Patricia A. Curtin is the SOJC Chair in Public Relations at the University of Oregon. Prior to this appointment, she was on served on the faulty for 10 years at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she directed the doctoral program. A former head of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Professor Curtin also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Public Relations Research and the International Journal of Strategic Communication and as the book review editor for Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

About T. Kenn Gaither

T. Kenn Gaither is Associate Dean and Associate Professor at the Elon University School of Communications, where he teaches courses in international public relations, public relations, and mass communication. He has sailed on seven Semester at Sea voyages and served as executive dean on the spring 2008 voyage. Professor Gaither’s articles have been published in several public relations journals, including the Journal of Public Relations Research, and he presented more than 15 papers at national and international conferences. He authored and/or coauthored three books, including Building a Nation's Image on the World Wide Web and International Public Relations: Negotiating Culture, Identity, and Power (Sage). Professor Gaither also holds almost a decade of professional public relations experience and was part of a public relations team that won a Hyundai MicroElectronics of America Excellence in Service Award for public relations work associated with its $4.5 billion merger with LG Semicon.