Dean Alfred Kruckeberg

Biography

Dr. Dean Kruckeberg, APR, Fellow PRSA, is a tenured full professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.  He was executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations, a service unit in that department, from 2008 to 2013.  From 1983 through 2008, Dr. Kruckeberg was a public relations professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa, serving most of those years as coordinator of the Public Relations Degree Program or of the Mass Communication Division.

Dr. Kruckeberg is co-author of the book, Public Relations and Community:  A Reconstructed Theory, which won the first annual PRIDE Award from the Speech Communication Association Commission on Public Relations (now National Communication Association Public Relations Division), and he is the author and co-author of many book chapters, articles and papers dealing with international public relations and international public relations ethics.  Dr. Kruckeberg is co-author of the 11th (2013), 10th (2010), 9th (2006), 8th (2004), 7th (2000) and 6th (1996) editions of This Is PR:  The Realities of Public Relations, which is a major public relations textbook that has a global English edition and translation editions in several languages worldwide.  He was co-researcher of a two-year study that was released globally in 2003 that ranked 66 countries according to the likelihood that their daily newspaper reporters were seeking or accepting bribery for editorial coverage.  This study received worldwide attention in leading news media worldwide as well as in the professional press and marked the beginning of a stream of research about journalists’ propensity toward bribery in these countries.

Dr. Kruckeberg was recipient of the 2013 Atlas Award for Lifetime Achievement in International Public Relations, which was presented by the 21,000-member Public Relations Society of America at its International Conference in Philadelphia in October 2013. The Atlas Award recognizes a public relations practitioner who has made extraordinary contributions to the practice and profession of public relations in an international environment over the span of his or her career. The recipient need not be a member of PRSA.  Dr. Kruckeberg was the 1995 national "Outstanding Educator" of the Public Relations Society of America.  He was awarded the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Research Prize at the International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America in Salt Lake City in November 2006.  This national award and a $1,000 prize recognize individual behavioral science researchers whose scholarly work has enhanced the understanding of the concepts and theories that contribute to the effectiveness of public relations practice. He was the 1997 recipient of the Pathfinder Award presented by the Institute for Public Relations, another leading award for public relations research.  He also was presented the 1997 State of Iowa Regents Faculty Excellence Award.  In fall 1998, Dr. Kruckeberg was awarded the Wartburg College Alumni Citation that recognized his accomplishments as one of the nation’s leading public relations educators.  

In 2011, Dr. Kruckeberg was presented the Infinity Award, the highest award to a public relations professional that is given by the Charlotte Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.  That award honors a public relations professional whose character, career and service represent the highest standards and who excels in the practice of public relations and/or has accomplished an outstanding one-time achievement.  In May 2013, he was inducted into Rowan University’s Public Relations Hall of Fame.

From 1997 to 2012, Dr. Kruckeberg was Co-Chair of the Commission on Public Relations Education.  This consortium, which has representatives from major national and international professional and scholarly associations, determines and recommends guidelines for public relations curricula and pedagogy in the United States, and its October 1999 and November 2006 reports were used as benchmarks for public relations curricula and instruction in the United States and in several foreign countries.  The Commission’s report on master’s degree education was released at the international conference of the Public Relations Society of America in October 2012.  

Dr. Kruckeberg is a Fellow of the Public Relations Society of America (inducted in 1990), was 2010 chair of the PRSA International Section and is a member of PRSA’s Global Affairs Committee.  From 2000 through 2002, he served a two-year term as director-at-large on the national board of this 20,000-member professional association, and he is a former member of the PRSA Advocacy Advisory Board.  Dr. Kruckeberg was 1993-94 Midwest District Chair of PRSA; was 1996 national nominating committee member, representing the Midwest District; had served on the executive committee and was newsletter editor of the PRSA International Section; was newsletter editor of the PRSA College of Fellows; is former National Faculty Advisor of the Public Relations Student Society of America (1989-91); and is a former Advisor to Forum, the national newspaper of PRSSA.  Dr. Kruckeberg is past Chair of the Public Relations Division of the International Communication Association and is former Head of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.  In 1997, he was one of two candidates for President-Elect of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and he presently serves as a member of the national Professional Freedom and Responsibility Committee and is Resolution Chair of that organization, having been elected to a second three-year term in 2015.  Dr. Kruckeberg is former Chair of the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association (1993); was 1997 Chair of the PRSA Educators Section (now Academy); was 1997 Co-Chair of the Educational Affairs Committee of PRSA; was a member of the Research and Educational Advisory Board of the Institute for Public Relations; and is an advisory board member of the International Public Relations Research Conference.  He has been an active member of several other professional associations and was a charter member of the Commission on Global Public Relations Research.  Prof. Kruckeberg is a Senior Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research, is a member of the board of directors of this global 501(c) (3) nonprofit research and education foundation and is chair of the editorial committee of SNCR’s Journal of New Communications Research (JNCR).

In summer 2016, Dr. Kruckeberg was a visiting professor teaching Global and International Public Relations in the Summer Program in Communication Education at the University of Erfurt, Germany.  In July 2015, Dr. Kruckeberg was invited to co-present a paper at a plenary session and participate in a round table discussion, “Academics to Practitioners:  Pragmatics of Communication Studies,” at the International Research Conference of the Department of Integrated Communications at the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Moscow, and in May 2015, Prof. Kruckeberg co-presented a paper at the pre-conference program, Discussion, Dialogue, Discourse:  Meanings and Methods, at the 65th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association, San Juan, Puerto Rico.  In October 2015, Dr. Kruckeberg gave a skype lecture to the Public Relations class, East Siberia State University of Technology and Management, Ulan-Ude City, Buryatia (Autonomous Republic), Siberia, Russia, and to U.S. members of Bank of America:  Global Risk, Legacy Asset Servicing and Global Technology & Operations Corporate Communications Team.  In April 2015, he gave a skype lecture to the master’s-level Principles of Public Relations class at Monmouth University, and, in January 2015, he gave a skype lecture to COM 510 Public Relations Principles and Practices, College of Communication and Media Sciences, Zayed University.  In May 2014, Dr. Kruckeberg gave a lecture at London College of Communication for a graduate class and for guests from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Public Relations Consultancies Association and the UK International Association of Business Communicators, and, in March 2014, he was a keynote speaker at the International Conference-Public Interest & Media Impact at Shih-Hsin University, Taipei, Taiwan, which drew participants from China, Macao, Malaysia and Singapore.  In March 2014, he made a presentation via skype to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication JOMC 432 Public Relations Case Studies class.  

In September 2013, Dr. Kruckeberg was an invited lecturer for the public relations research “Dream Course” at the University of Oklahoma Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communication,” discussing “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Survey Research: Avoiding Bias in Sampling and Questionnaire Development.” He also gave a public lecture, “In Search of the Ethics’ Holy Grail: Normative Theory and the Role of the Communication Professional in Global Society,” and led a discussion in the graduate course, Conceptual Issues in Mass Communication.  In June 2013, Dr. Kruckeberg made a presentation at the International Communication Association pre-conference in London, Power through Communication Technology in a 21st Century global society:  Questions that must be addressed, which he co-organized with Prof. Chiara Valentini of Aarhus University, Denmark.  In May 2013, Dr. Kruckeberg presented the keynote address at the Rowan University PRSSA Spring Gala and was a guest lecturer in its Introduction to Public Relations class.  In January 2011, Prof. Kruckeberg was the keynote speaker and made another presentation at the First Conference of the Middle East Public Relations Association, and in November 2010 he gave a public speech at Auburn University and made presentations about globalism at North Carolina State University and the University of Georgia in spring 2011.  In June 2010, Dr. Kruckeberg made two presentations at the International Communication Association pre-conference program in Singapore, Global Strategic Thinking—Managing Public Relations in a 21st Century Global Society.  

In 2014, 2011 and 2010, Prof. Kruckeberg taught UNC Charlotte’s London International Public Relations Seminar at Regent’s University-London, and he made electronic keynote presentations for the Association of Russian Public Relations Educators in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Kazan while he was in London in 2011.  Dr. Kruckeberg also gave a lecture via Skype in April 2012 to a master class at IRSO in Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia, and in October 1997 to students at Curtin Business School of Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.  Skype lectures also have included those to students in Germany and, in March 2013, to the doctoral class in Global Public Relations at the University of Maryland.  Dr. Kruckeberg was a keynote speaker at the 20th Anniversary Celebration of the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Bucharest, Romania in 2009, and he also was an invited keynote speaker at the 8th Baltic PR Weekend in St. Petersburg, Russia.  In summer 2009, Dr. Kruckeberg made several presentations at PR Hunting, in which public relations education programs at seven Siberian Universities participated in seminars for their students in Barnaul, Altai Krai Region, and in the Altai Region of Russia, after which he made a presentation in Moscow for the Government Relations Section of the Russian Public Relations Association.  

In fall 2007, Prof. Kruckeberg was a keynote speaker at the European Public Relations Congress, in Kiev, Ukraine, which was sponsored by the Ukrainian Association of Public Relations, where he also participated in a panel, press briefing and was a judge of the Pravda Awards, co-presenting the “Grand Prix Award” at the Pravda Awards—2007 Gala Ceremony.  Also in fall 2007, he presented the Annual Walker Fund Lecture at the University of Northern Illinois.  In summer 2006, Dr. Kruckeberg was the keynote speaker at the international conference, Municipal Social Policy and Publics:  Realities and Perspectives, sponsored by Ulan-Ude City, Buryatia (Autonomous Republic), Siberia, Russia, and he presented a workshop in Moscow for Niccolo M, a leading Russian international political consulting and public relations firm, and for the Governmental Affairs Section of the Russian Public Relations Association.  He was an invited speaker presenting the paper, Kruckeberg, D., and Vujnovic, M.  “The Imperative for an Arab Model of Public Relations as a Foundation and Framework for Arab Diplomatic, Corporate and Nongovernmental Organization Relationships:  Challenges and Opportunities,” spring 2004 at the Public Relations Conference of the College of Communication, University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.  In May 2002, he was invited to speak to the Swedish Public Relations Association in Stockholm, to faculty and graduate students at Orebro University, and he was a keynote and a session speaker at the Communicare 2002 Seminar at Mid-Sweden University in Sundsvall.  Dr. Kruckeberg in July 1998 was a speaker at the Teaching the Teachers workshop that was designed to prepare communication faculty in the Baltic States and Russia to teach public relations, which included a presentation at the Third Annual Summer School in Russian Media in St. Petersburg, Russia, and he made a presentation at the workshop program in Riga, Latvia, in July, 1998.  The workshop was funded by the Soros Foundation and by USIA.  Also in summer 1998, Dr. Kruckeberg was invited by USIS-Sofia to present information about the U.S. Freedom of Information Act to Bulgarian news people, government officials and leaders of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and to teach sessions related to media relations for press secretaries of the various governmental ministries.  He has been interviewed by media in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and South Africa.  In fall 2009,

Dr. Kruckeberg's consulting work has included a review of the public relations and mass communication programs at the United Arab Emirates University in fall 1993.  During summer 1994, he was part of the project team that developed the public relations degree program at that university.  He also has been external reviewer for public relations education programs or their home departments at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario; Georgia Southern University; the University of North Dakota; Southwest Missouri State University; Illinois State University; Eastern Illinois University; Minnesota State University–Moorhead; Capital University, Columbus, Ohio; and Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, as well as a Public Relations Society of America CEPR Certification Reviewer for Rowan University, Valdosta (Georgia) State University, Eastern Kentucky University, Seneca College in Toronto twice and Radford University in Virginia.  

Dr. Kruckeberg has a bachelor of arts degree in English with a journalism minor from Wartburg College, Waverly, Iowa (1969); a master of arts degree in journalism in the public relations sequence from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb (1974); and a doctor of philosophy degree in mass communications from the University of Iowa, Iowa City (1985).  

Dr. Kruckeberg worked professionally as a public relations practitioner at Lutheran General Hospital, a large teaching hospital and health care center in the Chicago area, for four years and as an extension information specialist (publications) for the Agricultural Extension Service of the University of Minnesota for four years, as well as part-time during his undergraduate college career—comprising over a decade of practitioner experience in journalism and public relations.  Dr. Kruckeberg has been on the faculty as an instructor at the University of Minnesota-St. Paul; as an instructor at the University of Iowa; as an assistant professor and student newspaper advisor at Northwest Missouri State University; and for 25 years as an assistant, associate and full professor at the University of Northern Iowa before assuming responsibilities from 2008 to 2013 as executive director of the Center for Global Public Relations and as a full professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Public relations, global public relations, transnational corporations, transparency, public relations and community, organic theory of public relations.

Books