Biography

Sharon H. Fitzgerald has taught in MTSU's School of Journalism since 1999, bringing to the classroom more than 30 years of journalism and public relations experience. For several years, she was a reporter on both weekly and daily newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer.

On the PR front, Lect. Fitzgerald has been press secretary for a U.S. congressman and run PR operations for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and the University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies. At the University of Tennessee, she was the communications consultant for the Municipal Technical Advisory Service. She followed that position with a stint as communications director of the Tennessee Municipal League.

In 1996, Lect. Fitzgerald founded her own business, Sharon Fitzgerald Communications, handling client PR and writing for publications as varied as American Profile magazine, Medical News Inc., Business Xpansion Journal and Forbes. Through the years, her clients have included the Tennessee Valley Authority, Vanderbilt University and Journal Communications. She continues to write in the health care and economic development fields. Lect. Fitzgerald has a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

She holds a master's degree in public relations from Kent State University.

Biography
Cary. A. Greenwood, APR, Fellow PRSA, (Ph.D. University of Oregon), is an assistant professor. She teaches crisis communication and public relations campaigns. She has more than 30 years experience in public relations, including eight years in corporate communications management for a Fortune 500 utility, seven years as public affairs director for a state natural resource agency, and two years in transportation management. She is an experienced public relations strategist, speechwriter, and public speaker, and she brings that background into the classroom. Her research interests are whistleblowing, corporate social responsibility, and evolutionary theory.

She has presented her research on whistleblowing among public relations practitioners at the Public Relations Society of America International Conference, the PRSA/GA regional conference, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication 2009 and 2012, and has also presented her whistleblowing research at the International Communication Association Conference in London in June 2013. Her research in corporate social responsibility led to her being named Arthur W. Page Legacy Scholar 2012-2013 in conjunction with Dr. Joon Soo Lim.

Biography

Zeny Sarabia-Panol, professor and associate dean, teaches PR campaigns, PR Communication and Principles of PR. She is also a past head of the International Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). Dr. Sarabia-Panol holds degrees from Silliman University (magna cum laude), University of the Philippines and Oklahoma State University. Her research interests include international public relations, advertising, ethics, new media technology, academic quality rankings, and ethnic media.

Dr. Sarabia-Panol's research has been published in the Public Relations Review, Disability Studies Quarterly, Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, and Media Asia. She has authored a number of book chapters and presented research at the AEJMC, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Academy, and the American Academy of Advertising (AAA).

Areas of Expertise
Public Relations
Crisis Communication
Corporate Social Responsibility
Youth Philanthropy

Biography

Dr. Hanna Park is an assistant professor at MTSU, teaching courses in public relations. She has taught Public Relations Principles, Case Studies in Public Relations, and Public Relations Research since 2012. Before joining the MTSU School of Journalism faculty, she taught public relations and mass communication courses at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies (Seoul, South Korea).

She received her bachelor’s degree with top honors and her master’s degree in Mass Communication from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. She also received another master’s degree with distinction in Public Relations and a doctoral degree in Mass Communication from the University of Florida.

Her research interests include corporate social responsibility, crisis communication, philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, relationship management, and social media. Her research work has appeared in the Korean Journal of Advertising, Korea Observer, PRism, and Korea Press Foundation’s reports. She also presented her research papers in national conferences in the U.S. and South Korea. Her recent publications include Second-level agenda setting effects (2015), Engaging youth in philanthropy (2013) and Associations among relationship maintenance strategies, organization-public relationships, and support for organizations (2010). She also has consulted Korea Scout Association’s Youth Philanthropy campaign.

Biography

Andrea Phillips came to MTSU as assistant profession in public relations in 2014 after completing her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University. She came to academia after 20 years of professional experience in corporate, agency, and nonprofit settings doing work in the areas of public relations, corporate communication, marketing promotions, event planning, administration and education.

She began her professional life after graduating from Texas Christian University with a BS in Radio-TV-Film production and a minor in journalism. She entered the summer camp/conference center industry where she advanced through a number of positions, including video director and program director. While pursuing her first master's degree, she was lured into a corporate communications and promotions agency where she was an account executive and creative director serving Fortune 1000 companies, including Texas Instruments, HP, Verizon, Travelocity and its parent company Sabre Holdings.

Dr. Phillips first professional experience in academia came when she took on the director of university communications position at John Brown University in Arkansas. There she led the team responsible for all the university's PR efforts, the university website, brand development, creative design and print production, some of the university's advertising, and a variety of other internal and external communication efforts. While at JBU, she had the opportunity to teach a PR class, and soon after began pursuing a path that would lead her to full time teaching.

Phillips now holds an MA (Biblical Studies) from Dallas Theological Seminary and an MS in Public Relations and Advertising from TCU in addition to her PhD from Texas Tech. She is a member of PRSA and is accredited in public relations (APR) by that organization.