Owen Kulemeka, a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has won the first Grunig PRIME Research Fellowship. The fellowship, named for James E. Grunig, Ph.D., and Larissa A. Grunig, Ph.D., is presented by the Institute for Public Relations and sponsored by PRIME Research.
Kulemeka will receive a $5,000 stipend and a six-week work opportunity at PRIME’s Ann Arbor, MI, offices. He will also author a paper for the Institute on the challenges and opportunities in researching online publics.
The fellowship promotes applied research as a career opportunity among graduate students, professors and the public relations profession at large. “The quality and quantity of candidates that applied for this award in its first year speaks to the desire among public relations graduate students for practice-oriented experience,” said Mark Weiner, CEO for PRIME Research in North America.
Kulemeka earned his master’s degree in communication and his bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Maryland. He is a native of Malawi in Central Africa and has work experience with Kearney & Company, the American Insurance Association, and Cassidy & Associates/Weber Shandwick Government Relations in the Washington, DC area. He also worked as an intern with UNICEF on post-tsunami communications in Indonesia.
“I am grateful to be the first winner of this award, which shows the strong commitment the Grunigs, PRIME Research, and the Institute for Public Relations have toward supporting graduate student researchers,” said Kulemeka.
The Grunigs are professors emeriti in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland, College Park. Together they have written or edited 10 books. Each has written more than 200 articles, book chapters, monographs, reviews, and conference papers on public relations theory and research. They have lectured in 43 countries, won nearly every major award for public relations educators, and advised hundreds of masters and doctoral students.
PRIME Research, founded in 1985 in Mainz, Germany, provides a broad array of research and consulting services, employing approximately 500 analysts and 100 consultants in eight locations around the world. To learn more, visit www.prime-research.com.
The Institute for Public Relations, instituteforpr.org, is an independent foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations™, supporting PR research and education.
