data can be applied in educational settings.
In addition to her role as past chair of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), she served two terms on the Finance Committee, where she led a review of staff salaries. She also held leadership roles with the National Communication Association, and Public Relations Society of America, and she is also a former president of the Southern States Communication Association.
The CPRE, the authoritative voice on public relations education, was founded in 1973 by the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and the Public Relations Society of America to address the quality of public relations education in the United States.
