Dr. James E Grunig, Marilyn Laurie and many storied professional leaders who have served as Trustees of the Institute for Public Relations will help celebrate the organization’s 50th anniversary on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006, at the Yale Club of New York City.
“The Institute’s Annual Distinguished Lecture & Awards Dinner takes on special meaning this year because we were chartered as the Foundation for Public Relations Research and Education in 1956,” said Peter Debreceny, vice president-corporate affairs for Allstate Insurance and chairman of the Institute for Public Relations.
Tickets are $350 each or $3,500 for a table of 10, including cocktail reception, dinner and lecture. They can be purchased by visiting the Institute’s website, instituteforpr.org, or calling 352-392-0280.
Grunig, professor emeritus, University of Maryland, will deliver an address entitled “After 50 Years: The Values and Value of Public Relations.” Laurie, president of Laurie Consulting and retired AT&T executive vice president, will accept the 2006 Alexander Hamilton Medal for lifetime contributions to the practice of public relations.
In addition, the 200 Trustees who have served during the Institute’s history will hold a reunion and be recognized during the event. The Institute will also present the Northwestern Mutual Best Master’s Thesis Award, the Ketchum Excellence in PR Research Award, and the Pathfinder Award for an original program of scholarly research in the field.
Grunig served on the University of Maryland faculty beginning in 1969, after earning his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading public relations scholars and theorists. During his career, he advised 75 masters’ theses and 24 doctoral dissertations, and his protégés are themselves now teaching and conducting research at universities around the world. He has edited, authored or co-authored five books and more than 200 book chapters, journal articles, reports and papers. In the 1980s, Dr. Grunig directed the IABC Research Foundation’s Excellence project. He was the first winner of the Institute’s Pathfinder Award and the first academic to win the Alexander Hamilton Medal, in 2005.
Laurie, as AT&T’s executive vice president-brand strategy and marketing communications, was responsible for brand-building worldwide, including several billion dollars of advertising and sponsorships. Prior to that, she led the company’s 500-person communications organization as senior vice president and then executive vice president of public relations. She also chaired the AT&T Foundation. A co-founder of Earth Day, which launched the environmental movement in America, Laurie was recruited by AT&T to create the company’s first environmental policy and develop conservation programs. She is currently vice chairman of the Board of Columbia University and a director of the New York City Ballet and New York Presbyterian Hospital. She was inducted into the Arthur W. Page Society Hall of Fame in 2002, previously served as president of that organization and chairman of the Public Relations Seminar.
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent nonprofit dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations. It exists to build and document research-based knowledge in the field of public relations, and to mainstream this knowledge by making it available and useful to practitioners, educators, researchers and the clients they serve. More information at instituteforpr.org.
